Home » Jazz Musicians » Barney McAll

Barney McAll

Australian pianist, keyboardist, composer and arranger, Barney McAll received a Bachelor Of Music from The Victorian College of Arts and moved to NYC in 1997 after being invited to join Miles Davis alumni Gary Bartz' quartet. He also tours regularly with the various ensembles of trombonist Josh Roseman and with Fred Wesley and the JB's, and The Groove Collective.

Since moving to New York Barney has also performed or toured with Dewey Redman, Jim Black, Maceo Parker, Kenny Garrett, Vernel Fornier, Badal Roy, Stefon Harris, Wallace Roney, Jimmy Cobb, Eddie Henderson and Roy Ayers.

He leads numerous ensembles including; Sylent Running, Triplum and MODAS (Mother Of Dreams And Secrets) and has also written scores for various films including the multi award winning documentary Liberia: An Uncivil War.

He was awarded the prestigious fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts in 2007.

HAS PERFORMED OR RECORDED WITH: Matt Wilson, Bernie Worrell, Billy Kilson, Charlie Hunter, Billy Harper, Kenny Garrett, Ed Howard, Vernel Fornier, Terry Clarke, Mike Clarke, Tim Ries, Marvin Stamm , Badal Roy, Stefon Harris, Wallace Roney, Seamus Blake, Mark Turner, Peter Apfelbaum, Gary Bartz, Andy Bey, David Binney, Jim Black, Jeff Ballard, Dewey Redman, Louis Hayes, Gerry Gonzales, Mark Turner, Fred Wesley, N’dea Davenport, Bobby Sanabria, Steve Turre ,Josh Roseman, Ben Monder,The Groove Collective, Rodney Holmes, Jimmy Cobb, Andy Bey, Vincent Herring, Dave Gilmore, Chris Speed, Reggie Washington, Ben Perowsky, Scott Colly, Adam Rogers, Bernie Worrell, Ron McLure, David Gilmore, Brad Jones, Ed Howard, Eddie Henderson, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Roy Ayers, Liberty Ellman

GRATITUDE TO TEACHERS:

Mulgrew Miller, Aydin Essen, Charlie Banacos, Walter Bishop Jr, The Hon. Barry Harris, Larry Goldings, Jim Beard, Bruce Barth, Charlie Banacos, Dave Kikoski.

In Cuba; Chucho Valdez, Ramon Valle, Adres Alen, Olavo Alen, Peruchin Jnr.

PAST PERFORMANCES HAVE INCLUDED:

Smithsonian Institute with Gary Bartz Quartet,The Lithuanian World Music Festival, The Santa Clara Jazz Festival, Cuba

Barney McAll Quartet European Tour featuring Billy Harper, The Barney McAll Octet - featured as part of the ABC TV Jazz documentary "The Pulse"

Yugoslavia and Italy with The Barney McAll Quartet featuring Alto Saxophonist Jessie Davis

Ass. Musical Director for CNR Gospel Choir NY, Melbourne Jazz Festival, The Perth Jazz Festival

Akaroa Jazz Festival New Zealand with Barney McAll unit, Musical Director for "Gospel Extravaganza", Sydney Town Hall Tours in Russia, Europe, Japan, Canada, Norway, Australia and all across the United States

Read more

Tags

227
Album Review

Barney McAll: Flashbacks

Read "Flashbacks" reviewed by Russ Musto


The subtle synthesis of diverse influences into an original style is the hallmark of authentic artistry. Australian-born pianist Barney McAll, who has performed with artists as disparate as Groove Collective and Gary Bartz and absorbed the rhythms of Santeria on numerous trips to Cuba, achieves such a fusion on Flashbacks, leading a band featuring guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and percussionist Pedro Martinez, along with trombonist Josh Roseman, saxophonist Jay Rodriguez, bassists Drew Gress and Jonathan Maron, drummer Obed Calvaire and others. ...

395
Album Review

Barney McAll: Flashbacks

Read "Flashbacks" reviewed by John Kelman


Keeping up with the wealth of talent around the world is a challenge, but when it's someone as talented and distinctive as Australian pianist Barney McAll, it's well worth the effort. In addition to film scoring, McAll has built a small but substantial discography and reputation of merit over the past decade by exploring many junctures--Afro-Cuban music and spirituality meeting with a modernistic jazz sensibility that's colored with traces of fusion and electronics, elegant classicism and urban groove. Despite its ...

1,179
Interview

Barney McAll: Dynamic Pianist And Composer

Read "Barney McAll: Dynamic Pianist And Composer" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Composer and pianist Barney McAll is a leading light of the new Brooklyn--the New York borough that is the fount of much that is new in jazz. The spectrum of McAll's music is wide, ranging from mood-setting jazz ensemble recordings to electronica. But it all comes down to the notes, and their relation to each other. As McAll says about growing up with and learning music, “If you have a piano in the house that's a start." Organic music is ...

