Peggy Lee’s Open Thread: Live at The Count's

Open Thread was formed in 2023 by cellist Peggy Lee, saxophonist Julien Wilson, guitarist Theo Carbo, and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Their music integrates anthemic melodies, diverse rhythmic structures, and a range of soundscapes that feed the musical imagination. Open Thread’s first eponymously titled album will be released in October 2024 on the Earshift label.

 

Peggy Lee is an improvising cellist and composer who leads and collaborates across numerous ensembles including her own groups – The Peggy Lee Band, Film in Music, and Echo Painting – and collective projects such as Waxwing, Handmade Blade, and Beatings Are in The Body. Peggy also collaborates with Australian musicians Paul Williamson, Niran Dasika, and Andrea Keller, and co-leads the Australian improvising quartet Open Thread (with Julien Wilson, Theo Carbo, and Dylan van der Schyff). Peggy has toured and recorded with many leading artists including Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Darius Jones, and Dave Douglas.

 

Theo Carbo is a prodigious guitarist, composer, engineer, and producer who collaborates with leading Australian musicians and ensembles, including Barney McAll, Andrea Keller, Sam Anning, Gian Slater, Chris Hale, The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and Speak Percussion. He has also developed projects in Reykjavik, Trondheim, and Jogjakarta. In 2023, Theo was commissioned to collaborate with his sister, Flora Carbo, in new work for the Canberra International Music Festival. He is currently working on a studio album by his band Dragonfruit, which explores experimental practices within a pop-music architecture.

 

Dylan van der Schyff is an improvising percussionist based in Melbourne, Australia. He collaborates regularly with Australian artists such as Helen Svoboda and Andrew Saragossi (Looseleaf), Paul Williamson, and Jess Green (Strange Attractors). Dylan has toured extensively in North America and Europe, performing and recording with George Lewis, John Butcher, Paul Rutherford, Dave Douglas, Ken Vandermark, Robin Holcomb, Torsten Muller, Wayne Horvitz, Rob Mazurek, Marilyn Crispell, Joelle Leandre, Peggy Lee, Evan Parker, and John Zorn among many others. He teaches at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, where he heads the honours and graduate programs in improvisation.

Julien Wilson has been an exciting and integral member of the Australian Jazz Scene for nearly three decades. His tenor saxophone style can cover an incredibly broad stylistic and emotional range and is featured on over 80 albums. He has received several prestigious awards, both personally and as an integral member of a variety of critically acclaimed co-operative bands. In 2013 he formed Lionsharecords to release and distribute his own recordings. Julien’s work with the label was recognised by the 2015 APRA Art Music Award for Excellence in Jazz.

When

Location

Monash University Performing Arts Centres, The Count's: The Ian Potter Centre for Performing Arts, 48 Exhibition Walk, Clayton VIC, Clayton, 3800, View Map