Description
The Mara! Big Band exploded onto the Australian music scene in March 2022 with the premiere of their stunning new work Zashto?, which was hailed as “…a triumph and a treat…” by Sydney Morning Herald reviewer Jessie Cunniffe.
This new collaborative suite, featuring poetry by migrant and refugee writers and compositions by Sandy Evans, Paul Cutlan, Mara Kiek, Andrew Robson, Tony Gorman and Llew Kiek, was commissioned by Mara Kiek in 2019, with the support of Create NSW. Originally scheduled to tour in 2020 with the support of the Australia Council for the Arts, the project faced cancellations two years in a row because of the pandemic.
The Mara! Big Band, a 13-piece ensemble, features some of Australia’s greatest world/jazz musicians, straddling the Eastern European Gypsy Brass Band and Jazz Big Band traditions, to produce a kaleidoscope of musical colours.
Zashto? was recorded in 2022 and released as a CD in 2023. The band takes to the road again in November 2024, touring Zashto? to regional NSW
