Berardi/Foran/Karlen create music that brings together captivating melodies, lush harmonies and emotive collective improvisation. The sense of group empathy is striking, with a subconscious understanding of the flow between the voice (Kristin Berardi), piano (Sean Foran), and Saxophone (Rafael Karlen) developed through years of performances and shared musical vision. The acclaimed Australian jazz trio are now on tour in NZ for the first time, with shows in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch performing music from their award-winning album “Hope in my Pocket” and selections of new repertoire.
Formed in 2014 in Brisbane, BERARDI/FORAN/KARLEN features the talents of three distinctive Australian artists - Kristin Berardi, winner of the Montreux Jazz Vocal competition, APRA Jazz Award Winner Sean Foran and Churchill Fellowship recipient Rafael Karlen, are three are strongly creative musicians, known for their clear personal aesthetic and artistic voice. Highly awarded nationally and internationally as performers and composers, their combined experience is formidable.
With their respective projects they have toured to the Montreux, Bremen, Tokyo, Manchester, Melbourne and Sydney jazz festivals and performed at venues around the world from Norway to China, Argentina to Sweden. “We’ve known each other for such a long time, so forming the group was quite natural after we performed a show in Brisbane…from this the style and material for the trio came together quite clearly as this trio is something quite distinct and different to our other projects”, Karlen says.
The debut album from the trio “Hope in My Pocket” released in 2015 featured a range of material developed to explore the powerful experiences and emotions contained in the correspondence of men & women involved the military past of Australia and New Zealand. The songs explore themes of hope, fear, separation, loss, love, and conditions of war, in a stunningly original way. This album was the winner of the QLD Music Award for Jazz in 2016 and the APRA/Australian Music Centre QLD State Award for Excellence in Jazz at the Art Music Awards.
“after the Hope in my Pocket album we went straight into writing more new work… some of that was for a collaboration with the European vibes man Pascal Schumacher, some for just trio”, pianist Sean Foran says. “For our shows on this tour we’re playing a real mix of songs… some from the album, some from the Pascal collaboration and some brand new works for trio”.
It’s an exciting mix of sounds, with the music drawing on modern jazz, European folk music and classical music. You may hear influences from jazz masters such as Kenny Wheeler, Bobo Stenson and Norma Winstone alongside the sounds of Debussy and Joni Mitchell. Highly improvised, and with incredible group cohesion, each performance shares the trio’s joy of music making.
“We’re quite excited to be presenting these shows in New Zealand, plus the Christchurch Jazz Festival gigs will be recorded live, so they are extra special”, Kristin Berardi says.
Berardi/Foran/Karlen perform in Auckland, Wellington and at the Christchurch Jazz Festival this May.
