BIOGRAPHY

Louise Denson is a jazz pianist, composer and educator. She holds a Master’s degree in Jazz (New England Conservatory, Boston), and a Doctorate of Musical Arts (Griffith University, Brisbane). She is a Senior Lecturer in Jazz Studies at the Queensland Conservatorium where she teachers aural training and composition and supervises research candidates. Her ensemble the Louise Denson Group has released four CDs, the most recent being Flame Tree which features Afro-Cuban and Brazilian themed compositions. Clean Start won the 2003 Queensland Sunnie Award for Best Jazz Recording, and her composition ‘Time to be’ (Denson/James) from the CD Portrait, won the QSong Pinnacles Award for best jazz composition in 2007. Her compositions have been performed and recorded by the Muses Trio, Barega Saxophone Quartet, Griffith Trio, Southern Cross Soloists, Collusion, Bell Award-winning vocalist Elly Hoyt, and L.A.-based jazz fusion group San Gabriel 7, among others. She has performed at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz, the Melbourne International Women’s Jazz Festival, the Manly Jazz Festival, and Valley Jazz Festival and many others. She appeared several times at the Montreal International Jazz Festival with various groups, as well as touring the jazz festival circuit in Western Canada prior to migrating to Australia in 1999.

Composer website:  http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/denson-louise,
https://louisedenson.bandcamp.com/

FEATURED WORKS

Pondside, for saxophone quartet.

Pondside was originally composed in 1993 when Denson was studying with George Russell at the New England Conservatory. It celebrates Jamaica Pond, a much-loved landmark in the neighbourhood of Jamaica Plain in Boston. Surrounded by trees and frequented by swans and ducks, the pond was an oasis of beauty and calm in a large and violent American city.

Featured in Playlist 11 – Saxophone Waves (30/11/2015)