Silk Road, Zawi, Steps
Guy Strazz guitar Matt McMahon piano
2@1 is an exploration of a musical pathway where the tradition of jazz interacts with styles from Brazil, Cuba and India. This is experimental music that doesn't sacrifice on aesthetics; it is melodic and artful music.
"Composers and instrumentalists Guy and Matt are "amongst the most lyrical players in the land"John Shand, 2@1 CD review, Sydney Morning Herald.
Silk Road begun in 2008 and was released on Birdland Records; it has received a nominated for ‘best jazz album of the year’ AIR Awards 2008.
Guy and Matt have performed with local and international artists such as Vince Jones, Sandy Evans, Dale Barlow, Don Burrows, Bobby Previte, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Ashok Roy, Martin Taylor, Slava Grigoryan, Mike Stern, Steve Hunter and Katie Noonan and a host of others.
Matt McMahon has won the National Jazz Piano Awards in 1999 and the Freedman Fellowship for Jazz in 2005 and Guy Strazz has been awarded the Australia Council Music Fellowship, APRA Nominations and a Jazz APRA.
Their performances include: The Basement, Bennetts Lane, Jazz Yatra, Jakarta Jazz, Perth and Adelaide Arts Festivals, Clusone Jazz Festival, Japan World Expo, Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Jazz Festival and Adelaide International Guitar Festival.
Their recordings can be found on ABC jazz, Birdland and Kimnara Records.
Bookings: guystrazz@virginbroadband.com.au Ph 0419924928
2@1 in Review
“The recording quality of local albums continues to surge. You’d swear Guy Strazz was with you in the room playing the opening notes of this radiant album on his nylon and steel string guitars.That illusion is sustained when he is joined by pianist Matt McMahon, a regular in Strazz’s fluid bands for the past decade, Thereafter these two - amongst the most lyrical players in the land – concentrate on the unadorned beauty of melody. Most of the repertoire is self-penned, ranging happily across the frontier where jazz greets influences from India, Brazil (including an exquisitesolo piano reading of Milton Nascimento’s Tarde) and West Africa (including a solo guitar ode to Ali Farka Toure). There are tingling trademark Strazz unison runs on Silk Road and a typically limpid McMahon melody on Odysseus. It is easy for piano and guitar to trip over each other harmonically, but these two sing from the same hymn book”.
John Shand SMH, September 20-21 2008
2@1 Birdland/Creative Vibes 4/5 stars
“It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen a recording of piano and guitar duo by Australian jazz performers, especially such talented players as Sydney pianist Matt McMahon and guitarist Guy Strazz. Eight of the ten tracks on 2@1 are originals, and from the CD opening notes on Silk Road, it is obvious that the style and genre have been sidelined in favour of musical interaction and infuences as diverse as Africa, India, Brazil and the Middle East. Most passages adopt a neo-classical approach, enhanced by Strazz’s use of nylon strings and McMahon fugue-like piano.One of the numerous beautiful themes is Zawi, an ode to pianist Jo Zawinul [by Strazz] , where a flowing, unobtrusive melody achieves a carefully cultivated sense of peacefull relaxation. A blusey out of tempo Late Night employe ideas from the jazz canon yet mantains the album’s characteristically delicate and rarified atmosphere”.
John McBeath, The Australian 2008.