Next to Sydney and Melbourne, the Brisbane jazz scene mightn’t purr so potently but that doesn’t mean it isn’t harbouring some of Australia’s finest musicians. Thirty-year-old composer and saxophonist, Zac Hurren, has studied, practised, performed and taught music in Brisbane for half his life and, despite the limited choice of jazz venues, has witnessed a rare and beautiful artistic culture vibrating in his hometown. Surrounded by gifted musicians who choose to remain in Brisbane and hone and distil their respective disciplines into enduring and inimitable styles, Zac has patiently developed his own sound with his band of two years, the Zac Hurren Trio. With the pressure of playing his original compositions at upcoming gigs, including the Brisbane Jazz Festival amongst jazz legends like Joe Lovano, Zac is inspired to purely and tirelessly pursue the artistic vision forever simmering in his mind.
Zac Hurren had two childhood dreams: to be a stuntman and to play classical trumpet, just like the soldiers in the army ads on television. Four concussions and a paralysed optical nerve later, he proved he had no fear but also no coordination. As for the trumpets, they had all been allocated at school. Fortuitously, Zac picked up the alto saxophone in Grade 6 after stumbling across a box forgotten for more than 20 years.
“I found mum’s old saxophone in a box in the cupboard,” Zac recalls, almost resuming his childhood excitement. “I would sneak in every now and then for a peek and when I’d open it this amazing smell would hit me – a musty, weird metallic old horn smell – and it had me transfixed.” Zac was hooked immediately and in Grade 8 upgraded from his mum’s alto sax to a shiny new tenor procured on sweat, the smell of fresh grass and the drone of a mower. It was money well saved and spent – that sax saw him through school and his first year at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in 1996.
Zac pegs 15 as the age he became serious about music, but it was only six years later in 1999 he awoke to his true potential when selected for a two-week Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) scholarship.
“It was the most intense two weeks; it was so worthwhile,” Zac gushes n his humble way, almost reeling at the thought of experiencing it again. “For the first 10 days they pulled us apart and made us bare our weaknesses, and then in the last three days they encouraged us to be brilliant. It was a big turning point for my ideas about discipline and consistency.”
When asked if fear of failure ever holds him back Zac agrees it used to be a significant theme. “My way of dealing with the threat of failure was to not try particularly hard because then I could say, ‘Ah well, I didn’t really give it everything.’ I did that for years. But I was always mentally right into it and unflaggingly developing my concept and clearing an inner space in my mind for learning music and seeing shapes and intervals – I see music architecturally.” Zac listened intently to thousands of albums but neglected his playing. “So, conceptually I was quite developed but technically I was quite limited.” The ANAM scholarship changed everything.
“When I went to ANAM and saw how phenomenally good my peers were – guys like Matt Jodrell from Perth, he was so freakishly good – it scared the hell out of me and I thought ‘Man, if I don’t start to seriously work at this, there’s no way I’m going to keep up with these guys’.” Zac returned to the Conservatorium and racked up 15 hours of saxophone practice every day for three months. The cycle of sleep-practise-eat lasted for nearly two years, dropping back to 12 hours, then eight hours, then five hours per day.
Zac’s talent and commitment didn’t go unnoticed. He secured live solo performances with orchestras such as the Australian Chamber Orchestra, national tours with bands George and Elixir, gigging and composing for his band Appian Way, and performances on top-selling albums including George’s The Special Ones, John Hoffman’s The Con Artists and his own debut album, Exordium. In 2004, when Zac and his wife Katie Noonan – a prolific singer and songwriter and the person Zac says inspires him most – welcomed their first child into the world, Zac again felt the desperate urge to practise and make vital use of time. Now a smitten father to two sons, he admits, “I’m more driven than ever to improve.”
For Zac, the measure of success is simply to conceptualise something and be able to realise it. “To be able to get what is in my mind out there – that’s all I care about.” His motivation to pursue artistic vision is driven by a pathological need to develop his expression. “I need to channel my energy into music to maintain an acceptable level of wellbeing. It’s really important. I’ve seen incredibly talented people give up their art and, man, they get so depressed, it’s unbelievable.” While Zac mostly plays gigs in Sydney and Melbourne, he loves living in Brisbane and appreciates being surrounded by committed musicians. “There are so many truly gifted, potent, artistic and spiritual jazz musicians in Brisbane – like John Rodgers and Ken Eadie – who are developing this really unique and pure thing where artistry is the imperative. If all the monster players who came from here stayed here, there would be the most amazing jazz scene in Brisbane.”
For the past two years, Zac has been composing and playing his original music with his band, the Zac Hurren Trio (Phil Stack, double bass; Evan Manell, drums; Zac Hurren, saxophone). Their sound is praised as ‘free-flowing, mature, honest, spontaneous, free of cliches and contrivances, and as taking quantum leaps with modern jazz,’ but Zac appreciates he has a lifetime of learning ahead of him.
His band’s major upcoming gigs are at the Brisbane Jazz Festival concert at Brisbane Powerhouse on October 31 and the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz on November 2, where they’ll perform in front of international jazz legends sharing the line-up. “Just knowing American saxophonist Joe Lovano will potentially be in the audience is the scariest thing I can imagine, but we’re going to give it everything we’ve got. I can’t wait.”
With a new album in the wings, Zac can sense a beautiful new phase of life on the horizon.
“I feel a new cycle of life coming on where it’s all about wellbeing and cultivating. I want to become more active and consistent spiritually, and with my musical practice, and I always want to keep learning.”
Interview by France Frangenheim
