Bob Sedergreen
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. |
Bob Sedergreen |
|---|
Bob Sedergreen is a renowned Australian jazz pianist. His impact and influence in performance, composition and education has secured his place as a national treasure. Bob has had a long and distinguished career as a performer, bandleader and educator. He has collaborated with leading Australian artists, such as John Sangster, Don Burrows, Brian Brown and Judy Jacques, and supported some of the biggest names in jazz, including Nat Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie and Milt Jackson.
Biography
Bob was born in British Palestine in 1943 to Seamus (James, Jim) Sedergreen, a British Warrant Officer First Class, and Leah Erlichman, a milliner. In 1947, His Majesty's government sent the P&O steam ship Ortranto to evacuate all British families, as the British Mandate was coming to an end and Palestine would finally become Israel. Bob, together with his mother, and his sisters Joyce and Millie, settled in London and his father followed in 1948. Bob moved to Australia in November 1951, where he lived on Whitehorse Road and briefly attended Armadale State School before transferring to Haileybury College, a Presbyterian school for boys.
Bob played with the Fred Bradshaw Quartet (1962-70), Ted Vining Trio (1971-72), Alan Lee’s Plant (1973), Brian Brown’s Quintet (1974) and Brian Brown’s Quartet (1977). In the 1980s, he worked with the Australian Jazz Ensemble, Onaje and Peter Gaudion’s Blues Express and the popular Blues on the Boil.
Bob has toured extensively both around Australia and overseas, including Montreal, Malaysia and Europe. He has been advisor to the Montsalvat International Jazz Festival and involved in the introduction of new talent as well as negotiating and supervising the Nat Adderley Quintet and the McCoy Tyner Trio.
As an educator, Bob has lectured at the Victorian College of the Arts and the University of Melbourne's Faculty of Music. He has also been an artist-in-residence at many Victorian secondary schools.
To play with Bob Sedergreen has been described as the "ultimate armchair ride", to hear him is always exciting and satisfying.[1]
Bob's autobiography, 'Hear Me Talking To Ya', was written in 2007 and is named after a Nat and Cannonball Adderley tune. The book has been described as 'like sitting next to Bob on a bar stool hearing a lifetime of jazz stories'.
Awards
- 2008, recipient of the Don Banks Music Award, Australia's most valuable individual music prize. [2]
- 2006, awarded the Kenneth Myers Medallion for contributions to the arts, the first musician to receive the award.
- 1990, won the Inaugural Jazz Award for Australia's Best Keyboardist.
Discography
- For Elvin (Live) - Ted Vining Trio
- Unanimity - Tony Gould and Bob Sedergeen