591
Album Review

Barney McAll: Flashbacks

Read "Flashbacks" reviewed by Mark F. Turner


Since moving from Australia to NYC in 1997, pianist/composer Barney McAll has created an impressive resume that includes work with Gary Bartz, Billy Harper, Maceo Parker, Josh Roseman, and David Binney. But it may be his projects outside of jazz, in particular with independent film scoring-- Motherland Afghanistan (Aubin Pictures/PBS Independent Lens) and Sacco and Vanzetti (Peter Miller/Ken Burns Florentine Films) and other works--that seem to shape his fertile imagination. It's not surprising that Flashbacks, his fifth recording as a ...

994
Interview

Barney McAll: One to Watch

Read "Barney McAll: One to Watch" reviewed by AAJ Staff


This interview was first published in 2001. All About Jazz: First, if you don't mind, tell me some other biographical details (where did you study?)

Barney McAll: I was born in Melbourne Australia. I started playing piano at seven years old. My older brother John, was very influential on me playing, as he is a great pianist and composer.

I can remember playing games in my head and just playing piano for ...

244
Album Review

Barney McAll: Release The Day

Read "Release The Day" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Having performed music throughout his entire career that started in his teens--and mostly in his native Australian continent in conjunction with singer Vince Jones--keyboardist Barney McAll has absorbed numerous influences to develop his own style. Now at the age of thirty-three--and “Thirty Three" happens to be the title of the first track on Release The Day --McAll has blended on this CD all of those world-music styles into a synthesis that consistently promotes the spiritual feel of the music.

233
Album Review

Barney McAll: Release The Day

Read "Release The Day" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Having performed music throughout his entire career that started in his teens--and mostly in his native Australian continent in conjunction with singer Vince Jones--keyboardist Barney McAll has absorbed numerous influences to develop his own style. Now at the age of thirty-three--and “Thirty Three” happens to be the title of the first track on Release The Day --McAll has blended on this CD all of those world-music styles into a synthesis that consistently promotes the spiritual feel of the music.

Read more articles
209

Performance / Tour

Australian Pianist Barney McAll Rhythmic Textures at the Jazz Standard

Australian Pianist Barney McAll Rhythmic Textures at the Jazz Standard

Source: Michael Ricci

Rhythmic Textures Woven and Stretched With Passion. The Australian pianist Barney McAll has lived in New York for a dozen years, exploring a crossroads of jazz and funk and scoring music for film and television.

His profile as a bandleader, while still modest, has gradually gathered steam. At the Jazz Standard on Wednesday, he drew a crowd for both sets, making the evening a productive if imperfect showcase for his own contemporary designs.

Mr. McAll was celebrating the ...

136

Interview

Pianist/Composer Barney McAll Interviewed at AAJ

Pianist/Composer Barney McAll Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

Composer and pianist Barney McAll is a leading light of the new Brooklyn--the New York borough that is the fount of much that is new in jazz. The spectrum of McAll's music is wide, ranging from mood-setting jazz ensemble recordings to electronica. But it all comes down to the notes, and their relation to each other. As McAll says about growing up with and learning music, “If you have a piano in the house that's a start." Organic music is ...

330

Recording

Composer/Pianist Barney McAll Releases "Flashbacks" with Kurt Rosenwinkel

Composer/Pianist Barney McAll Releases "Flashbacks" with Kurt Rosenwinkel

Source: All About Jazz

Flashbacks is the fifth album by composer/pianist Barney McAll, and continues the exciting trajectory--begun with his debut, Exit--into his own distinctive sound world. Like its predecessor, Mother of Dreams and Secrets, it features both brilliant guitar innovator Kurt Rosenwinkel and some traditional sacred Afro Cuban rhythms. But the Cuban influence is fully subsumed here, and there is no way that this album could be categorized as World Music. In fact, other than “contemporary," it is hard to place any label ...

"Barney McAll is a musical conjurer of the highest order." —CMJ WEBSITE REVIEW

"There was a virtual absence of familiar bop riffs, extended bop harmonies or precise bop rhythms. Instead, Rosenwinkel’s pieces offered turbulent, thickly textured waves of sound, mostly produced by Barney McAll’s impassioned keyboard work." —LOS ANGELES TIMES

"Barney is a special piano player with that certain heart and touch, so he has great possibilities. He’s a genuine musician, not just a skilled artist. There’s a certain touch that I’m talking about. It’s hard to explain, but he has that." —BILLY HARPER

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Flashbacks

Extra Celestial Arts
2009

buy

Mother Of Dreams And...

Concord Music Group
2005

buy

Release The Day

Transparent Music
2001

buy

Yemaya One

From: Mother Of Dreams & Secrets
By Barney McAll

Thirty Two

From: Widening Circles
By Barney McAll

Release The Day

From: Release The Day
By Barney McAll

Flashbacks

From: Flashbacks
By Barney McAll

Videos

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.