“A brilliant Sydney jazz composer and instrumentalist, a young man with a social purpose.”
The Australian
JEREMY ROSE
Born in Sydney on August 21st, 1984, saxophonist Jeremy Rose’s familiarity with music began at an early age. His parents exposed him to jazz and world music through their record collection, being particularly inspired by the music of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. He began piano studies at the age of six and clarinet at eight, before taking up saxophone at 11. Jeremy was determined to be a bandleader, forming his first group in primary school and composing solos for all the performers.
As a music student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Jeremy studied with Dale Barlow, Phil Slater Judy Bailey and Mike Nock. He received the Margaret Henderson Dean’s List for Academic Performance in 2005. In 2006 Jeremy spent six months on exchange in Oslo, Norway, studying composition with Geir Lysne and learning the importance of unravelling limitations of style and conventions. In 2007 Jeremy completed his Bachelor of Music (jazz saxophone) with First Class Honours. In 2017 Jeremy completed a Phd A Deeper Shade of Blue: Creative Processes in the Sydney Jazz Scene – a case study of five compositions and ethno-musicological investigation at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, studying with Matthew Hindson.
Jeremy's accolades include nomination for an ARIA Award, a short-listing for the Australian Music Prize, Bell Awards for Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year and Best Produced Album, an APRA Professional Development Award for Jazz, a two-time Freedman Jazz Fellowship finalist, a four-time Art Music Award finalist for Excellence in Jazz, and a finalist for the NSW Creative Achievement Awards.
Jeremy has pursued numerous studies abroad with mentors and at workshops. In 2008 Jeremy received a BBM Award to study in London with saxophonist Tim Garland, and attend the School for Improvisation in Brooklyn, NYC. Jeremy attended the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music in Canada in 2009 and 2011. In 2012 Jeremy received an Ian Potter Cultural Trust scholarship to attend a residency in Agios Lavrentios, Greece. In 2012 Jeremy undertook studies and collaborations in Havana, Bali, and the Dominican Republic. In 2016, Jeremy curated the inaugural APRA Song Hub for Jazz in Berlin, recording with an international quintet including US guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. In 2017, Jeremy was selected for the Art Omi International Arts Centre Residency in New York.
One of Jeremy’s mainstays has been his quartet, releasing three albums and performing regularly throughout Australia and appearances in Toronto, Cape Town, London, and throughout Europe. Jeremy’s first album, Chiba, was a Norwegian-Australian collaboration, recorded in Oslo in 2007. The album received four stars in the SMH, stating that “his compositions stand out from the pack.” His second album, Sand Lines featured his Sydney based group, received reviews including, “I have always been intrigued, amazed, challenged and – to be frank – totally gassed by his restless artistic nature and his consistently questing music, both as a composer and as a soloist” (australiajazz.net). Jeremy’s third solo album, Within and Without, featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel, received critical acclaim, saying “immediately striking is Rose’s alto sound: light, singing and organic… Rose’s compositions are ruthlessly crafted affairs” (SMH). Jeremy toured Europe with Kurt Rosenwinkel in November 2018, performing numerous sold-out venues throughout Germany and Austria.
Jeremy founded the world-roots jazz quartet The Vampires in 2005, releasing six albums, touring throughout Australia, the UK and Europe, and performing at major festivals including The Wangaratta, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane International Jazz Festivals, The Love Supreme Jazz Festival (UK), Edinburgh Jazz Festival, Glasgow Jazz Festival and the Enjoy Jazz Festival (Germany). The band was selected to showcase at the highly competitive Jazzahead! Trade fair event in Bremen, Germany in 2014. The band was a finalist for Australian Jazz Ensemble of the Year at the 2018 Bell Awards.
