This concert is a co-presentation by Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival and Melbourne Jazz Cooperative 

Teri Roiger Quartet

“Teri has an intuitive laid back sense of time reminiscent of Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter but with her own uniqueness.” JACK DEJOHNETTE

Teri Roiger Quartet (USA/Aus)

Highly expereiced New York-based U.S. jazz vocalist and pianist Teri Roiger and her husband, double bassist John Menegon, joined with guitarist Hugh Stuckey and drummer Ronny Ferella to celebrate the music of the late Abbey Lincoln. Lincoln was a vocalist, actor, songwriter and political activist who was featured on several important protest albums in the 1960s with her then-husband, Max Roach. She went on to produce several albums of her original songs on 10 albums for Verve until her passing in 2010. Rogier’s tribute album, “Dear Abbey”, met with great critical acclaim.

“Teri is made for those who still understand the meaning of the term the real thing.” Stanley Crouch (Author & Cultural Critic)

Open Thread (Can/Aus)

In the 1990’s, the Canadian pair of cellist, Peggy Lee, and drummer, Dylan van der Schyff, were already being described as “two of the brightest lights on the new music/improv/jazz scene.” Since then, they have garnered countless accolades for their performances and recordings together with many of North America and Europe’s finest improvisers. Classically trained in Toronto, Lee has been heralded as “one of the world’s finest improvising cellists”, and is also a beguilingly original composer.

At the start of 2023, Peggy invited saxophonist, Julien Wilson, and prodigious young guitarist, Theo Carbo to form a new ensemble, Open Thread. Most of the compositions are written by Peggy specifically for this group, but all the musicians contribute to a collective sound: hauntingly cinematic, while always maintaining an adventurous and playful edge.

“The cellist’s signature sound is an intoxicating blend of avant-garde, modern jazz, chamber, folk, and pop. No one influence ever dominates, and all are commingled so that where one influence ends and the next begins is never certain. It’s all bound together and framed by those heady melodic passages.” – Bandcamp Daily