JRMA

The Jann Rutherford Memorial Award

The Jann Rutherford Memorial Award was founded in 2005 to assist in the professional development of an outstanding young female Australian jazz musician. The Award is named in honour of the late jazz pianist Jann Rutherford, and is funded by private donations in partnership with Melbourne International Women's Jazz Festival (MIWJF), Sydney Improvised Music Association (SIMA) and ABC Radio National.

The award is a professional development opportunity worth up to $8000 to the recipient and is comprised of:-

1. Two concerts for the winner and her band including performance fees: At the Sound Lounge at the Seymour Centre in Sydney, presented by SIMA; and at the 2006 Melbourne International Women's Jazz Festival.

2. Recording a demo cd at ABC Radio National. ABC Radio National will broadcast material from the recording on the network's music programs.

3. Assistance with promotional material including publicity photos and flyers as well as $500 cash.

The winners of the Jann Rutherford Memorial Award are chosen by a panel of some of NSW leading jazz musicians and educators convened by saxophonist Sandy Evans with assistance from Judy Bailey and Zoe Hauptmann. The award was set up at the instigation of a private benefactor who recognised a need to support young female jazz musicians at the beginning of their professional careers.

Further information, interviews, photographs etc Jane March + 612 9938 2180 march@ozemail.com.au

ALI FOSTER

Ali Foster is an outstanding young jazz drummer based in Sydney, Australia. She is currently combining her degree course in Jazz Studies with a busy life as an emerging professional player and teacher. Ali has a particular interest in sparking a passion for exploring jazz styles in younger audiences in the Greater Sydney area. She and her musical collaborators engage their audiences by employing elements of progressive rock, funk and blues into their jazz tunes while also highlighting a focus on the musical interactions between them.

Ali began to develop her musical talents when she started piano lessons as a child of five. By early high school, the lure of the household's drum kit, previously the domain of her father and brother, proved irresistible! Her acceptance two years later into the St Paul's Grammar School big band cemented her ambition to make jazz drumming her profession. In the years prior to her acceptance as a student in the prestigious Jazz Studies degree course at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney; Ali participated in the SIMA Improvisation Workshops for Young Women, directed by Sandy Evans; and she was named as the winner of the Senior Secondary division of the Billy Hyde Drumoff competition.

Currently, Ali leads the Ali Foster Quartet, which features Kayne Jansen (guitar), Hal Strewe (bass) and Brendan Berlach (saxophones). As winner of the 2007 Jann Rutherford Memorial Award Ali will perform with her quartet at the Melbourne Women's International Jazz Festival (MWIJF) December 9 and for Sydney Improvised Music Association (SIMA) at the Sound Lounge in Sydney on February 29. She, Kayne and Hal also regularly work together as the Kayne Jansen Trio an ensemble which joined with acclaimed saxophonist Matt Keegan for an appearance at the 2006 ConVerge Jazz Festival.

Ali Foster has also appeared with Judy Bailey's Jazz Connection, Birdyard Big Band, the Luke Webb Band, the Jayne Denham Band, the Pete McDonald Quintet, Happenstance, and Teri Divas and the Dancing Covers Show. Ali currently studies with Andrew Dickeson. She has also studied with Simon Barker, Toby Hall, Mal Morgan, Peter Batu, Gordon Rytmeister and Steven Kemsley. Ali has also featured on vibraphone in the Gary Daley large ensemble ‘In the Palm of Your Hand’.

As she builds her own musical career, Ali continues to be inspired and informed by listening to the music of Tony WIlliams, Elvin Jones, Ben Riley and Philly Jo Jones.

                                                                                        ALI FOSTER QUARTET
                                                                                        Scheduled performances
                                                                                        November 27 Jazzgroove @ The Excelsior Hotel, Foveaux St, Surry Hills.
                                                                                        December 9 Melbourne Womens International Jazz Festival @ Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne.
                                                                                        February 29 Sydney Improvised Music Association @ The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale.

                                                                                        Ali Foster | drums * Kayne Jansen | guitar * Hal Strewe | bass * Brendan Berlach | saxophones

The 2007 Jann Rutherford Mentorship Awards have been offered in recognition of the efforts and achievements of several outstanding participants in the 2007 Improvisation Workshops For Young Women. These workshops are co-ordinated by The Sydney Improvised Music Association (SIMA) and have been operating since 2002. The winners were selected by a panel of the workshop's tutors convened by Course Director Sandy Evans.
This year's six winners are Wollongong bassist Lucy Clifford, 16; young Sydney guitarists Milan Ring, 17, & Taylor Goddard, 17 this month; drummers Lauren Benson, 16, & Nikki Rusten, 16; and Anna Ewald-Rice, 16 (clarinet). The jazz musicians who will act as mentors are bassist Zoe Hauptmann; winner of the 2006 Jann Rutherford Memorial Award, guitarist Jess Green; winner of the 2007 Jann Rutherford Memorial Award, drummer Ali Foster and acclaimed clarinettist/composer Margery Smith.

