THE ALFREDO LOPES ENSEMBLE

Name: THE ALFREDO LOPES ENSEMBLE
Start: 2025-04-24T20:00:00+10:00
End: 2025-04-24T22:00:00+10:00
Location: 81 Johnston St, 2038

Schedule

Thu Apr 24 2025 at 08:00 pm to 10:00 pm

UTC+10:00

Location

81 Johnston St, 2038 | Pyrmont, NS

Alfredo Lopes (Leader/Composer/Saxophone)
Mike Kenny (Trumpet)
Matt Mc Mahon (Piano)
Lloyd Swanton (Double Bass)
Troy Lever (Drums)
Alfredo Lopes (Leader/Composer/Saxophone)
Alfredo Lopes is a Portuguese-Australian musician, composer, and educator with a rich background in jazz. His jazz journey began with an Associate Diploma of Jazz Studies at Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 1993. Throughout his career, Alfredo has made significant contributions to jazz research and performance, drawing inspiration from 1960s post-bop and free jazz improvisers/composers.
Alfredo’s musical education includes studying arranging with Graeme Lyall, composition and harmony with Roger Frampton, and piano and counterpoint with Judy Bailey. He has also learned from renowned jazz figures such as Joe Henderson, Dr. Barry Harris, and Wes Anderson from the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra.
Alfredo has pursued extensive academic work in jazz. In 2012, he completed an Honours exegesis at Southern Cross University on "The harmonic explorations of Joe Henderson". He has presented several research papers at the Australasian Jazz and Improvisation Research Network conference, Melbourne; the Continental Drift: A Century of Jazz on Record conference at Edinburgh Napier University, and the International Arts in Society conference at the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon; focusing on themes such as intuition, intellect, and the process-oriented nature of jazz and art. In 2021, Alfredo completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts at Queensland Conservatorium of Music. His doctoral exegesis was on “Jazz as process: Developing artistic practice as a composer, player, and leader in a small jazz ensemble”.
Alfredo has composed jazz pieces, reflecting diverse influences, including 1960s post-bop and free jazz improvisers/composers such as Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, and John Coltrane. Alfredo's work demonstrates his ability to blend various styles and rhythms, creating a variety of forms for creative exploration and storytelling, showcasing his versatility as a composer.
Alfredo Lopes has had an extensive performance career, collaborating with some of Australia's top jazz musicians, including George Golla, Judy Bailey, Craig Scott, Mark Isaacs, Bernie McGann, John Morrison, and Sean Wayland. He has performed in Australia, New York, Portugal, and Europe. His work demonstrates how studying the processes and thinking of jazz masters can profoundly shape a contemporary musician's approach to composition and performance.
Mike Kenny (Trumpet)
Since completing an Associate Diploma in Jazz Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium in 1992, Mike has become a recognised artist on the local jazz scene; performing with the likes of Mike Nock, Judy Bailey, Rod White, Tim Oram Big Band, Son Veneno, Club Havana, Buzz Band and Wycliffe Gordon (USA). As band leader and principal composer, Mike formed the ten-piece jazz ensemble Selah in 1995. Selah produced two CDs and toured country NSW, Victoria, and overseas to Turkey in 2001 and Kazakhstan in 2002. This year Mike will release a live album with sextet – ‘Mike Kenny’s Lab Band’.
Matt Mc Mahon (Piano)
Matt is a pianist/keyboardist /composer based in Australia. He leads the Matt McMahon Trio and co-leads "Band of Five Names" with Phil Slater and Simon Barker.
Matt won the national Jazz award in 1999 and the Freedman Jazz Fellowship in 2005. He has played/recorded with Dale Barlow, Greg Osby, Phil Slater, Katie Noonan, Vince Jones, Bobby Previte, Dave Panichi, Steve Hunter, Jazzfolk, Guy Strazzullo and many others, playing at concerts and festivals throughout Australia and Asia. His recent albums include Paths and Streams and Ellipsis, both recorded for the Kimnara label.

Lloyd Swanton (Double Bass)
Based in Sydney, Lloyd Swanton is a jazz double bassist/bass guitarist and composer. A member of the Dynamic Hepnotics in 1986, in 1987 he co-founded jazz trio The Necks with Chris Abrahams on keyboards and Tony Buck on drums. In 1991 he formed his own group, The Catholics. He has performed solo improvisation concerts on double bass. Swanton has performed with The Benders, Clarion Fracture Zone, Sydney Symphony, Vince Jones, Alpha Centauri Ensemble, the Mighty Reapers, the Seymour Group, Tim Finn, Stephen Cummings and Wendy Matthews. He was also a long-serving member of the Bernie McGann Trio and the Bernie McGann Quartet. As well as music for his own bands, Swanton has composed several film soundtracks and hosts the radio show Mixed Marriage on Eastside Radio in Sydney, a weekly program looking at crossings of jazz with other musical styles.
Troy Lever (Drums)
In one combination or another, Troy has played with a multitude of veterans of the Sydney jazz scene and taught in correspondingly respected institutions. After a virtual hiatus of some years and inspired by all sources of passionate, pursuant musical erudition, Troy emerges yet again to combine his explorations in this fresh group of old friends.