“Jazz orchestra and two actors with Mic Gruchy’s superbly complementary big-screen visuals – the work is a dialogue between idioms and eras. This is a major Australian work and should be embraced by our key festivals.” –
– ★★★★½ Sydney Morning Herald (live review)
An award-winning musical production from acclaimed Australian saxophonist-composer Jeremy Rose & his Earshift Orchestra, Iron in the Blood is a powerful exploration of Australia’s colonial past.
Inspired by and featuring text from Robert Hughes’ seminal book The Fatal Shore, the production uses two narrators William Zappa and Philip Quast, stunning visuals from Mic Gruchy and Rose’s sophisticated compositions to bring to life the story of Australia’s founding.
Iron in the Blood provides an opportunity to explore Hughes’ masterpiece with a musical narrative that creates a rich perspective, from jazz evocations of Australian natural beauty to the folksong of the colonialists. Composed and conducted by Rose, the work is brought to life by a stellar 17-piece orchestra, drawn from Rose’s colleagues from Sydney and Melbourne. This grouping is described by Paul Grabowsky as an “ensemble comprising some of the most creative improvisers of the new generation”.
Iron in the Blood was released on ABC Jazz in 2016, premiered at Parramatta Riverside Theatre on 23 September 2018, and at the Sydney Festival, presented by City Recital Hall and Sydney Writer's Festival on 23 January 2020.
“A brilliant Sydney jazz composer and instrumentalist, a young man with a social purpose…. extraordinary music, reminiscent of comparable works such as Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite and Wynton Marsalis’ Blood on the Fields.” – The Australian (live review)
"Rose’s composition and orchestration here is reminiscent not only of Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Gil Evans but, at times, of Igor Stravinsky and Peter Sculthorpe. It is a powerful mélange to which Rose has added much of his own as well.
★★★★ Geoff Page, The Australian Book Review
“Australia’s early history is expertly portrayed in uniquely blended narrative documentary and jazz composition… the orchestrations always add depictions and dramatic illustration to this absorbing documentary.”
★★★★★ – John McBeath, The Australian
“Harrowing history told by a bold, emerging Aussie voice.”
★★★★½ LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE
“It would be an understatement to say that Jeremy Rose is one of the most creative and restless musicians in the Australian jazz scene.”
australianjazz.net
released January 3, 2020
Jeremy Rose and the Earshift Orchestra
Jeremy Rose – conductor, soprano saxophone soloist (2, 3)
Phillip Quast - narration
Bill Zappa - narration
Scott Evan Atwell-Harris – alto, soprano saxophone, flute, piccolo
Scott McConnachie – alto and soprano saxophone (solo tracks 1, 4)
Michael Avgenicos – tenor saxophone (solo track 4)
Matt Keegan – tenor saxophone, alto clarinet (solo track 6, 8)
Paul Cutlan – tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
Patrick McMullin – trumpet, flugelhorn
Callum G’Froerer – trumpet, flugelhorn (solo tracks 8, 10)
Charles Casson – trumpet, flugelhorn
Nick Garbett – trumpet, flugelhorn (solo tracks 7)
Mike Raper - trombone
James MacAulay - trombone (solo track 7)
Eleanor Shearer - trombone
Colin Burrows – bass trombone
Joseph O’Connor – piano, harpsichord
Ben Hauptmann - guitar
Thomas Botting – double bass
Daniel Fischer – drums and percussion
Adapted from THE FATAL SHORE by Robert Hughes
Copyright © 1986 by Robert Hughes
Recorded by permission of the author’s estate.
Produced by Jeremy Rose
Recorded 21, 22 January 2015 at Music Workshop, at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australia
Recorded, edited, mixed and mastered by Bob Scott
Recorded digitally to ProTools 11
Assistant engineer Ilia Bezroukov
Art direction and design: Denise Bert,
elevator-design.dk
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.