1999 – 2005
To start the night off, I let the audience in on the process and the experience, having quite a chat and a lengthy explanation of the whole concept of the night. The debut of the David Jones Trio was a night at Melbourne’s Bennett’s Lane, on 28 September 1999 with Bob Sedergreen (piano/keyboards) and Evri Evripidou (6 string bass and effects). The whole first set was one continuous piece, in which even the audience participated with clapping, and a tremendous energy of support and coming with us all the way. We had such a good time together that I invited them to perform with me at a second concert in January 2000 as part of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
I’ve known and respected Bob for 23 years. Bob’s a mighty and deep player and a great human being, so heartfelt and passionate about music and people. We played and recorded together when I was 18 in the Brian Brown band for about 2 years in Melbourne. (“Bells Make Me Sing” was the first album that I ever played on. I can attribute a lot of my fearlessness in improvisation to the great saxophonist/composer Brian Brown, who for years had a Sunday night gig at the Commune in Fitzroy. The spirit of that gig was anything and everything goes!!!).
I met Evri 20 years ago at a Greek Song Festival (back in the days when he was a guitarist) and we’ve been wanting to play together ever since! He is an unbelievable bass player, who has the technique of a classical/flamenco guitarist, whilst also providing all the gutsy and rootsy foundation of the bass. He is a soul-brother too.
I love this project because it’s so immediate, in-the-moment and on the edge, with no safety net. Each set is one whole improvised piece, with no pre-planning or even discussion about concepts. The only discussion happens at the beginning of the set, with a challenge and invitation for the audience to “co-create” with us. Let’s face it, if the vibe’s not happening, the music is not going to sparkle. So the theme of the David Jones Trio is to surprise the audience with different concepts and different compositions and material.
In April 2000, we released our Double CD called Intuition, recorded live with an interactive audience of 80 people at Allan Eaton’s Studios in Melbourne Australia. You can buy the CD from my website by clicking here.
To see reviews of Intuition, click here .
More photos of the David Jones Trio are in the gallery.