Blip – Andrea Keller’s Five Below
I’ve been wanting to feature Andrea Keller and one of her many projects on an Aussie Friday for a while but just couldn’t find the right tune for the right week. Andrea Keller’s Five Below was the last live jazz gig I went to in Melbourne, and the soundscapes were just amazing. That was in September 2019. I had planned to catch her again at the Jazzlab in Brunswick in March 2020. While I did manage to get that last trip to Melbourne in, prudence dictated that I stay in the hotel room and not go out.
Strangely enough, I feel the track I have chosen today, from an album Andrea released in June 2020, is quite at home keeping company with the standards I’ve posted this week from the forties, fifties, sixties and seventies.
Andrea Keller is an outstanding Australian composer and pianist, who has lead many avant-garde projects with top Australian jazz artists. Today’s track Blip is written by Keller and from her latest Five Below album Life is Brut[if]al.
Five Below is named after the big rhythm section that makes up the band - piano, guitar, two basses and drums, and was formed in 2017 as part of Andrea Keller’s Monday night residency at the Jazzlab. The band was awarded the 2019 Australian Jazz Bell Award for Best Australian Jazz Ensemble.
Five Below are
Andrea Keller (piano)
Stephen Magnusson (guitar)
Sam Anning (double bass)
Mick Meagher (electric bass)
James McLean (drums)
– Bozzie 🎷