The Spike Mason / Kristin Berardi Quartet

This is an inspiring collaborative ensemble that is sure to delight jazz lovers.

Spike Mason has been playing saxophone for over 20 years in the Sydney jazz scene. Since moving to Tasmania a few years ago, his gigs here are rarer, and with Kristin Berardi now based in Queensland, this is a fantastic opportunity for Sydney jazz enthusiasts to catch these two contemporary jazz artists at their very best.

For this Sydney show he has hand picked a new quartet of longtime collaborators to ensure the creation of spontaneous and wonderfully melodic jazz in this unusual chord-less ensemble.

Brisbane-based Kristin Berardi (vocals) sang on Spike's 2012 album "Widening Circles" and the two of them have been discussing a new project ever since. 

Kristin won the Montreux Jazz Festival's International Vocal Competition in 2006, the National Freedman Fellowship in 2007, has received two National Australian Bell Awards for the Best Jazz Vocal Album for 2010 and 2012, and won the the National Jazz Award for Voice at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival in 2012.

Craig Scott (double bass) is the perfect player for this ensemble. One of Spike's teachers from his days of study at the Sydney Con, Craig is a longstanding and greatly respected member of the Sydney jazz scene with decades of experience. He has played with every Australian and many International jazz artists of note, and he possesses an exhaustive knowledge of jazz tunes and harmony, a virtuosic technique and an incredibly soulful groove.

Tim Firth (drums) and Spike have been playing together since Tim was a teenager. The two of them most recently played together on the Estonian pianist Henri Peipman's latest album 'Detsember 30'. Tim is one of Sydney's first call jazz drummers and will provide the rhythmic pulse that will propel this quartet through the sonic maze of it's musical material.

Spike Mason (saxophone)

Kristin Berardi (vocals)

Craig Scott (bass)

Tim Firth(drums)