Velo De Flor // Darcy Gilkerson Quintet // OZXASH
Live Music

Josh Bennier, Darcy Gilkerson and Ash Ballat bring their groups together at Mamma Chen’s for a night of experimental music making.

7:30pm OZXASH
8:30pm Darcy Gilkerson Quintet
9:30pm Velo De Flor

About the artists:

Velo De Flor
Josh Bennier is an improvising trombonist and composer from Melbourne. After completing a Diploma of Music at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide in 2013, he moved to Melbourne to study at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University. Josh recently completed an honours in music performance at the University of Melbourne. Josh was lucky enough to be a semi-finalist in the 2017 National Jazz Awards at Wangaratta Jazz Festival.
Josh’s newest endeavor ‘Velo De Flor’ focuses on the amalgamation of jazz and Cuban salsa. This project has recently taken form as a 5 piece ensemble playing the work off of his unreleased album ‘Nadie Como Tu’.

Darcy Gilkerson Quintet
Darcy Gilkerson is a Melbourne based cellist and composer with a passion for contemporary classical and improvisatory chamber music. Performing in venues across the country and touring with various orchestras and ensembles, Darcy has found a home on the stage.
As a composer, Darcy is inspired by the lyricism, playfulness, and drama of composers such as Schumann, Piazzolla, Nat Bartsch and Luke Howard. Darcy’s work hopes to bridge a divide between classical compositional techniques and the jazz improvisatory tradition. His current project the ‘Darcy Gilkerson Septet’, have performed at Tempo Rubato, Paris Cat, Longplay, the Brunswick Green and St. Stephens Anglican Church, playing Darcy’s original compositions. Darcy is very excited to be releasing his debut album this year, which will be a collection of his chamber works for Septet, Octet and Quintet.
As a queer composer and performer, Darcy’s music explores themes of self-discovery, empowerment, trans love and the ever-present ebb and flow between pain and joy.
Using his skills as a performer, teacher and composer, Darcy’s goal is to invite his audience into a musical conversation and to engage in an exchange of emotion between performer and listener.

OZXASH
Trumpeter Ash Ballat and drummer/ producer Odyssey Zelno are two contrasting musical voices that meld together electro-acoustic musical vignettes made up of crisp beats, samples, ethereal melodies and FX.

Mamma Chen’s acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and the Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation, the true owners of the land that we live and operate on. We would like to pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.