JRMA gratefully acknowledges the support of the Jazz Studies Unit Chair, Craig Scott.

JRMA was launched in 2005 at the instigation of a private benefactor who recognised a need to support young female jazz musicians at the beginning of their professional careers. The awards are named in honour of the late jazz pianist Jann Rutherford. The mentorship initiative pairs each talented young jazz instrumentalist with a mentor who will offer support, encouragement, inspiration and advice based on their knowledge, life and experience relative to being a jazz musician. It is hoped that the mentoring relationship will enable the award recipients to gain skills and confidence relevant to their enjoyment of jazz playing, and potentially facilitate their further exploration of new directions and possibilities in the field of jazz.

For further information on the 2006 Jann Rutherford Mentorship Awards or the 2006 Jann Rutherford Memorial Award please contact Jane March 02 9938 2180 march@ozemail.com.au

Jann Rutherford
Jazz pianist, composer
1964-2003

Jann Rutherford, the jazz pianist, composer, teacher and poet who was a prominent and unique musical force in Australia and New Zealand, died of cancer at the age of 38.

Her fight with the cancer diagnosed on her tongue and lymph gland was the final chapter in a life studded with a bravery that bordered on heroism, although Rutherford herself would have been quick to dismiss such an assertion. Blind from birth, she pursued the zero-security, artistically high-risk career of the jazz musician, moved by herself from New Zealand to Sydney to further this career, eked out a living and confronted her cancer and its treatment with typical optimism and courage.

Born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1964, Rutherford began learning the piano when three years old after she had been attracted by the sound of her neighbour's instrument. In 1977 she was awarded the Sir Denis and Lady Blundell (Governor-General) Homai College prize “for showing outstanding determination", and continued her extensive studies of classical music until 1984.

The next year she gained a diploma in Executant Music from Wellington Polytechnic, majoring in jazz, and her career path was established. She began performing regularly in that city, and recorded for radio and TV.

Her move to Sydney in 1989 would have been a daring step for any young jazz musician trying to make it on a bigger stage; to do it alone and sightless was remarkable. She attended the Sydney Conservatorium, where she gained an associate diploma in jazz studies (with Mike Nock and Roger Frampton among her teachers) and an associate diploma in music teaching. In 1993 this array of qualifications was augmented by the Licentiate Trinity College, London.

Meanwhile, Rutherford had made an impact on the Australian jazz scene. She worked with the singer Kate Swadling and fellow New Zealand (and blind) pianist Julian Lee. In 1990 she entered the National Jazz Awards at the prestigious Wangaratta Jazz Festival, and was runner-up a result she duplicated the following year. She won the competition in 1993, when she was also nominated for a Mo Award.

Rutherford led several bands, including a trio with the leading bassist, Craig Scott, and the doyen of Australian jazz drummers, Alan Turnbull, and she enjoyed a lengthy collaboration with the versatile saxophonist Paul Cutlan. In 1999 she recorded an outstanding album of solo piano called Discovery (Tall Poppies).

This revealed many of her strengths as both a pianist and composer: the beauty of her touch and choice of voicings; a flair for releasing tension (both musically and in the listener) and for resolutions; a deeply intuitive understanding of the use of space; a narrative sense to bind her improvisations into extended coherent statements.

Her music eschewed any aggression, even shying from anything overly robust in favour of an exquisite delicacy, beautifully exemplified by the title track, Discovery. If soft watercolours predominated over bright oils, nonetheless her music often carried a buoyant and infectious optimism, as on Expectations from that same album.

“I just love jazz," she told the Herald. “I like the sound of the piano and the fact that you can do so many things with it." As Mike Nock observed in the liner notes to Discovery, “Jann Rutherford is a wonderful pianist ... [who] explores many moods in which her beautiful sound, sensitive ear for harmonic nuance and warm expressiveness are heard to full advantage." Rutherford also worked with the singer Christa Hughes, accompanying her in the successful cabaret Beer Drinking Woman, which was spiced up by the pianist's witty asides and quips. She sang in the stunning Martenitsa Choir, worked for the Royal Blind Society, wrote poetry, and collaborated with the composer Romano Crivici (from Electra String Quartet), on a presentation at the Powerhouse Museum called Sounding The Museum, which allowed people to experience the facility through hearing rather than sight.

Diagnosed in May 2002, her cancer required intensive radiotherapy. After six weeks of this she made a super-human effort to fulfil a concert commitment at the Side-On Cafe in late June, leaving barely a dry eye in house when she dedicated the performance of Expectations to herself.

A final testament to her considerable gifts came with the album <The Scented Garden>, on which her quartet gave scintillating renditions of 10 Rutherford compositions. It was released posthumously.

John Shand
First published in the Sydney Morning Herald 19/3/2003.