Above – Freedman Jazz Fellowship winner Sam Gill… Photo Credit Shane Rozario
When the concert featuring the Freedman Jazz Fellowship finalists is promoted, the organisers, the Freedman Foundation and the Sydney Improvised Music Association, can justly claim that the audience will be hearing the future of Australian jazz. Previous winners who invariably found their careers enhanced by this prestigious fellowship, read like a who’s who of Australian jazz. They include Phil Slater, Andrea Keller, Kristin Berardi, Andrew Robson, Matt Keegan, Julian Wilson, Matt McMahon, Nick Garbett, Aaron Choulai, Emma Stephenson, Helen Svoboda, Philippa Murphy-Haste, and Hilary Geddes.
On November 22, 2025 at the ACO Neilson, in Walsh Bay, four finalists competed for the $30,000 fellowship: Holli Scott (vocalist, WA), Niran Dasika (trumpet, Vic), Sam Gill (saxophone, NSW) and Wilbur Whitta (piano, NSW). Each candidate performed for about 20 minutes.
The event was well-attended by some 250 people. There was a real sense of occasion at this concert, confirming that the Freedman finals is one of the premier jazz events of the year.
The vocalist Holli Scott, who flew from Perth to perform, opened proceedings, accompanied by Jessica Carlton (trumpet) and Dom Barrett (guitar). Immediately it was apparent that there was something seriously amiss with the sound. Despite a successful sound check, once the performance began Barrett was plagued with technical problems. Very few of the effects that he usually incorporates were possible and members of the band apparently had great difficulty hearing each other. Scott and her band members said later that this was not an accurate representation of their intended work.
Three of Scott’s compositions were played: Unravelling, a track from her album Weather and Weeds; a new two-movement piece, called Reel, with a spoken poem, and Fold; and a third piece Back the Way We Came, also on Weather and Weeds, credited to both Scott and Barrett.
Scott’s proposal, had she been awarded the fellowship, would have involved returning to her childhood town Nannup, a small town on the Blackwood River in the southwest of WA, and composing a new set of works inspired by her roots there. When she was compiling work for her most recent album, she came to realise there was a strong connection between the imagery running through both words and music and the experience of growing up in Nannup. “These images felt more powerful/vivid than anything I’d written before,” she says, “and I wanted to explore this further and integrate the place into the process of composing. The fellowship would have allowed me to return to Nannup for a couple of weeks to compose the works, then later return again with Andrea Keller, Sam Anning, and Jamie Oehlers to record and film the album on site.”
Next was the Sydney saxophonist, improviser, composer & researcher Sam Gill, who played alto and soprano saxophones, and was accompanied by Novak Manojlovic (piano), Christopher Hale (bass guitar) and James McLean (drums). They played three of Gill’s compositions: Scree, Sensemaker and Double Down.
L-R, Novak Manojlovic, Christopher Hale, Sam Gill & James McLean… Photo credit Paul Mason
As Gill was awarded the fellowship, he will now proceed with his project, summarised as follows:
I will be undertaking a period of compositional mentorship with three NYC-based musicians whose music has greatly informed mine: pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist Kim Cass and drummer Kate Gentile. I’ll be composing an hour-long set of music for the four of us, and will go to NYC to rehearse the music with them, play a few gigs and record an album. I have studied with each of them on previous trips to NYC, and did a master’s thesis on Matt Mitchell’s music. In particular, they have collectively created a very unique rhythmic approach within contemporary jazz that has greatly informed my own music.
The friend who was kind enough to accompany me to this concert, emailed me the following day with this comment on Gill’s music:
Sam will go far, and be admired and valued in many hip places. His music that night was not free improvisation, but structured with a head, improvisation and a return to the head, often in unison. In this sense it was jazz. The melodies or themes made use of intervals which in my mind created harmony of dissonance – a sense of disharmony. For me, the rhythms weren’t music that I could move to, let alone dance to, but more like incessant speech. I found it a very heady experience and uncomfortable. As with a century of avant-garde music, was this the point? I did feel however that the quartet performed with great precision and artistry.
It’s hard for me to disagree with this summation. I found Sam Gill’s music of exceptional quality, and I concede it was brilliantly played by his accompanying rhythm section; but it was primarily an experience which stimulated the intellect without warming my heart.
After the interval, Melbourne’s Niran Dasika was next, accompanied by Lawence Folvig (guitar) and Kyrie Anderson (drums). He played a rotary valve piccolo trumpet for most of his set, before changing to an orthodox trumpet. I’m informed that this unusual instrument, a piccolo with rotary valves, like a French horn, is used commonly in European orchestras but not often in the USA or in jazz. Dasika’s offering was mostly a free improvisation until towards the end of the set when a Dasika composition called Life Forms was played.
I was very impressed by the lovely sound which Dasika produced on both instruments. In this I was warmly supported by my friend who said the following about the Dasika performance:
I enjoyed Niran Dasika’s sounds. After all, music is firstly about the sounds. Niran’s mastery of both his trumpet sounds and the electronic use of them was crafted into a colourful landscape with shades and nuances enhanced by his guitarist Lawrence Folvig and drummer Kyrie Anderson. As with the other contestants, Niran’s performance encompassed his brilliant technique and ease within a wide range.
