Name: Double Album Launch: Matt Knight and Ben Shelley
Start: 2024-12-06T18:30:00+08:00
Location: Camelot Theatre

Double Album Launch: Matt Knight and Ben Shelley

Doors: 6:30
Show: 7:30
Two of Perth jazz's finest young talents, Matt Knight and Ben Shelley, are proud to celebrate the release of their debut albums with this double album launch event.
After a competitive application process, Matt and Ben were selected as the Perth Jazz Society's 2024 Recording Opportunity recipients. This gave them access to free studio hire and engineering time, enabling the recording of two albums of original music.
This event promises to be a highlight of the rejuvenated Camelot Theatre's summer season, as these two young stars present a night of bold and breathtaking new music.
Matt Knight
Trumpeter Matt Knight is an exciting young improviser, composer and bandleader, born and raised in Perth. Having graduated from the prestigious Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts with Honours (2022), Matt is a versatile and skilled musician.
Matt is an established voice in the Perth jazz scene, leading and co-leading shows with his own groups, including the Perth Trumpet Summit and Bad Neighbour. He was the 2021 winner of the Royal Over Seas League’s Improvisation Prize, and performed on Daniel Susnjar’s 2021 WAM Jazz Song of the Year ‘Cantuta.’ Other highlights include participating in the SHOWAYJO exchange with Tokyo’s SHOWA University, performing in the AFL Grand Final’s pre-match entertainment, and sharing the stage with esteemed international artists such as Linda May Han Oh, Dick Oatts and Katie Noonan.
In 2023, during a period of reflection, Matt began composing melodies dedicated to the members of his family. Over the next year, these melodies became the basis for his debut album, 'Nonni'. Through 'Nonni' (the Italian word for ‘grandparents') Matt seeks to make the deeply personal profoundly universal, exploring themes of love, grief, hope, and a search for belonging. With elements of Phil Dizack, Giveton Gelin and John Coltrane, 'Nonni' is partly a tribute, partly an exploration and partly an artistic coming of age. For this performance, Matt is joined by Sean Little (tenor saxophone), Bob Tweedie (piano), Ben Shelley (drums) and Cass Evans-Ocharern (bass).
Ben Shelley
Ben Shelley is a versatile and exciting drummer, specialising in rich musical interaction and complex rhythmic interplay. Having graduated from the prestigious Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), he has curated a sound that flashes modernity against tradition; convention against non-convention. Ben harbours a great respect for jazz history, and a fascination with the modern sound. Influenced by a wide range of genres and styles, he excels in groove, rhythm, and thrilling interaction with maturity and intensity.
Ben is a fixture in the Perth jazz scene and performs regularly with groups including Bad Neighbour, Mace Francis’s 9-Fifty, the Artemis Orchestra, and the WAYJO Wednesday Night Orchestra. Ben has also recently visited NYU in New York and SHOWA University in Tokyo in pursuit of musical excellence.
'Kindness' is a collection of music written in deep reflection of my gratitude for the people around me. Coming out of a tumultuous time in my life, I was struck by the patience, consideration, and empathy of the people I am surrounded by and, above all else, I was amazed by their kindness; given out freely. The album offers moments of sombre, reverent contemplation, to free-flying elation. It features the great talents of Dušan Cuculoski on trumpet, Sean Little on tenor saxophone, Gemma Farrell on alto saxophone, Tommi Flamenco on electric bass, and Harry Mitchell on piano, who was also a key contributor to the arrangement of the music. The album is the distillation of my gratitude, introspection, passion, and wonderment.