Have you ever thought, how cool it would be to head over to an international music festival, with like minded people, but couldn’t be bothered with coordinating the accommodation, transfers, purchasing the festival tickets and then figuring out all the fun tourist-y things to do when you’re in town? Well, Sweat Tours have done all the hard work for you!  The amazing guys at Sweat Tours have put together packages for some huge upcoming USA music festivals.  The packages for the first festival in their line up, Ultra Music Festival is now SOLD OUT, however there are still packages available for the Governors Ball in NYC and Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas and boy, are they cracking!!

The line up for Governors Ball is HUGE!  It’s a huge three day festival featuring Lorde, Flume, Tkay Maidza, RUFUS, Tool, Franz Ferdinand, The Avalanches along with SO many others.  The package includes a 3 day pass to the festival, accom, some meals, tours to Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Central Park, tickets to a broadway show, baseball game, tour guides, bar crawls and more.

Electric Daisy Carnival is the EDM festival to end all EDM festivals.  Held at the Las Vegas Raceway, it’s combination of spectacular art installations, impressive light shows, thrill seeking rides, multiple stages, roving performers and so much more.  The package includes a 3 day pass to the festival, 6 nights accom at the MGM Grand in Vegas, 8 meals, Bellagio fountain show, prime seats to a Cirque du Soleil show, VIP entry to nightclubs, premier day pool party, and more.

Both festival packages are valued at approx $6000 each, but to get it through these guys will save you almost 50% on that price.  It’s the perfect time to head overseas, ditch the Aussie winter and chase that endless summer festival vibe.  To go http://sweattours.com for more info.

Nominations are now open for 15th annual Australian Jazz Bell Awards.
Named after the late Australian jazz pioneer, Graeme Bell, AO, “The Bells” are prestigious and highly praised among musicians.  They celebrate and elevate excellence in the performance, creativity, recording and presentation of Jazz in Australia.

The winner in each of the 7 award categories receives $5000 as well as the Award, which is represented by a much coveted statuette which is presented to the artist at the gala awards ceremony at Bird’s Basement, 18th May and is pictured below.

Previous winners include a Who’s Who of jazz players including Kristin Berardi, Joe Chindamo, Allan Browne Quintet, Julien Wilson, Tina Harrod, The Necks and many others

Nominations for the 2017 Australian Jazz Bell Awards will close on 15th March 2017.

The 2017 awards categories are:
Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album
Best Australian Instrumental Jazz Album
Best Produced Album
Best Australian Jazz Song of the Year
Young Australian jazz Artist of the Year
Graeme Bell Hall of Fame Award

The prestigious awards will be decided by a judging panel of leading members of the Australian and International jazz community.

Winners of the 2017 Australian Jazz Bell Awards will be announced at a gala event at Bird’s Basement on Monday 15th May

bellawards.org
birdsbasement.com

Homegrown fusion outfit Urbanity launched their debut collaborative album Urban Soul to an appreciative audience at Melbourne jazz club Birds Basement last night. Urbanity is made up of  jazz guitar stalwart (and jazz club owner) Al Bare, keyboardist extraordinaire Phil Turcio, Gerry Pantazis (one of Australia’s finest stickmen) and the tastefully solid Peter Mollica. At the launch the band played nine of the ten groove-laden tracks from the new album before returning for a second set of material the musicians have worked on in the past. On display was a lesson in musician listening skills, as the 4 members fed off each other, trading licks and offering space for individual passages of brilliance.

The collaboration between Albare and Phil Turcio started 27 years ago when Albert Dadon – aka Albare – was looking for a new pianist for his band. At the time Phil had just turned 18. Since their first encounter, Phil’s and Albare’s paths keep on intersecting.

Phil explains that he and Albare hear music in the same way, “Everything I throw at Albare comes back as if I would have played it myself.” Albare likes to describe Phil as his musical soul mate.

If you missed last night’s show, you can catch the band again at Bird’s Basement on March 26, April 15 and 27.

Urbanity Facebook page

www.birdsbasement.com.au

AIR-DELAIDE!

Formerly a Melbourne based event, the Australian Independent Record Labels Association’s annual AIR Awards are moving to Adelaide. Through support from the South Australian Government’s newly established Live Music Events Fund, the annual AIR Awards and inaugural two-day music industry conference will be held in Adelaide for the next three years (2017-2019).

The new Live Music Events Fund provides $1.35m over three years to support new festivals and events. The Live Music Events Fund is administered by Events South Australia (via the South Australian Tourism Commission) and the Music Development Office (via Arts South Australia). 

Adelaide holds the designation of being a UNESCO City of Music, part of the Creative Cities Network, which has opened doors to further collaborations and celebrates music as a valuable and important part of our economy.

Adelaide will be a hive of activity in July with Umbrella: Winter City Sounds, the AIR Awards and Industry Conference, The Adelaide Winter Reds Festival and the Adelaide Beer and BBQ Festival. This will allow visitors the opportunity to enjoy vibrant Adelaide and experience many aspects of South Australia’s creative and tourism industries all at once.

AIR AWARDS:
 The 11th Annual AIR Awards ceremony (exclusive to AIR members and associated industry), will take place at the Queen’s Theatre on the 27th July 2017, featuring 13 award categories.

The Australian Independent recording sector represents over 36% of the entire domestic market and is historically a market leader in the development of new talent. The launch pad for some of Australia’s greatest success stories including Nick Cave, Sia, Paul Kelly, Vance Joy, Seth Sentry, John Butler, Safia, Sheppard, Rufus, Remi and Archie Roach, the AIR Awards have been responsible for highlighting exceptional artist talent such as Goyte, Chet Faker, Courtney Barnett, Violent Soho, Hilltop Hoods and Gurrumul all before receiving ARIA recognition.

For the first time AIR Award attendees will also be treated to a smorgasbord of after-party choice by music genre. AIR in partnership with six Adelaide city venues will host performances from some of Australia’s finest artists, whilst offering an opportunity for Music SA to engage Umbrella performers to showcase in front of interstate industry representatives.

AIR INDUSTRY CONFERENCE:
 Combined with the new awards date and location, AIR will present a brand new music industry conference across July 27th and 28th. The two-day event will feature a selection of panels and workshops together with presentations from prominent industry leaders, successful Australian Independent musicians and businesses. Set to be an essential event in the Australian music industry’s calendar, it will offer strategic insights and recommendations to aspiring artists and industry in the audience as well as great networking opportunities for all attendees.

https://www.air.org.au