The band’s fifth album, The Vampires Meet Lionel Loueke, featured a collaboration with Blue Note, Benin-born guitarist, Lionel Loueke. The album received airplay worldwide including the BBC’s Jamie Cullum and Iggy Pop, was nominated for an ARIA award, was the first instrumental album to be short-listed for the Australian Music Prize, and was on numerous top ten album lists for the year, including #1 on All About Jazz (Friedrich Kunzmann). The band’s sixth album Pacifica (2019) has been described as “such a good album that it’s difficult to know which superlatives to start with (4 ½ stars, The Australian), “choosing to slay with impeccable and relentless congeniality” (4 stars, US Downbeat), and received a notable mention in the NYC Jazz albums of the year and Cadence Magazine’s Top 10 2019 releases (Ken Weiss).
In 2016 Jeremy formed the Earshift Orchestra, comprised of “some of the most creative improvisers of his generation” (Paul Grabowsky), and released his extended suite Iron in the Blood (ABC Jazz). Inspired by Robert Hughes’ book The Fatal Shore, Iron in the Blood is a musical production with 17-piece jazz orchestra, visual projections and narration by two actors. Iron in the Blood explores Australia's colonial history, weaving together Hughes’ text with projections, the documented voices of colonists and a score praised for its eclecticism and boldness. Iron in the Blood premiered at Parramatta Riverside Theatre in 2018 and was presented at the 2020 Sydney Festival. Iron in the Blood received critical acclaim, with SMH stating that “the work is a dialogue between idioms and eras…. a major Australian work” (4 ½ stars), “A brilliant Sydney jazz composer and instrumentalist, a young man with a social purpose…. extraordinary music, reminiscent of comparable works such as Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite and Wynton Marsalis’ Blood on the Fields.” – (The Australian), “Rose’s composition and orchestration here is reminiscent not only of Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Gil Evans but, at times, of Igor Stravinsky and Peter Sculthorpe. It is a powerful mélange to which Rose has added much of his own as well.” (4 stars, The Australian Book Review), and “harrowing history told by a bold, emerging Aussie voice.” (4 ½ stars, Limelight Magazine).
In 2021, Jeremy Rose and The Earshift Orchestra premiered a new work, Disruption! The Voice of Drums, at the Sydney Festival. The work features two drummers, Simon Barker and Chloe Kim with a six-piece electro-acoustic ensemble and audio-visual projections by Racket Studio. The work explored the power of drums as a force for disruption (both socially and musically), for transcendental experience and a source of healing.
In 2009 Jeremy founded Earshift Music, a Sydney based Jazz Record Label reflecting the next generation of talent from the Australian jazz scene with a global reach. Described by NYC Records as "hell bent on pushing the very definition of jazz," Earshift Music is a forward-thinking label that not helps distribute new music and develop creative strategies for musicians in a rapidly evolving music industry. Earshift Music has developed a sphere of like-minded artists, fostering a community around Jeremy’s sphere of influence. Jeremy has released 35 albums through the label and curated two festivals in Sydney and its surrounds. Notable recent releases include Phil Slater’s The Dark Pattern, Sam Anning’s Across a Field As Vast As One, and Elly Hoyt’s The Composer’s Voice: Celebrating Australian Women Composers www.earshift.com
Jeremy has had commissions and performances in the contemporary classical music space, non-western collaborations and other contemporary music styles. Jeremy has composed and performed with Ensemble Offspring, SCM’s Modern Music Ensemble, saxophonist Nick Russoniello with Acacia String Quartet, Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellowship and Leichardt Expresso Chorus.
Jeremy composed three albums of music for his saxophone quartet Compass Quartet; Abrazo Tango (Tall Poppies), Ode to an Auto Rickshaw and Oneirology (Earshift Music). His work River Meeting Suite, for saxophone quartet, sitar, voice, table and electronics was shortlisted for the AMC Art Music Awards, Jazz Work of the Year. The work was featured at the 2019 Four Winds Festival, where Jeremy was showcased as a composer-performer.
Jeremy founded, co-managed, performed and composed for the afro-beat-reggae band The Strides (2008-19). The band released three critically acclaimed albums and performed throughout Australia on tours and at major festivals including Womadelaide, Blues & Roots Festival, and supported international acts including Tony Allen, Julian Marley and Third World.
