Let Steve jazz up life

CANTERBURY based jazz musician Steve Arié is a rare bird on the jazz scene.
After more than 25 years as one of the most in demand jazz double bass players and teachers, he has reinvented himself as an alto saxophonist and has just completed his first original jazz CD in 10 years, ‘Quirks’.
“We all have our quirks. Thirty years devoted to the double bass, and I’d fallen in love with another … the saxophone,” he explains.
“Feeling more and more like a saxophone player trapped in a bass player’s body, I had to become a saxophonist. This album is the love child of that transition.”
Remarkably, Revesby raised and educated Steve is self taught and plays saxophone, flute, double bass, electric bass, guittaron (Mexican bass), guitar and piano.
“I didn’t want to record all the old jazz standards that a lot of people regurgitate,” he says.
“I grew up listening to pop music and there are definitely those subtle influences in ‘Quirks’, with these tunes all about the melodies and very catchy.”
All songs have been written and arranged by Steve, with Paul Cutlan on bass clarinet, Abel Cross on double bass, Nic Cecire on drums and Steve on alto saxophone (double bass on track 11).
‘Quirks’, available to download on iTunes, order from stevearie.com.au or Birdland Records, will be launched at the band’s two-set concert at Johnston Street Jazz (Annandale Creative Arts Centre, 81 Johnston St) on Sunday, March 8, at 3pm, with the CD available to purchase on the day.