Tonight, two of our leading pianist/composers take you on very personal musical journeys. An hour each will not be enough ... but for those who love jazz piano, a very special evening with two masters of the piano.

Matt McMahon - 10.00pm

In 2014, Sydney pianist Matt McMahon released his first solo piano album The Voyage of Mary and William to great acclaim. 

Winner of many prestigious awards, including the Freedman and National Jazz Awards, Matt McMahon is a leading Australian pianist/composer with many outstanding groups and albums to his credit. He leads the Matt McMahon Trio and is a co-leader of the Band of Five Names with which he has recorded several albums. 

Matt is also the musical director for Vince Jones and a frequent collaborator (live and recorded) with such artists as Phil Slater, Katie Noonan, Sandy Evans, Simon Barker, Dale Barlow, Joseph Tawadros and many other Australian and international jazz greats.

His recent albums include Paths and Streams and Ellipsis, both recorded for the Kimnara label. 

He has always collaborated with other artists in diverse areas of music making and as a soloist, draws on his love of piano playing in all its forms.

Tonight, you can expect improvisations that reflect his musical interests and heritage – paying particular tribute to his forebears Mary and William Navin who came to Australia from Ireland in 1847.

"Matt McMahon reveals himself even further as a true master of the art we call Jazz. Over twelve solo pieces, McMahon converses with both himself, the history of Jazz and everything in life and music that has brought him to this point. He unconsciously converses with past generations of his family, and his Irish heritage, that have physically brought him to this point as well....Nostalgic reverie and half-remembered perfumes drift in and out of his notes as he plays. It is deeply felt and greatly affecting – as is all this music: McMahon connecting emotionally to the music throughout". John Hardaker, Australianjazz.net

Peter Dasent - 8.30pm

Peter Dasent is a composer, songwriter, pianist and music arranger/director. He has composed music for film and television (including three Peter Jackson films), led his own ensemble The Umbrellas for 30 years, written songs for children and has played piano for the ABC-TV children's show PlaySchool since 2000. 

New Zealand born, Dasent was a founder member of the legendary NZ bands Spats and The Crocodiles and has been based in Sydney since the early 1980s. Leading the Umbrellas since 1985, he released three albums between 1986 and 1991, performing and touring extensively, while an album celebrating the band's 30th anniversary was released in 2015: Lounge Suite Tango.

In 2013 Dasent recorded a CD of original music for solo piano at the legendary Abbey Road Studio in London - Songs For Solo Piano, released in November 2015. The pieces, composed at various times over three decades, range from gentle meditations to blues, rags and stomps, sometimes within the same piece. 

Tonight, he will take you on a very personal musical journey for one hour of original piano compositions spanning more than 30 years. A little of what you can expect ... ‘Blues For The High Priest’, (written in 1982 after hearing that Thelonious Monk had died)and ’Heavenly Creatures’ - an arrangement of the main theme Dasent wrote for Peter Jackson’s 1994 film of the same name. 

“Dasent's composing bears occasional parallels to the work of Frank Zappa, Thelonious Monk and Nino Rota, with Rota's Fellini film music celebrated on one Umbrellas album. But all influences are warped through the prism of Dasent's sense of aesthetics and humour, and all improvising is subservient to the needs of the compositions.” John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald.