Albare’s musical adventure
SOMEWHERE between promoting Israel-Australia ties, opening a swanky new restaurant on St Kilda Road and managing various mega-philanthropy projects, Albert Dadon has found the time to release his sixth full-length album, Long Way.
The jazz guitarist and composer, who plays under the moniker Albare, will perform this week at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival and later in concert in Sydney.
“It’s a tribute to the human spirit of adventure,” Dadon says of his latest CD on which he collaborated with long-time friend and muse Evripidis Evripidou.
Born in Cyprus, Evripidou shares more than 20 years of experience with Dadon, who was born in Morocco, raised in France and migrated to Australia.
The pair is joined by harmonic virtuoso Hendrik Meurkens, Grammy Award-winner Antonio Sanchez, tenor sax player George Garzone and Argentinian pianist Leo Genovese in an ensemble Dadon refers to as iTD (international travel diary).
Listening to Long Way feels like reading the scribblings of a travel journal: it is inspired, spontaneous and dives into unexpected corners. The sheer skill of these artists holds together an album that would otherwise be rough-edged and outlandish.
“There are African and South-European flavours here, diverse sounds, melodies and rhythms – all interwoven and fused with jazz heritage,” says Dadon, for whom music has been a constant in his busy life.
On his eighth birthday, Dadon received a guitar from his mother instead of the accordion he was pining for. But the instrument grew on him.
“I wanted to play like every great guitarist – Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery, George Benson … that was during my teens. When I reached my 20s I wanted to find my own voice. I did, finally, in my 30s. Call me a late developer,” he says.
Producer of Long Way Matthias Winkelman is full of praise for Dadon.
“He has used music – surely mankind’s greatest achievement – to soar to other, often uncharted, worlds and he has taken an array of fine musicians with him.”
Dadon is a former chairman of the Australian Israel Cultural Exchange and was chairman of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival from 2003 to 2005.
REPORT by Livia Albeck-Ripka
PHOTO of Albert Dadon
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