Had Dasika been awarded the fellowship he would have undertaken a series of residencies to develop and record his solo piccolo trumpet project, along with some touring activity with his Melbourne trio, featuring pianist Andrea Keller and double bassist Helen Svoboda, to workshop music for a second album recording.
The final candidate was Sydney’s Wilbur Whitta (pictured above), fresh from the news that he is one of five musicians recently selected from across the world for the prestigious Focusyear band in Basel, Switzerland for 2026, an international jazz ensemble for young musicians, offered by Jazzcampus Basel. This year-long program provides a full scholarship and mentorship from master jazz artists to create a band that develops new music, records an album, and performs regularly at the Jazzcampus Club.
Whitta flew in from Switzerland to be in Sydney for the Freedman concert, and was accompanied by Cameron Undy on bass and Alex Inman-Hislop on drums. This trio played a continuous set, weaving and improvising their way through sections from Whitta’s compositions Pizza, Alpine Time, The Mystery of the Missing Christmas Music and Rain Dear.
Had Whitta been awarded the fellowship he would have undertaken a year-long professional development plan designed to leverage major career development from his position in the 2026 Focusyear band. He said:
To make the most of this extraordinary opportunity, and to match the creative development gained from Focusyear with substantial career growth, I have devised an accompanying year-long professional development program focussing on career growth and exposure in the critical European market. The project involves career mentorship sessions, lessons, network building and collaborations throughout Europe, festival attendance, and, importantly, the recording of an album. All taking place over 2026 while living in Switzerland.
In the case of Whitta’s performance, this is what my friend had to say:
Wilbur’s music took me and my soul to places. I felt transported from one state, through others and to others via the colours and shades that evolved as the tale was told. I felt this mature mastery was the performance of the night. Perhaps it boils down to taste. I am not aware of the musical criteria required to achieve this award, let alone the proposed project. I know however which musicians I will follow and seek out live and recorded performances.
I wholeheartedly agree with this summation. If I had been a judge, my preference would have been to award the fellowship to Whitta.
Regrettably one has to conclude that Holli Scott was undermined so severely by technical problems that she had little chance of being awarded the fellowship. The other three performances from Gill, Dasika and Whitta were all highly original, vastly impressive, and exhibiting differing strengths. The three judges, Andrea Keller from Melbourne, Laurence Pike from Sydney and Emily Tulloch from Adelaide, would have had a difficult task to determine a winner.
It should be emphasised that the winner of the fellowship is not solely determined by the merits of the live performance. It is largely determined also by how the candidates intended to spend the prize money.
Dr Richard Letts, who’s now retired as director of the Freedman Music Fellowships, clarified the unique nature of the award at a previous finalists’ concert: “Usually awards for performing musicians depend on a competition in performance virtuosity. There is a second aspect to the Freedman. Competitors have to devise a project that stretches their imagination and maybe their career, and contributes to development of jazz and/or the Australian scene. Something they really want to do. And then they have the money to bring it off.”
While the three judges were considering their verdict, the audience was addressed by Laurence Freedman, an exceedingly welcome interlude. In my experience Freedman has been somewhat of a shadowy figure and it was a revelation to see him in the flesh and an inspiration to hear him speak of the genuine love for jazz which he shares with his wife Kathy Freedman.
The news had just broken that the Freedman Foundation was discontinuing the classical music fellowships, and would henceforth focus exclusively on jazz. In a world where jazz is constantly marginalised and disadvantaged by philistine forces, it was great news that these valuable jazz fellowships survived.
While the Freedmans were proud to have assisted so many classical musicians over two decades, since the fellowships were established in 2001, this decision was apparently taken on the basis that support from the Freedman Foundation has had the most significant impact on the jazz community, where there are a limited number of such opportunities.
While Freedman did not speak much about himself in his address, perhaps a few biographical details are called for here. A little research on the internet indicates that Laurence Freedman arrived in Australia from South Africa in 1966 at the age of 22. As a Sydney-based investment manager, he is probably best-known as co-founder of the EquitiLink Investment Management Group, which offered “mums and dads” access to investments that were previously only available to institutions. Also, as chair of the philanthropic Freedman Foundation, he has assisted medical and scientific research, the arts, and underprivileged youth programs across Australia.
Needless to say, we in the jazz community value and cherish philanthropists such as the Freedmans who combine their support for worthy causes with a love of jazz. Our country’s culture would flourish and thrive if there were more with their generosity of spirit.
This concert took place on November 22, 2025 at the ACO Neilson, Pier 2/3 Walsh Bay in Sydney. The four finalists competing for the $30,000 Freedman Jazz Fellowship were Holli Scott, Niran Dasika, Sam Gill, and Wilbur Whitta. Other musicians on the program were Jessica Carlton, Dom Barrett, Novak Manojlovic, Christopher Hale, James McLean, Lawence Folvig, Kyrie Anderson, Cameron Undy & Alex Inman-Hislop.
