Saturday Night Jam Session with Shannon Barnett

After many years concentrating on refining the quartet’s unique sound through playing Barnett’s compositions, this Australian-German band recently delved into some of their favourite standards as part of a week of live concerts in Cologne. The result is ‘Alive at Loft’, an album that retains a sense of freedom and creativity whilst celebrating a varied selection from the jazz canon. After opening the night featuring some of the tunes from this recording, the quartet will continue the party by leading a jam session. 

Shannon Barnett – Trombone

Stefan Karl Schmid – Tenor Saxophone

David Helm – Bass 

Fabian Arends – Drums

Born and raised in Victoria, Shannon established herself in the Australian music scene through herwork with artists like Vada, Andrea Keller, The Vampires, The Bamboos and the Black Arm Band.After a stint in New York, she moved to Cologne, Germany to take up a position with the WDR BigBand and quickly became a valued part of the German jazz scene. During her tenure with theband she had the opportunity to work with musicians and composers including Ron Carter, MariaSchneider, Vince Mendoza, Maceo Parker, Jimmy Heath and Jacob Collier.In 2020 she received the WDR Jazz Prize for Improvisation and in 2022 the German Jazz Prize inthe brass instrument category.Upon moving to Cologne in 2014, Shannon also began performing in the scene outside of the bigband, soon crossing paths with David Helm, Fabian Arends and Stefan Karl Schmid andsubsequently forming this quartet. They have since released three albums together (Hype, BadLover and Alive at Loft) and have toured throughout Europe and Australia. Predominantly playingBarnett’s compositions, audiences can expect German precision mixed with Australian humourand a great deal of exciting musical interaction in between.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the AustraliaCouncil, its arts funding and advisory body.