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BIOGRAPHY
PRESS
Award winning and critically acclaimed pianist and composer, Aaron Choulai, at the age of 28, has achieved a remarkable amount in his career. From small band jazz recordings in New York for Sunnyside Records, to large scale multi media cross cultural festival commissions, the pianists work is as wide and varied as it is explorative and adventurous.Some of Choulais accolades as a pianist and band leader include Young Jazz Musician of the Year (Australian Jazz Awards 2006) One of the most influential Melbournites (Melbourne Magazine 2007) as well as numerous appearances at jazz, cultural and art festivals worldwide with his own projects including: Tokyo Jazz, Jazz a Juan, WOMadelaide, Umbria Jazz and the Melbourne International Arts Festival.As a side man, he has worked as Musical Director for Kate Ceberano, Music Director and Arranger for the Melbourne Festivals commission of the Black Arm Band, and also the highly acclaimed collaboration with Israeli/Ethiopian singer and saxophone player Abate Berin at The Melbourne International Jazz Festival 2007. He has worked along side the Adelaide and Western Australian Symphony Orchestras, completed arrangements for the Melbourne Symphonys Hidden Republic collaboration, as well as played with musicians as diverse as Jim Black, Billy Drummond, Ben Monder, Tim Ries, Archie Roach, Joel Frahm and David Shea. As a composer, Choulais most celebrated work is a collaboration with his Australian based band VADA and the 16 voice choir from Papua New Guinea called We Dont Dance For No Reason, which was commissioned by Paul Grabowsky and the Queensland Music Festival. Currently, Choulai is being featured in 2 ongoing documentaries about his life and music, Music Beyond Borders, which features himself and fellow Australian pianist Barney McCall, and Rocky Island, a documentary about his collaboration with the Tatana Village choir. Aaron currently lives in Tokyo, Japan, where he is involved in a research project, exploring Japanese aesthetics and their application to music, however, the pianist is constantly moving and travelling, continuing his projects in Australia and America as well as creating new work out of Japan.
CD Review for RanuAll About Jazz: Raul dGama Rose 2009It is almost as if just because he does not see like most folks that Papua, New Guinea-born pianist, Aaron Choulai has a heightened sense of hearing, which is so unlike anyone else's sense of hearing. All sound, to Choulai appears to resemble a sort of patchwork quilt with random, vividly colored aural swatches and swathes, at once dissonant and symmetrical, seemingly disparate textures colliding and creating new structures as his fingers touch and feel the white hot and ebony cool of the keyboard. Chords are unleashed by an unseeing eye that yet sees, hears and feels the very heart of the music. This is what blows the mind away on Choulai's Ranu, and all it takes is a few bars of "Bedria," a stellar, melancholic composition with notes and phrases barely above a whisper. Neil Young's "Tell Me Why" is almost unrecognizable, as Choulai turns it into an instrumental all his own, a song of pastoral, epic proportions. Pacing himself like Jacky Terrasson sometimes does, with superlative dynamics Choulai stutters and glides through the melody of the song as he, bassist Sam Anning and drummer, Rory McDugall poke around to reveal an elastic harmony until, somewhere around the song's seventh minute mark, it climaxes into a swirling typhoon before the pianist releases the melodic tension. Then the song flutters down, bereft of the energy that exploded into the magnificent crescendo. The pianist also constantly needles his cohorts. It's almost as if he wants to provoke them just before they solo, so that their energy surges through a musical gauntlet that the pianist has created for them. On "White Scarf," with an irregularly swinging motif, Choulai appears to be teasing the bassist constantly. Anning then responds by dancing interminably through the rest of the song's bell-like melody. This time, alternate drummer Ben Vanderwal is drawn into the argument. The percussionist responds with wonderfully accented interplay, flowing with rhythmic glissandos from cymbal splashes and rolls on taut skins, and then suddenly breaks into staccato rat-a-tat linearity. "Ranu" features a mad, circular motif that turns irregular and labyrinthine as Choulai orchestrates the changes chattering constantly with McDugall, who pulses his solo beautifully while Choulai comps incessantly until the song's denouement. Thom Yorke's "The Tourist" is given a glassy skittering melodic surface encasing a rich harmonic underbelly. Choulai plays notes so late behind the rhythm that the language of the melody appears almost indecisive in the top half of the song. Then suddenly, with a subtle cue from the piano and bass, the music surges wildly to the end. There is more extraordinary musica whispering ballad, in the form of "Dreams Of Paper Roses," and the standard, "You Go To My Head," that brings the exciting set to a close. "Encore...encore..." is the thought, as the final notes echo and spin, drifting uncontrollably into the space with the heart.boy genius Aaron Choulai Rhythms Magazine Aaron Choulais writing is as alluring as it is adventurous and his feisty ensemble conjured fabulous melodies and propulsive grooves like rabbits out of a hat Jessica Nicholas The AgeYoung Melbourne pianist Choulai is far from flamboyant, very considered and satisfying John Clare, SIMA.free form thinking and strangely considered evolution thats enough to keep anyone guessing Impress ( Australian magazine) In essence, Choulai is a meticulous technician via a richly lyrical, yet often animated type of delivery Glenn Astarita, JazzReview.comAaron Choulai is a prodigious talent Kevin Jones, Weekend Australianboy genius Aaron Choulai Rhythms Magazine
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SISIA NATUNA
A Tokyo based quintet, made up of
musicians from different backgrounds within the japanese
music scene. The band plays Aaron
Choulai's origianal music.
The Aaron Choulai Trio
The trio is a constantly evolving band, which includes revolving members from across the globe.
The band has played at many festivals and recorded a number of albums.
WE DON'T DANCE FOR NO REASON
(
click here for more)
We Dont Dance For No Reason is a major music collaboration directed by Aaron, working with music artists from Tatana Village, his home village in Papua New Guinea and Melbourne jazz artists VADA.
The collaboration was originally commissioned by the Queensland Music Festival, and was performed as a highlight of the 2007 Festival. The work was then re-presented as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival in October 2007 with four sold out performances at the
Meat Market.
