The Music Show

Paul Kelly’s 29th (!) album Fever Longing Still is a modern twist on the contemporary Paul Kelly formula. An “attempt to present all kinds of love songs into one forty minute album”, it features his devoted band, vividly drawn characters, and a mature sort of melancholy. Paul performs live in The Music Show studio and talks to Andy about the album, his community of great and often young collaborators, and the How To Make Gravy film.Amanda Brown is the recipient of this year’s Don Banks Music Award, one of the highest honours for composers in Australia. She’s in to give the lie of the land for composers and working musicians who are facing threats from AI, pitiful streaming royalties and an uncertain future for Australian screen content quotas.

From the very first shot of John Travolta strutting his stuff down a busy New York street, Saturday Night Fever is an iconic film, and the music is even more iconic. Well, the five Bee Gees’ tracks that occupied side A are anyway—don’t get music writer Clinton Walker started on the ‘highway robbery’ of making fans pay for a double-album just to get those songs!Clinton Walker brings disco fever to The Music Show and explains the Australianness of the film and its soundtrack, thanks in large part to Adelaide-born producer Robert Stigwood and the Bee Gees who we claim as our own.Clinton Walker's book Soundtrack From Saturday Night Fever is published by Bloomsbury.

JADE Ensemble are four Brisbane-based musicians who compose and improvise across musical styles: Wakka Wakka man and didgeridoo player David Williams, Japanese koto master Takako Haggarty, Nepalese tabla virtuoso Dheeraj Shrestha and guitarist/composer Anthony Garcia. Anthony and Takako join Andrew ahead of a performance at Brisbane Powerhouse next week to share how each member contributes equally to the group’s unique sound world while retaining their strong cultural identities.Dharug composer Christopher Sainsbury has been writing guitar music that’s been played by guitarist Ken Murray for the best part of twenty years. Both are on The Music Show to talk about the endless possibilities of the instrument, how place can seep through in music, and the joys of bringing in other collaborators like soprano Merinda Dias-Jayasinha. 

Jerron Paxton’s music sounds like it could have been unearthed from a time capsule buried in the 1920s or 30s. His new album of original songs, Things Done Changed, finds the multi-instrumentalist playing guitar, banjo, piano and harmonica across blues, folk, ragtime and old-time Black music styles. He tells Andy about being glued to the radio as a young child, his deep love of acoustic instruments, and the recipe for his grandmother’s salmon court bouillon.Chloe Kim has been on The Music Show in the past in her capacity as a drummer, but this time she’s on as a sort of wrangler (and composer) for six double basses. One of the six, Jacques Emery, joins her to tell Andy about the premiere of Music For Six Double Bassists at Sydney’s Phoenix Central Park – and how this quiet, oddly fragile big beast of the orchestra can operate amongst its own kind. Music heard in the show: Title: Music for Six Double BassistsComposer: Chloe KimArtist: Paddy Fitzgerald (double bass), Oscar Neyland (double bass), Helen Svoboda (double bass), Harry Birch (double bass), Jonathan Zwartz (double bass), and Jacques Emery (double bass)Album: Music For Six Double BassistsLabel: People SoundTitle: What’s Gonna Become of MeComposer: Jerron PaxtonArtist: Jerron PaxtonAlbum: Things Done ChangedLabel: Smithsonian FolkwaysTitle: Things Done ChangedComposer: Jerron PaxtonArtist: Jerron PaxtonAlbum: Things Done ChangedLabel: Smithsonian FolkwaysTitle: Little ZydecoComposer: Jerron PaxtonArtist: Jerron PaxtonAlbum: Things Done ChangedLabel: Smithsonian FolkwaysTitle: Oxtail BluesComposer: Jerron PaxtonArtist: Jerron PaxtonAlbum: Things Done ChangedLabel: Smithsonian FolkwaysTitle: Music for Six Double BassistsComposer: Chloe KimArtist: Paddy Fitzgerald (double bass), Oscar Neyland (double bass), Helen Svoboda (double bass), Harry Birch (double bass), Jonathan Zwartz (double bass), and Jacques Emery (double bass)Album: Music For Six Double BassistsRecorded by Felix Abrahams and Nathan Moas, Audio courtesy of Phoenix Central Park and Judith Neilson AMTitle: EclipseArtist: Alter BoyAlbum: I Don’t Live Here AnymoreLabel: Independent releaseThe Music Show was produced this week on Gadigal, Gundungurra and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Land. Engineers were Tim Jenkins, Simon Branthwaite, John Jacobs and Brendan O'Neill.