The Fret Benders
The Fret Benders - four of Australia's
most distinctive guitar voices
Guy Strazz, Ben Hauptmann, Aaron Flower, and Jess Green come together in an electrifying instrumental quartet unlike anything you've heard before.
Expect shimmering harmonies layered with fluid improvisation, rhythms that shift from meditative to fiery, and a palette that spans jazz, world, and contemporary textures. Their interplay is conversational and deeply responsive — weaving delicate acoustic lines with electrified intensity — creating music that feels both expansive and intimate, rooted in virtuosity but alive with spontaneity.
Strazz's lyrical global influences meet Hauptmann's fluid virtuosity; Flower's fearless improvisation collides with Green's bold rhythmic invention. Together they create a dynamic conversation of strings — intricate, grooving, and deeply expressive.
This is guitar music reimagined. Fiery, intimate, and unmistakably Australian - The Village
Guy Strazz
Guy Strazz is a master guitarist and composer based on the Central Coast of NSW. His music is rooted in a long-standing relationship with jazz, Afro-Brazilian, Western and Indian classical musics. He holds a PhD and an MA (Hons) in improvisation and composition. He was awarded the Australia Council Music Fellowship (2001-2003) to compose, perform, and research music across America, Europe, and India.
Guy has worked with diverse artists such as Matt McMahon, Don Burrows, Krakatau, Roger Frampton, Casey Bennetto, Bruce Cale Orchestra, Sandy Evans, Greg Shehan, Ashok Roy, and Sandip Chatterjee. He has crossed paths and played with guitarists such as Martin Taylor, Mike Stern, V. M. Bhatt, Slava Grigoryan, Mark Johns, George Golla, Tommy Emmanuel, and the late jazz legend Pat Martino.
Guy is part of innovative ensembles such as 2@1 with Matt McMahon, and leads the jazz quartet StratoFibre.
"Guy, it was truly my pleasure. I look forward to meeting again, and again!"
Pat Martino - The Nature of the Guitar, Philadelphia 2001
"Guy Strazz is one of my favourite Indo jazz guitarists."
- Niranjan Javeri (Downbeat)
Aaron Flower
Aaron Flower (AKA Baz) is one of Australia’s most versatile musicians. Winner of the 2007 National Jazz Award and finalist for the 2013 Freedman Jazz Fellowship.
Aaron has performed with Vince Jones, ‘Danaïdes’ (FKA The Alcohotlicks), Kate Wadey, Elana Stone, Luke Escombe And The Corporation, The Cope Street Parade, The Swinging Blades, The OB3, and most notably his critically acclaimed solo project, AKA BAZ.
Based on the Central Coast of NSW, Aaron works as a session guitarist and as a composer, arranger, and producer.
“Aaron Flower, one of Sydney’s most versatile musicians”
— John Shand (Sydney Morning Herald)
“Flower’s compositions are as masterful as his playing”
— Jessica Nicolas (The Age)
Ben Hauptman
Ben Hauptmann is a prestigious touring and session guitarist based on the Central Coast, North of Sydney, Australia. Winner of the 2010 Freedman Jazz Fellowship and 2nd place winner in the National Jazz Awards at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz 2007.
Ben has shared the stage with a diverse range of artists, including Mavis Staples, Joss Stone, Gurrumul Yunupingu, Paul Kelly, Neil Finn, Justine Clarke, Donny Benet, Bandaluzia Flamenco, Katie Noonan, Bertie Blackman, Jack Ladder, Lior, Bluejuice, Micheline Van Hautem, James Morrison and Tal Wilkenfeld. He is currently touring, recording and performing with Justine Clarke, Katie Noonan, Martha Marlow and Vika & Linda Bull.
"Benjamin Hauptmann is a performer who quietly, but forcefully, demands an audience's attention through his masterful solos and lush atmospheric textures. His voice is always one to be heard and his total command over his guitar sounds is a thing to be revered."
— Megaphone Oz (Review of Lekker Album Launch)
"Ben Hauptmann's solo was the kind of exhilarating exhibition that made even young jazz players point at him and shake their heads in incredulity... as if the whole universe was rushing past you."
— John Clare, AustralianJazz.net (Review of Jazzgroove Summer Fiesta) Source
Jess Green
Jess Green (AKA Pheno) is an Australian guitarist and vocalist. In her twenty-year career, she has established herself as a genre-defying performer and composer.
She has performed with jazz & blues luminaries including The catholics, The Vampires, Sandy Evans, Jim Conway and Renee Geyer, as well as contemporary artists including Laura Jean, Katie Noonan and Georgia Mooney. She has recorded two instrumental jazz albums, ‘The Singing Fish’ and ‘Tinkly Tinkly’, and released art-pop music under the pseudonym Pheno.
Recent projects include Strange Attractors, a duo with drummer Dylan van der Schyff, and an Indian/Jazz fusion project, Shakti Spirit, with Sandy Evans. Jess composes for theatre, visual arts and dance. Recent commissions include The Australian Art Orchestra, renowned visual artist Patricia Piccinini and Luminescence Chamber Singers.
"....it all hangs beautifully together in a deceptively simple manner, but you are always aware there is a shrewd compositional mind behind it."
— Jazz Australia
“Green’s virtuosity bears comparison with the work of Mary Halvorson; but most of all Strange Attractors conjures the spirit of experimental guitarist Derek Bailey”
— Rhythms Magazine