This concert at Church Street Studios in Camperdown featured the young singer Liz Player, 21, the 2025 2MBS Jazz Artist in Residence. Still at the Sydney Conservatorium, studying for her Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance, she is perhaps best regarded as an emerging artist. At this gig, she launched her new EP Crystalline, an impressive product of 24 minutes, containing five numbers. Church Street Studios, an unusually small venue, has room for an audience of about 60 people, and it was packed to the rafters by those who had come to support and applaud a new star in the making.
Two nights earlier I attended a marvellous performance by the Australian vocalist/bassist Nicki Parrott, who recently returned to her home country after living and working in New York for 30 years. That gig, at The Lounge in Chatswood, was laid-back and relaxed, reflecting Parrott’s vast experience in the top echelons of the music. The mood at Liz Player’s performance was something of a contrast, with a sense of urgency in the air. Here was a young jazz artist, tall and statuesque, brimming with confidence, and palpably determined to make her mark on the audience.
Player began her concert with the same number If I Knew Then which opens her Crystalline EP, where she has taken a leaf out of the Sarah Vaughan playbook. However, Player’s approach differed somewhat from that of The Divine One. While Vaughan takes this tune at a relaxed, moderate tempo, Player took it at a much brighter clip, arguably depriving herself of the space needed to clearly articulate her vocal lines. Still, Player’s approach enabled her to display an impressive brilliance, suggesting that perhaps the high energy of youth prefers brilliance to moderation.
In a sense the approach Player took in If I Knew Then threw down the gauntlet for the rest of her program. Here was a singer intent on emphasising her ability to scat, suggesting she’s concerned to take scat singing to a new level. Most jazz singers these days use wordless vocals sparingly, considering that they insert elements of risk and unpredictability into a performance. Player however, chose to employ them in virtually every number.
There’s no doubt that she has overflowing talent in this area; she’s certainly the most adventurous scat singer I’ve heard for some time, with an impressive armoury of unique wordless vocal techniques at her disposal, which she can call on at will. It remains to be seen if this sort of extravagance will benefit her budding career in the long run.
Certainly Player aims high in terms of repertoire. Her following numbers were You Stepped Out of a Dream (Gus Kahn); Tell Me a Bedtime Story (Herbie Hancock); A Wish: Valentine (Fred Hersch), inspired by the lovely version recorded by Kurt Elling and Cecile McLorin Salvant, and which featured guest vocalist Sam Green; and Joy Spring (Clifford Brown).
In aiming so high, she is supported by an excellent backing trio: Tom Odell (piano), Sabine Tapia (double bass), and Matt Simmonds (drums). This trio was with Player every inch of the way throughout two sets, showing virtuosic knowledge of a well-arranged repertoire, and of the rhythmic substructures in each tune.
Player’s second set was spiced up with another guest appearance. It opened with violinist Dominic Azzi joining Player for a version of the INXS hit Never Tear Us Apart. Other highlights included Nevertheless, inspired by the American singer Patti Page. This began softly, but quickly morphed into a high energy scat version, including doubling the time, in order to exhibit once again Player’s liking for brilliant wordless vocals. A Taste of Honey, one of five numbers on the Crystalline EP, included some interesting time signature changes, and a beautiful drum solo from Simmonds, including a scintillating exhibition of finger-style drumming.
The set ended with Crystalline, the title track of her EP, which showed, not for the first time, that Player likes to explore the widest possible emotional range in a song, from quiet intimacy on the one hand, to powerful high energy on the other.
Given the warm reception with which an appreciative audience greeted Crystalline, an encore was called for, so Player, now seated for the first time, obliged with her composition Warmth Snow & Time, on which she played guitar, and was joined by bassist Tapia, who sang lovely vocal harmonies. Finishing the set quietly brought an impressive performance to a close on an exquisite note.
This set, featuring Liz Player, Tom Odell, Sabine Tapia, and Matt Simmonds, took place at Church Street Studios on July 5, 2025.
