Above : Jazz pianist Matt Harris
This interview is the twenty-sixth in a series of interviews with a number of Australia’s most distinguished jazz artists, which originally were published monthly in Loudmouth, the e-zine edited by Dr Richard Letts. Loudmouth ceased publication in late 2024, so subsequent interviews will now appear in Sydney Arts Guide. They will now concentrate on musicians who are active either in Sydney or in New South Wales regional areas. These interviews include two sections: a biography provided by the artist and a question & answer interview which is conducted by email. Such interviews are designed to be brief, relevant and informative, allowing those artists to reveal hitherto unknown information about their musical careers, and giving them an opportunity to express their views on the Australian music scene. All artists in this series were asked similar questions about their experiences as a music maker, plus other questions which arose during the interview process. Originally they were based on the ten questions used by pianist Chris Cody in his celebrated 10 x 10 series of interviews, published in Loudmouth between August, 2021 and May, 2022. We express our appreciation that Chris gave us permission to use his questions, which facilitated such interesting interviews in his 10 x 10 series.
BIOGRAPHY
Matt Harris is a pianist based in Sydney. Having studied during his teens with Adrian Lim-Klumpes, he went on to study at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under jazz artists such as Matt McMahon, Judy Bailey, Steve Barry and Kevin Hunt. Graduating in 2020, during his studies and since then he has performed with Australian and international artists such as Angela Davis, Lakecia Benjamin, Katie Noonan and Joe Fiedler. A member of Sydney-based group Jiem, his playing and compositions are featured on their latest release, Laying Down a Path in Walking (Earshift, 2024).
He has also appeared on recordings by Steph Russell, Lachy Hamilton and Judy Bailey’s Jazz Connection. Since 2019, he has been a member of the Hilary Geddes Quartet, with which he appears on Parkside (ABC Jazz, 2021) and Redleaf (Earshift, 2026).
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Eric Myers: What do you think of being a jazz pianist in Australia, and how have you been able to build your career so far?
Matt Harris: Aesthetically, I don’t think much about the fact that I live and work in Australia, in the sense that I’ve never personally been invested in whether or not my or anyone else’s music sounds “Australian”, and in the sense that I’ve never been particularly interested in the existence, or lack thereof, of an “Australian sound”. That being said, I’m obviously deeply inspired by all the incredible musicians I’ve studied with and played with here, and I do think that the music made here deserves a wider audience than the one Australia’s remoteness usually permits. As far as my musical career goes, since the major cities in Australia are so far apart and since Sydney in particular is so sprawling, I found studying music at university to be useful, as it gave me access to a wider network of musicians than I might otherwise have had access to. Connecting locally with other musicians in this way has also played, I think, no small part in affording me opportunities to perform and study elsewhere.
How do your experiences in Australia compare to your experiences elsewhere?
In my own experience, I’ve been more struck by the similarities than the differences between what I’ve seen of the music scene in Australia and what I’ve seen of the music scenes in other places. While spending some time a few years ago studying and playing in LA, I found it interesting to hear the view expressed by some that there weren’t enough official venues in which young musicians could play and develop their craft. These people usually felt that, as a consequence, it was necessary to take a DIY approach by hosting gigs at, for example, art galleries or people’s houses. This reminded me of what I often hear and see in Sydney. Of course, places like America and Europe are more densely populated, so touring is easier and no doubt there are more places to play in a place like LA than there are in Sydney in absolute terms, but I get the impression that musicians feel the same way about a lot of these things in all places. I think this is especially true of musicians that, like jazz musicians, play music that doesn’t traditionally attract a massive audience.
Have you found that the various forms of social media have been helpful in advancing your career? If so, in what ways have they been helpful?
I’m not personally all that active on social media. However, since so much to do with the promotion and distribution of music is online now, some online presence is necessary, if not to promote or distribute things yourself then at least to interact with those who do. As an audience member, I’ve found that most if not all of the gigs I go to have come to my attention somehow through social media or through word of mouth from other people who’ve seen them advertised on social media, so it’s clearly had a big impact on gig advertising, at least.
What is the main thing that nourishes your music?
I find the social aspect of making music most nourishing: music is something I do with friends and it’s something I do to connect with new and interesting people, whether musicians or non-musicians. Also, I remember reading somewhere a comment of Thelonious Monk’s to the effect that his music was so unusual because writing it that way was the only way to get people interested enough to come to rehearsal. I’ve always found this idea appealing. There’s a sense in which I like to feel that the music I make is addressed to some other person or persons, or to some objective circumstance outside myself, even if no-one ever hears it.
List three things you would introduce to Australia to improve or enhance the music scene here.
1/ More pianos in venues;
2/ I think it would be interesting if musicians played more original music, or music that they felt was creatively exciting, in “background” settings like restaurants or clubs;
3/ More stylistically diverse billings.
