John McAll is a pianist, composer, arranger and producer with experience ranging from jazz, pop, blues, contemporary classical, afrobeat

Afrobeat

Afrobeat is a combination of traditional Yoruba music, jazz, highlife, funk and chanted vocals, fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularised in Africa in the 1970s. Its main creator was the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who gave it its name, who used it to...

 and theatre.

John McAll graduated with a Diploma of Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts

Victorian College of the Arts

The Faculty of the VCA and Music is a faculty of the University of Melbourne, in Victoria . VCAM is located near the Melbourne central business district, on two campuses, one - the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - on the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne, and the other - the...

 in 1983 and has worked predominantly as a live musician ever since.

John McAll launched his debut recording as band leader and composer in June 2009 with Black Money on independent label Audacity Media. The band performed at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz

Wangaratta Festival of Jazz

The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz is an annual festival of jazz and blues held in the town of Wangaratta, 2.5 hours from Melbourne in North East Victoria, Australia. It has become the premier jazz event in Australia and is renowned internationally....

 in October that year, and the album was rated number three Album of the Year by Herald-Sun Jazz reviewer Roger Mitchell in December.

As a founding member of the acclaimed David Chesworth

David Chesworth

David Chesworth is an award-winning Australian-based composer and installation artist. Known for his experimental, and at times minimalist music, he has worked in rock groups, classical ensembles, theatre, opera...

 Ensemble, John McAll has performed internationally in New York City, Slovenia and Paris, France. He regularly tours Australia with Ross Wilson as part of the Urban Legends, appears at a diverse range of music festivals with the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, performs corporate gigs with Eugene Hamilton and the Money, and performs live jazz regularly in Melbourne with Brian Abrahams' District 6, the B# Big Band, Hetty-Kate Pakenham, Nichaud Fitzgibbon, Alyce Platt

Alyce Platt

Alyce Platt is an Australian actress known for her roles in television soap operas, and as a television presenter.Her acting roles include Amanda Morrell in Sons and Daughters from 1983–1985, a guest role in the short-lived serial Family and Friends in 1990, and the on-going part of Jen Handley in...

, Rebecca Barnard

Rebecca Barnard

Rebecca Barnard is a Melbourne-based Australian singer, songwriter and musician. She was the lead singer of Rebecca's Empire from 1994 to 2000, and has forged a solo career since her debut album was released in 2006....

 and Jane Clifton

Jane Clifton

Jane Clifton is a Gibraltar-born actress and singer who lived as a child in Cardiff, Wales. In 1961 she emigrated to Perth, Australia. Her best known acting role is probably that of tough prison bookie Margo Gaffney in Prisoner...

.

He has worked with David Campbell

David Campbell (Australian musician)

David Joseph Campbell is an Australian singer and stage performer. He has performed and recorded many different genres of music from rock to classics. He is the son of singer Jimmy Barnes.-Theatre career:...

, Debra Byrne

Debra Byrne

-Career:Byrne made her television debut on Brian and the Juniors, an early predecessor of Young Talent Time, which was hosted by a young Brian Naylor. She stayed with the show for 12 months. In 1971 she was cast as one of the original six Young Talent Time cast members...

, Bobby Valentine, Renee Geyer

Renée Geyer

Renée Rebecca Geyer is an Australian singer who has long been regarded as one of the finest exponents of jazz, soul and R&B idioms. She had commercial success as a solo artist in Australia, with "It's a Man's Man's World", "Heading in the Right Direction" and "Stares and Whispers" in the 1970s and...

, Nina Ferro, Ruby Carter and Vince Jones

Vince Jones

Vince Jones is an Australian jazz artist. He is a singer, songwriter, and trumpet/flugelhorn player. His music includes both original music and new contemporary versions of jazz standards. His themes are often love, inequity, injustice, peace and anti-greed.He attributes his love of jazz to...

. For a time he was part of 1980s pop group I'm Talking

I'm Talking

I'm Talking was a 1980s Australian funk-pop rock band, which featured vocalists Kate Ceberano and Zan Abeyratne. They formed in 1983 in Melbourne and provided top ten hit singles "Trust Me", "Do You Wanna Be?" and "Holy Word" and a top fifteen album, Bear Witness, before disbanding in...

.

John McAll is the elder brother of New York based jazz pianist and composer Barney McAll

Barney McAll

Barney McAll is a jazz pianist and composer.Barney McAll completed a Bachelor of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, studying with pianists Paul Grabowsky, Tony Gould and Mike Nock and with guitarist Doug Devries.He moved to New York City from Australia in 1997 to join...

.

Selected discography

• Black Money - John McAll 2009
• 5 Decades of Cool (DVD) - Ross Wilson 2008
• Tributary - Ross Wilson 2007
• Bakelite Radio Volume IV - Joe Camilleri 2007
• Roarin' Town - Black Sorrows 2006
• Go Bongo, Go Wild - Ross Wilson 2003
• Badlands - David Chesworth Ensemble2001
• Exotica suite - David Chesworth Ensemble 1997

Chesworth Ensemble touring and performance highlights

• 2009 Performances at Melbourne Recital Centre
• 2009 Five Decades of Cool, Ross Wilson, Palais Theater Melbourne Musical Director
• 2008 Performances in Sydney, Brisbane & on ABC TV Sunday Arts
• 2007 The Big Chill Festival, Ledbury Castle, England
• 2007 Paris Quartier d'Ete Festival France
• 2006 Performance at Classical Music Awards Sydney (Award winner for Instrumental Work of the Year for Panopticon)
• 2005 Music to See Through CD launch performances in Melbourne and Sydney
• 2004 Ensemble members perform Cosmonaut an opera composed by David Chesworth for the Melbourne International Arts Festival
• 2003 Performances in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Performance at the AFI Awards broadcast nationally on ABC TV
• 2002 Performance with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at the Forum, Melbourne
• 2001 BAM Next Wave Festival
• 2001 Bang on a Can Marathon, New York and Kennedy Centre, Washington.
• 2001 Australian East Coast tour including "10 Days on the Island" Festival
• 2000 ABC TV Arts Show Special "Live at the Night Cat"
• 1999 Live-to air-concert, New Music Show, ABC Classic FM
• 1997 Melbourne International Festival of the Arts
• 1996 Port Fairy Spring Music Festival
• 1995 Melbourne International Festival of the Arts
• 1995 Winterarts, Victorian Arts Centre
• 1994 Sydney Spring Festival of Music
• 1992 Wendy Harmer
  Wendy Harmer
  Wendy Harmer is an Australian author, writer, radio show host, and comedienne.-Early life and career:...
  
  Love gone Wrong Australian tour

External links

• http://www.discogs.com/Ross-Wilson-Tributary/release/1918912
• http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=19965
• http://www.trombone.com.au/trombone-articles/2009/6/13/jazz/