The Alastair Kerr Quartet - Pat Thiele (tpt), Marc Hannaford (pno), Sam Zerna (bs).
Influences
In no particular order... Herlin Riley, Airto Moreira, Elvin Jones, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Simon Barker, Curtis Mayfield, Frank Sinatra, Bernard Purdie, Steve Gadd, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Nana Vasconcelos, Edu Lobo, Tony Williams, Mozart, Billy Higgins, Max Roach, Louis Armstrong, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Virginia Rodrigues, Donny Hathaway, Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, Vince Jones, Milton Banana, Aretha Franklin, Ahmad Jamal, Carole King, Queen, Steely Dan, Rufus Wainwright, Carl Dewhurst, Hamish Stuart, Col Hoorweg, Charles Lloyd, Barney McAll, Stevie Wonder, Eddie Palmieri, Dom Um Romao, Clyde Stubblefield, Jabo Starks, Art Blakey, Wayne Shorter, Wynton Marsalis, Tain Watts, Branford Marsalis
After 3 months traveling through the US, Cuba and Brazil, absorbing music and saturated fats, 2009 sees Al back in Melbourne with some exciting new projects. Keep and eye out for his new Quartet, featuring Marc Hannaford, Pat Thiele and Sam Zerna. Al can also be seen around Melbourne playing with Don Jordan's Sextet (appearing regularly at The Rainbow), and Carioca da Gema (great Brazilian music! www.melsamba.com). Al and Marc are also working with Erkki Veltheim and Richard Haynes to present John Rodgers' quartet for violin, piano, bass clarinet and drums. ......................................................................................................
Drummer and percussionist Alastair McGrath-Kerr studied at the Canberra School of Music with legendary teacher Col Hoorweg, graduating with honours in 2002. In 2003 he moved to Melboure where he has continued to work in a wide range of styles such as jazz, rock, latin, funk, soul and orchestral. He has been a member of the Leigh Barker Quintet since its inception in 2002, touring extensively with them over the last 6 years. Alastair appears on both of that group's albums - "Off to Moruya", recorded for ABC Radio's Jazztrack and "Lynnville", recorded live at Bennetts Lane in '07(www.leighbarker.com). He has twice been acting director of the Melbourne Samba School - 2004&09 (www.melsamba.com), and he can be seen performing with the Bateria at major events around Melbourne, as well as in Carlos Ferreira's Carioca da Gema. He also regularly performs with 8 piece Brazilian group Bossa Negra (www.bossanegra.com).
As well as leading and writing music for his own projects, Al has performed and recorded with Dave Rex, Willow Nielson, Julien Wilson, Mark Fitzgibbon, Frock, Craig Fermanis, Doug DeVries, Tom Vincent, Marc Hannaford and Anthony Schulz. He can also be found on recordings by Heather Stewart, Prozac Blues, The Caledonians and Cocoa Jackson Lane. Alastair also runs a private teaching practice, and is involved with the St Cecilia School of Music, coordinating their drum kit syllabus (www.st-cecilia.com.au).
I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
Hey, We're about to start our national tour to promote our new album.
Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Byron, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart.
See profile for details.
Hi, Thanks for the friend request. Just wanted to let you know that "The Start of War" is available for download from the 1st of Oct and be sure to sign up to our emailing list for special offers during the release of our new album. Cheers, CB HQ
Thanks for the ad. Hope to C U at my gig with The Headhunters at Manchester Lane 26th and 27th of October. Gonna tear the roof off! www. marcmittag. com
Things are great. Really busy with the album and tour but we are having a blast. We had our launch in the band room last night and had 145 people show up... we had to turn folks away it was nuts. Looking forward to catching up and if you know anyone down the north west coast of tas let 'em know bout our gig at the stage door on the 22nd august.
We are launchingour album at Lebowskis on Monday august 18th and again at Bennetts on Sunday 7th September. Hope to see you there and it would be cool to catch up.
it was my pleasure! you just need to work on your sales pitch a bit more... hope the rest of the tour goes well for you. hmm a follow up is a swell idea but does cowfish live on land or in water? though a fight between the two could open up a number of sound possibilities... maybe it just needs to be dogcat but that might confuse people... i sure you will come up with something
hey Al i really enjoyed tonight especially catdog! let me know if your ever back in the rat cos i will surely come again and next time i might even pay...
