Leigh Barker SPECIAL QUINTET

2011 Bell Award Winner, virtuoso string bassist, bandleader, composer and arranger, Leigh Barker moved to Paris from Australia in 2016 to bring a new international perspective to his many musical projects. In the years before his departure, Barker was already sustaining a busy international schedule including such highlights as the Sydney Opera House, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Festival in Iowa and The New York Lindy Exchange, as well as global tours with the “Tom Vincent Trio” and the “Hot Jazz Alliance”. As a sideman he has accompanied artists as diverse as Branford Marsalis and Gordon Webster, and in France and Europe with many the greats of traditional and mainstream jazz, including Christophe Davot. Ambitiously as a bandleader, Leigh has maintained a regular line up in both France and Australia, which allowed him to record with his regular Melbourne bandmates in late 2022. This produced the new album “Cross Street” (released in May), which further developed Leigh’s vision of an inclusive and diverse 21st century small-group Jazz, drawing on a vast array of influences and flavours. Since 2005 Leigh has presented many annual concerts of his original music for the MJC, so as a very informal “20-year anniversary” he will present all Australian compositions from his 12 studio and live releases, with long time colleagues Eamon McNelis (trumpet), Justin Fermino (tenor and soprano saxophones) Sam Young (drums) and brand-new friend and colleague on the European scene, Max Teakle (piano), who left Melbourne in 2022 to study at the elite Jazz conservatoire in Basel Switzerland.

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