Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim Jago.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I began my professional career while studying at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), one of Australia’s foremost conservatories. Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance, I received the Melville Toyota Scholarship, awarded to the most outstanding final year jazz student (2006).
During my time at WAAPA, I began to play in lots of different musical settings on the Perth gig scene. I am grateful that I was inclined to delve into a broad range of musical styles, which was an advantage of being in a relatively small city; there was a smaller pool of musicians compared to the major music cities of the world, therefore a better chance to diversify musical tastes and greater opportunities to actually perform. Perth is actually quite the hotbed for a wide array of culturally rich endeavors, at least I can speak for when I was coming up.
I was a finalist in the prestigious National Jazz Awards (2007) held at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz in Victoria, Australia. Also after graduating, I was asked to return to WAAPA as an adjunct lecturer/private guitar instructor from 2007-2010. Throughout that time, I was busy as a sideman, I was a member of a big band that toured a couple of times nationally, as well as leading my own groups where I was able to perform at all the top venues in Perth and play a few local Jazz Festivals.
2009 was the first time I visited the United States, making a ‘pilgrimage’ to New York City. There I spent three months saturating myself in the culture and delving deep in the Jazz scene. Upon returning to Perth I formed a collaborative trio, The Grid, along with Ben Vanderwal on drums (a highly accomplished stalwart of the Australian music scene) and Dane Alderson on bass (current member of the iconic band, Yellowjackets). We released our debut album in 2010, we won the Perth Jazz Society award for ‘most outstanding Jazz group,’ and we were featured as the residency band, playing every night for the duration of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
In August 2010, I relocated to the US to undertake Graduate Studies at the University of Miami Frost School of Music on full scholarship. There I held a teaching assistantship for five years, completing a Masters of Music in Jazz Performance (2012) and Doctor of Music and the Arts in Jazz Performance (2015). During that time, through the association with Frost School of Music, I was fortunate to have performed with some high-profile, iconic world-renowned musicians; including Gloria Estefan, Chris Potter, Patti Austin, Arturo Sandoval, Steve Miller, Chick Corea and Terence Blanchard, to name a few.
Also throughout this time, I had recorded as a sideman on some great projects with up and coming Jazz musicians, one of which being as a member of Troy Roberts’ Nu-Jive. I have recorded three albums and performed all over the world with that particular band. As well as having performed and recorded with the aforementioned artists in the US, I had managed to travel back to Australia annually to play concerts music festivals and continue recording. I was invited back to the Melbourne International Jazz Festival to perform with aforementioned trio, The Grid, as the residency band for the duration of the 8-10 day festival in 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2015. These dates were included in The Grid’s itinerary for tours of Australia (which also included the Perth International Jazz Festival in 2013 and 2014) and New Zealand (concerts in Auckland and Christchurch, 2013 and 2014). We releasing further albums with this trio (Wear More Headbands, 2013, and The Grid III [featuring four], 2015).
Since living in Miami, I have also put together a band, Tim Jago Group, around 2018. I had kept this band working regularly around the city and was a feature of the Miami Downtown Jazz Festival, 2018. The pandemic forced a temporary halt to proceedings with this group. A recording is in the works for this group. Despite the pandemic, I was involved in a couple of album releases in 2021. One being as a sideman on the brilliant Argentine vocalist Roxana Amed’s Latin Grammy-nominated album, Ontology. The other being a co-led project between myself and long-time collaborator, saxophonist Troy Roberts. While we were both back in Australia during the height of the pandemic, we decided to record a Jazz quartet album called ‘Best Buddies,’ with the plan to release when we were both back in the US. This came to fruition and we released it in June 2021, and we are continuing to perform with this project all over the country. Amongst a busy leader and sideman performance schedule, I am an avid educator; I have been on the faculty staff for University of Miami, Frost School of Music since 2018, and a mentor/site coordinator for the Guitars Over Guns Organization since 2016, as well as teaching private guitar lessons.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I feel that the life of a Jazz musician has many inherent struggles. The fact that it has always been an ‘underdog’ type of music (I, of course, am talking about the global scheme of things) limits the reach of a potentially wide audience. I think that, as a freelance musician, I have learnt to live in a constant state of non-security. It can be stressful to not have a guarantee in terms of a paycheck. You never know what opportunities are around the corner, and this can be exciting and extremely rewarding also.
An early struggle for me was choosing whether to accept the opportunity to move to the US to undertake Grad School. I had just released an album and toured with my band, The Grid, and we were gaining a lot of momentum so it was a difficult notion to leave all that behind. I was a busy, working musician in Australia with a part-time teaching gig at the University in Perth, so things were going very well. However, I am ultimately glad I made the decision to move, as I was able to make it work in keeping The Grid alive; during the Summer breaks in the US, I was able to travel back to Australia in what was the Winter Festival Season in Australia. We were able to play festivals and release subsequent albums in the breaks from Grad School. I was lucky in that way.
Another struggle I can think of, and it kind of goes without saying, was the global lockdown during the height of the pandemic. I, along with so many others, lost most of my source of income as a live performer. I was lucky enough to have remote teaching to fall back on, but it was a major upset to my momentum as a performing musician.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a guitar player. I play a lot of different styles of music (not so much Classical guitar, regrettably). I think that having a reputation as a “flexible” musician certainly is an advantage for allowing a wide ranges of opportunities that are offered to feel confident in being up to the task.
I specialize in Jazz and I am thankful that I have been able to primarily make a living being involved in that music, of which I love so much. It has taken a certain amount of intentional navigation to get to this place, particularly as a guitar player. Seeing as though the guitar is arguably a more prominent instrument in other styles of music, I have at times had to consciously turn down some offers in order to allow the room for more stylistically desirable opportunities to present themselves.
Over time, I have been able to allow all my varied influences to make their way into my musical approach. That is a great accomplishment I feel; to be able to develop a personal approach that eventually becomes called upon for a variety of different musical settings. Who doesn’t want to be employed for being yourself?!
I think one desirable quality I have is the way I listen. I am focused on playing the most appropriate thing for the moment. This takes a certain degree of outward thinking, sensitivity, and a ‘giving’ nature. I am proud of this quality. I am generally easy to get along with, quite laid-back, and I think this demeanor away from the instrument can’t help but make its way into the musical approach.
I am particularly concerned with rhythm and I place a lot of importance on that, regardless of the musical setting. I want the music to ‘feel’ good. I think that because I prioritize this element, it makes me employable in lots of different styles and in sync with all musicians who share this outlook.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I am looking forward to revitalizing my leader project, Tim Jago Group. We were building a lot of momentum up until the pandemic put a temporary halt to live performances. Thankfully shows have been coming back and I have been busy with other projects, including my co-led Jazz quartet project. However, we are still living in a very volatile environment; a lot of unknowns in terms of the lingering and constantly changing developments of this pandemic. I am aiming to finally record a lot of my material with my group. And I hope to continue to be able to travel and play shows as a leader and as a sideman. I hope to maintain a variety of different projects to keep things interesting. Above all, I am constantly working on getting better at music, my instrument (so practice is important) and life in general. Simple, but often overlooked.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.timjagomusic.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/timjago/?hl=en
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/tim.jago.9/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3uJnkbftD8KkNb1sX8imvA
- Other: https://timjago.bandcamp.com/releases
Image Credits
Ken Ge Philip Avello Steven Emmerson Emma Burke Katherine Jago (Album artwork layout)
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