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The Necks

Chris Abrahams

Chris was born in Oamaru, New Zealand but grew up in Sydney.

He became very active in the Sydney jazz scene in the early eighties playing with modern jazz groups including Mark Simmonds’ Freeboppers and The Keys Music Orchestra. With Lloyd he formed the 60’s modern jazz-influenced The Benders in 1982. The band broke up in 1985 after having released three albums - “E”, “False Laughter” and “Distance”.

In 1984 Chris recorded and released his first solo piano album - “Piano”, followed in 1986 by "Walk".

In 1985 Chris became a founding member of the Sydney indie rock band The Sparklers. As a result of this, Chris began working regularly with the singer and songwriter Melanie Oxley. Chris collaborated with Melanie, writing songs and producing albums, throughout the nineties. There are five releases with her: “Resisting Calm” (1990), “Welcome to Violet” (1992), “Coal” (1994), “Jerusalem Bay” (1998) and “Blood Oranges” (2003).

Chris released a third solo piano album “Glow” in 2001. This was followed in 2003 by “Streaming”, and “Thrown” in 2004.

Chris has collaborated, in both recording and performance, with many contemporary improvising musicians including Burkhard Beins, Mike Cooper and Anthony Pateras. He performs regularly in the improvising music scenes both in Australia and Europe.

Tony Buck

Born in Sydney in 1962, Tony is regarded as one of Australia's most creative and adventurous exports, with vast experience across the globe. He has been involved in a highly diverse array of projects. Apart from The Necks, he is probably best known as leader of hardcore/impro band PERIL.

Early in his musical life, after having graduated from the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, he became very involved in the jazz scene in Australia, often touring with visiting internationalartists such as Vincent Herring, Clifford Jordan, Mickey Tucker, Branford Marsalis and Ernie Watts, as well as Australians Mark Simmonds, Paul Grabowsky, The catholics, Sandy Evans and Dale Barlow.

Following time spent in Japan, where he formed PERIL with Otomo Yoshihide and Kato Hideki, Tony moved to Europe, and has involved himself in many projects there, including the development of new "virtual" MIDI controllers at STEIM in Amsterdam.

Tony has played, toured or recorded with, among others, Jon Rose, Nicolas Collins, Tenko, John Zorn, Tom Cora, Phil Minton, Haino, Switchbox, The Machine for Making Sense, Ne Zhdall, The EX, Peter Brotzmann, Hans Reichel, The Little Red Spiders, Subrito Roy Chowdury, Clifford Jordan, Kletka Red, Han Bennink, Shelley Hirsch, Wayne Horvitz, Palinckx, and Ground Zero.

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Radio & Podcasts

Duration Show - Joshua Abrams, The Necks, Made to Break, etc.

Read "Duration Show - Joshua Abrams, The Necks, Made to Break, etc." reviewed by David Brown


This week, I'm interested in exploring duration. 100 years ago this month, Louis Armstrong made his first recordings with King Joe Oliver. Those tracks were all 3 minutes or less--not a great vehicle for improvisation--but they made it work. Over time our ability to capture longer artistic expression increased, but attention spans vary. Tonight, we'll be spinning six tracks lasting between 15 and 20 minutes. Each artist using the time differently. Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live ...

6
Album Review

The Necks: Three

Read "Three" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


With their stubbornly spiky, hold-onto-your-hat mindset firmly rooted, a high fever runs wild on Three, The Necks' twenty-first release in its thirty-three year, unhindered-by-genre career. It starts like most of the trio's existential, kaleidoscopic excursions do: some minimalist point of blurred melodic frenzy is acted upon and the rest becomes an amalgam of theory and system... jazz, rock, industrial, whatever suits the moment. It can be irresponsibly reckless, remotely ambient, soulfully rewarding, cantankerous, glaringly indulgent or plain brilliant at any ...

9
Album Review

The Necks: Three

Read "Three" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Live performances by Australian free-improvising trio The Necks typically take the form of a single, slowly growing and morphing mass of sound. On recordings the musicians give themselves permission to sculpt the sound, so it is not a real-time document. Nevertheless their two previous albums Vertigo (Northern Spy Records, 2015) and Body (Northern Spy Records, 2018) both presented a single long track apiece, paralleling their live practice. This time the program is broken into three parts, each with its own ...

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Radio & Podcasts

The Necks Live at BIMHUIS Amsterdam

Read "The Necks Live at BIMHUIS Amsterdam" reviewed by BIMHUIS


Endlessly fascinating, hypnotic improvisations on piano, double bass and percussion by The Necks, the Australian trio that achieved a world wide cult status.The Australian trio The Necks plays slowly unfolding, hypnotic improvisations that touch on all kinds of music, from Western minimalism to African trance and from to ambient to contemporary electronic music. Every other set of The Necks is another slowly unfolding improvisation based on the interaction between piano, bass and percussion.In the late 1980s ...

