photo by Mathew Longden
After meeting in Amsterdam, Dutchman Remco Keijzer and Australian Lucian McGuiness have spent 4 years collaborating via long distance, touring Australia at intervals. In March 2009 they launched the album The Seed Habit in Australia on Rufus Records. Sydney jazz critic John Clare said, “This is quite a special band (definitely to be heard live if you get the chance) and this is an unusual and impressive disc.”
Performances in 2010 begin a new era for the group as Remco Keijzer immigrated to Australia permanently in midway through 2009. In the Netherlands Remco has led the New Generation Big Band through two CD releases, and taken his own quintet to the North Sea Jazz Festival.
Despite the wanderlust woven in the band’s story, Australia is the musical home of the Keijzer McGuiness Quintet. Much of the music has been written there or on the way to and from there, and the local collaborators have skillfully engaged in, and coloured, McGuiness and Keijzer’s dialogue.
Remco Keijzer (tenor saxophone)
Remco studied jazz and improvisation at The Hilversums Conservatory, The Conservatory of Amsterdam and The Manhattan School of Music. He’s played with luminaries Dick Oatts, Dave Binney and the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, inspired a contemporary big band for emerging composers – The New Generation Big Band – and added soulful sax to a popular live hip hop act.
Lucian McGuiness (trombone)
Lucian studied in Canberra, Amsterdam and Sydney. He plays with the Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra and Ben Walsh’s Crusty Suitcase Band, and has performed or recorded with a wide variety of artists including Jim McNeely, Shasha Marley, The Herd, The Holland Big Band and Steve Hunter.
Matt McMahon (rhodes/piano)
Matt leads his own groups and co-leads Band of Five Names with Phil Slater and Simon Barker. He won the National Jazz Award, and the Freedman Jazz Fellowship, and has played and recorded with Dale Barlow, Greg Osby, Katie Noonan, Vince Jones, Bobby Previte, Dave Panichi and Steve Hunter.
Mike Majkowski (double bass)
Mike is one of the new breed of creative musicians emerging on Australia’s music scene. A gifted jazz bassist committed to a wide spectrum of contemporary music: he’s a founding member of the large-scale Sydney-based electro-acoustic group The Splinter Orchestra; a member of The Now Now collective, and works closely with some of Australia’s most highly regarded improvisers – Jon Rose, Chris Abrahams and Jim Denley.
James Hauptmann (drums)
James grew up in Canberra and studied at the Canberra School of Music. Living in Sydney, he records and tours nationally and internationally in bands including Mark Isaacs, Steve Hunter, Exposed Bone, Blue Juice and Elana Stone.
enquiries:
keijzermcguiness[at]gmail.com
