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Alister Spence

Alister Spence

Pianist and composer Alister Spence is acknowledged as a significant contributor In contemporary original jazz and improvised music in Australia. The Alister Spence Trio with Lloyd Swanton (the Necks) and Toby Hall (ex Mike Nock trio) has enjoyed critical acclaim both nationally and internationally, being nominated twice for Best Australian Jazz Album at the ARIA Awards (2004/2007). The trio’s most recent CD, Not Everything but Enough was voted in ‘Top 10 Jazz Albums 2017’ in Music Magazine, Japan, and also received an ‘Honorary Mention, Best of 2017’ in the New York City Jazz Record. He is a founding member of Clarion Fracture Zone, Wanderlust and The Australian Art Orchestra. Alister has toured extensively over the last 25 years, performing at major festivals and clubs in Australia, and also in countries such as U.S.A., Canada, Japan, U.K, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Russia, India, China and Taiwan. Since 2008 Alister has toured and recorded with fellow pianist/composer Satoko Fujii. He has performed and recorded duo projects since 2009 with Scottish sax player Raymond MacDonald (Stepping Between the Shadows, Rufus Records, 2012). Everything Here is Possible, recorded with US pianist Myra Melford, was awarded an APRA/AMCOS Art Music Award for ‘Excellence in Jazz’ in 2014). In 2014 Sensaround (Spence, MacDonald, Ahmad) launched their electro-acoustic trio and released Isotropes: followed up byTravelogue in 2016. In 2015 Alister released Begin with Joe Wlliamson and Christopher Cantillo (double bass and drums, Sweden). Begin was nominated for an APRA/AMCOS Art Music Award 2015. Alister Spence in a Lecturer in Music at the University of New South Wales.