Album Review

The Necks: Body

Read "Body" reviewed by Luca Canini


Si potrebbe iniziare dicendo che il disco è il ventesimo (live esclusi) pubblicato dai The Necks in quasi trent'anni di carriera; oppure ricordando che il precedente, di disco, si intitolava Unfold, e che dal formato vinile (doppio) per Body il trio australiano ha deciso di tornare al caro, vecchio CD, ripristinando la regola aurea della traccia unica (stavolta da 56 minuti). Si potrebbe iniziare insomma dal più classico dei come-dove-quando, dalle circostanze, dai dettagli spicci che compongono ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Ice, Ice, Baby

Read "Ice, Ice, Baby" reviewed by Patrick Burnette


Mike's apparently random picks for this episode, whose release dates range from the mid-fifties to this very year, turn out to have at least one aspect in common: the artists involved illustrate different aspects of “cool." After detours exploring Michel Petrucciani's personal life and Mike's beef with British jazz critics, we wind things up by discussing a classic release from folkster Gillian Welch in our pop matters segment. Playlist Discussion of The Necks's album ...

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Album Review

The Necks: Body

Read "Body" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Their official biography calls The Necks “one of the great cult bands of Australia," which says more about their fan base than the music they play. But it's still not a bad place to start; certainly, the mesmerizing improvised, slow-moving sound they create together is not likely to attract a mass audience. Like most of their recordings and live concerts, Body is a single, nearly hour-long improvisation--but one with four distinct sections. The performance begins with Chris Abrahams' ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: Byron Stripling's tribute to Clark Terry, The Necks, and more

Jazz this week: Byron Stripling's tribute to Clark Terry, The Necks, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

From a big band tribute to one of St. Louis' all-time musical greats to the debut appearance by an avant-garde band from Australia, this week's calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers an exceptionally eclectic selection of shows. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, March 23 Burlesque performer Lola Van Ella and her band present the first of two evenings at Jazz at the Bistro, and Elsie Parker and the Poor People of Paris return to Nathalie's. ...

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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Introducing The Necks

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Introducing The Necks

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

For this week's video showcase, it's time to check out The Necks, who will be making their St. Louis debut in a concert presented by New Music Circle at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, March 26 at The Stage at KDHX. Touted as “one of the great Australian underground acts," The Necks are a trio featuring Chris Abrahams on keyboards, Tony Buck on drums, and Lloyd Swanton on bass. Since forming in the 1980s, they've released 18 albums, the most recent of ...

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Event

The Necks Plays Four Irish Dates

The Necks Plays Four Irish Dates

Source: All About Jazz

The Necks is a trio like no other and Moving On Music is proud to present this amazing improvising trio at The MAC in Belfast on Sunday 5 October. Together for over 25 years, the Australian cult trio The Necks is recognized internationally for its long-form improvisation. Not entirely avant-garde, nor minimalist, nor ambient, nor jazz, the music of The Necks is regularly described as, simply, unique. The Necks is “one of the most extraordinary groups on the planet...not so ...

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Performance / Tour

The Necks Are Proud of Their Lack of Direction

The Necks Are Proud of Their Lack of Direction

Source: Michael Ricci

They make no plans before their concerts. Instead, they just go where their music takes them.

When the Necks take the stage at REDCAT on Thursday night, there will surely be some confused looks darting around the audience before the performance begins. If the Australian piano trio's pattern holds -- as it has for the last 22 years -- the musicians will stand over their instruments, heads bowed, waiting for complete silence to fill the room. No one moves, no ...

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Performance / Tour

The Necks at Redcat in Los Angeles on February 19th

The Necks at Redcat in Los Angeles on February 19th

Source: All About Jazz

"Entirely new and entirely now... The Necks' music is a thrilling journey into the unknown..." --The Guardian One of the great left-field cult bands working today, the trio from Sydney delivers a post-jazz, post-rock, post-everything sonic experience that has few parallels anywhere. Pianist Chris Abrahams, drummer Tony Buck and bassist Lloyd Swanton have earned plenty of adulation for their truly unique improvisational pieces that unwind repeating musical figures in tantalizing fashion, usually underpinned by an insistent deep groove. The players, ...

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Music Industry

The Necks, Townsville

The Necks, Townsville

Source: Jazz on 3 - BBC Radio 3


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Music Industry

The Necks' first US appearance, at BAM

The Necks' first US appearance, at BAM

Source: All About Jazz


Katy Jungmann
saxophone

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Three

Northern Spy Records
2020

buy

Body

Northern Spy Records
2018

buy

Unfold

Ideologic Organ
2017

buy

Vertigo

Northern Spy Records
2016

buy

Vertigo

Northern Spy Records
2015

buy

The Necks: Open

ReR Megacorp
2014

buy

Videos

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