What projects are you working on at the moment?
I’ve just recently finished a tour with Hilary Geddes’ quartet in support of her latest album. We tried out a lot of new music so there’s the possibility that we might record again some time in the near future. Somewhat recently I recorded with the bassist Oscar Peterson an album of his music that will hopefully be released soon. I’m personally working, slowly, on writing and developing more music for solo piano.
Would you like to share with us your best and worst musical memory?
I don’t know if I can think of any particular experiences that I would describe as “the best” or “the worst”. As a performer, I only require that a musical experience be shared with good company in order to feel that it was a good experience. I guess the best experiences add on to that some element of creative excitement. In particular I love when, in a rehearsal, everyone involved is feeling creatively energised, coming up with ideas that take the material to a more exciting place. The only musical experiences I would describe as bad are those involving intensely negative or unpleasant people. I can think of a “worst” experience in this respect, but good taste prevents me from recounting it.
Can you describe your most serious challenges and how you surmount them?
I would say my biggest challenge is laziness: things unpractised, ideas unexplored, and so on. I don’t know if I’ve surmounted that really, but forcing deadlines definitely helps.
If you could wave a magic wand over the music community, what would you wish for?
I don’t know that there’s anything I would wish for, particularly, at least with respect to the community of musicians I’ve known in Sydney and elsewhere. If I had to pick something, I guess I would wish for greater open-mindedness among audiences and musicians about music in which they might not be typically interested, or something like that – but I’m not even entirely sure that that’s lacking, to be honest. I feel like the music community is fine!
If you weren’t a jazz pianist what would you do?
I’ve always found what engineers do very interesting, particularly civil engineers. I also remember once taking a course in linguistics and thinking that that was something I might like to pursue. My partner is a teacher, so I should know better, but I can’t deny that classroom teaching has a certain appeal for me too.
Who or what are you listening to at the moment?
I’ve recently been a bit obsessed with Stravinsky’s Renard, which is a sort of chamber opera-ballet based on a Russian folk-tale about farm animals. This thing has some great passages of “wily, cunning fox” music: a genre whose moment, I hope, is imminent.
I’ve been getting very into the music Stravinsky wrote around this period in general. Years ago I remember listening to Les Noces and not really getting much out of it, but I’ve been loving it lately, along with L’Histoire du Soldat. There’s something so deeply weird about this music and I have no idea how he put it together. I Iove the feeling that a musician has access to some way of approaching things and putting music together that is totally mysterious to me, even while creating music that feels like it makes sense, somehow. For similar reasons I often find myself listening to Craig Taborn. I can never escape the feeling that, whether it sounds freely improvised or strictly composed, his music has been put together according to some private, esoteric system that I can’t access or guess at. He often achieves this great effect in his ensemble music where it feels for a while that you can’t quite parse exactly what’s going on or that nothing in particular is happening, then you realise – because something’s been repeated or because it’s somehow clear that two instruments are playing together, for instance – that the music has been organised, and then before you know it everything‘s come together and everyone in the ensemble is playing this intense music of great intricacy, that seems to be based on a very personal and mysterious rhythmic and melodic language. It’s almost like seeing a great magic trick, or something.
I’ve also been listening to James P Johnson, and a great album called Tonggeret by an Indonesian singer named Idjah Hadidjah. And of course I’m always listening to Miles Davis, as is proper. I feel like he was so great that he’s somehow still underrated – why are we not listening to him constantly?
What are your other interests outside music?
Most of my time outside music is spent reading about matters of no importance. I also enjoy writing – not writing fiction or publishable work or anything like that, I mean the physical act of writing sentences with a pencil and paper. I’m slowly building a sizeable collection of notebooks and index cards which contain, like the books I enjoy, words about matters of no importance.
VIEW & LISTEN
Hilary Geddes Quartet, The Needling (from Redleaf)
https://youtu.be/Osf7TBhJn9k?si=qrX4N_eafk7u–Mf
Jiem Live at the Con
https://youtu.be/ojHxfOiCO2Y?si=sTWYoyXgrtPc1Ot9
Hilary Geddes Quartet, Parkside
https://hilarygeddes.bandcamp.com/album/parkside
“Two Part Sketch” from Big Band…..! by Judy Bailey’s Jazz Connection
https://youtu.be/-a7TSzrU-UE?si=rlyb-kaYLh3P5TzS
INTERVIEWER
Eric Myers was the inaugural jazz critic for the Sydney Morning Herald, 1980-1982, and jazz critic with The Australian, 1983-1987. He was publisher & editor of the Australian Jazz Magazine 1981-1986, and a government-funded Jazz Co-ordinator from 1983-2002. He returned to writing on jazz for The Australian in 2015. He has a website dedicated to documenting Australian jazz history at this link www.ericmyersjazz.com
