Magic Music is a compelling meeting of Jazz, Japanese and Iranian music, featuring four innovative musicians, as they celebrate friendship and the magical power of spontaneous musical dialogue.

This rare and engrossing ensemble doesn’t merely play music; they conjure an atmosphere where cultures intertwine, and improvisation becomes a shared language that bridges the terrestrial and the celestial. The ensemble boasts remarkable credentials.

Satsuki Odamura, whose mastery of the Koto and Shamisen transforms these traditional Japanese instruments into vessels of contemporary expression. Her notes ripple like water across a still pond, creating psychedelic swirls of sound.

Vocalist and percussion virtuoso, Sohrab Kolahdooz brings the resonant depth of his Tonbak (an Iranian goblet drum) and Hang drum - calling on ancient rhythms and modern meters - together into a tapestry of percussive prowess.

Steve Elphick, a luminary of Australian improvised music, anchors the ensemble with his acoustic bass. His lines moving like roots through soil—steady, nourishing, and vital to the collective sound.

Completing the quartet is saxophonist Sandy Evans, whose creative output and leadership over her 40 year career has had an unparalleled impact on the Australian jazz scene. Her improvisations feel like stories unfolding in the moment—constantly evolving with originality and luminosity.

Sandy reflects on the ensemble’s unique dynamic: “Their inventiveness, musicality, sensitivity, responsiveness, and depth of sound and feeling open doors to magical musical places... One note...can bring a complete sense of peace and calm - or a dark mystery - or a ray of sunshine."

This performance promises to be more than a concert. It is an invocation of the human spirit—a space of freedom where tradition and innovation dance together in harmony.

Images: Shane Rosario