#animarum

Jonathan Zwartz – Animarum

Jonathan Zwartz is another one of those Kiwi born Australian jazz musicians. He has been a stalwart of Australian jazz since the 1980s, playing as a bassist with the likes of Bernie McGann, Vince Jones, Mike Nock, Katie Noonan and many visiting artists.

Zwartz is also a composer, arranger/orchestrator, producer, songwriter, live music advocate and curator. 

Today’s song is the title track from his third album Animarum (latin for “souls”). Released in 2018, it won the ARIA for best jazz album as well as the Bell and Australian Recording Industry awards for that year.

Zwartz (bass) surrounds himself with some of Australia's leading improvisers, including Barney McAll (piano), Julien Wilson (sax), Phil Slater (trumpet), James Greening (trombone), Richard Magraith (reeds), Steve Magnusson (guitar), Hamish Stewart (drums) and Fabian Hevia (percussion).

Eric Myers review in The Australia gave the album 4.5 stars, captures well what is going on with these nine virtuosic musicians on this album when he writes

While Animarum is not about machismo-style virtuosity, there is a deeper, more meaningful virtuosity in the instrumental solos liberated by Zwartz’s disarmingly pleasant writing…

There is something deeper than usual happening here: this beautiful album seems to me to be the musical expression of a life worth living.