Jazz:NOW 2026: SIMA’s Artistic Director Explains The Remarkable Catharsis of Jazz

Today, with its myriad of sub-genres blending technology and culture, it is hard to accurately explain the sound of contemporary jazz. Yet, on May 20, at the Vanguard Theatre – followed bi-monthly through to November 26 at the Oxford Art Factory – the annual program Jazz:NOW aims to do this.

Jazz:NOW is Sydney Improvised Music Association’s (SIMA) flagship program, which has been running since 2019, Each year, it presents the more daring and diverse jazz and improvised music being made today, and the most interesting local musicians in Sydney are given an opportunity to present their take on the ever-evolving genre. The 2026 edition follows suit.

In May, Bree Van Dyke and Mick Turner’s calamity of percussion and drunk guitar will echo from the Vanguard Theatre stage. In July Marrickville’s Red Rattler will devolve into dance with the fast, free electronic world of improvised duo Manfredo Lament. September will see classical Persian music blend with experimental Western jazz at City Recital Hall in a new work from Iranian-Australian composer Hamed Sadeghi.

And in November, at the Oxford Art Factory, trumpeter/composer Tom Avgenicos will display a contemplative multidisciplinary work interrogating Australia’s relationship with the environment.

With each performance accompanied by several other like-minded musicians, Jazz:NOW gives Sydney audiences the chance to engage with and discover the challenging and exciting world of contemporary jazz.

Novak Manojlovic, artistic director at SIMA, is responsible for conjuring this year’s eclectic program. Ahead of the first show, we chat about the significance of the venues where this music is played, why it is important to engage with it today, and finally, the magic which initially drew him into the world of contemporary jazz.

What made you choose the venues you are presenting each Jazz:NOW event in?

I am interested in how an environment shapes an audience’s relationship to the music. I often think about how art galleries have a gravitas to them for this very reason – if I see Pollock’s Blue Poles hanging at the Art Gallery of New South Wales it has a different effect on me than if I saw it hanging in an office foyer or abandoned train station.

I’ve always been sympathetic to how jazz and improvised music is heard, and often found the curation of space and sound to be mishandled. We are presenting our shows at The Vanguard, Red Rattler, City Recital Hall and Oxford Art Factory respectively – many of them not traditional jazz venues – because we believe that these venues will have the right relationship with the music, and this relationship will have an impression on the audience.

Why do you think it is important for audiences to engage with Jazz and improvised music?

In truth, I don’t regard jazz and improvised music to be more important than any other music. There are arguments to be made – significant arguments – that implicit in jazz and improvisation are certain qualities which are important to leading a healthy life; sympathy, spontaneity and earnestness, to name a few. Wynton Marsalis talks about ‘jazz as democracy’ – that is, it contains characteristics pertaining to individual freedom and also collective responsibility. All this is well and good and ripe for healthy discourse.

For myself, I think it’s important for people to engage with it because it is so often misrepresented in our culture. That is, often people have a notion of jazz as being a cerebral background music played by people in suits at smoky clubs, or something that your aunt puts on to avoid awkward silences at the annual extended family lunch. To me, it is rather one of the most cathartic, expressive, honest, fresh and occasionally brutal music that is out there. I will say that – beyond all the obvious remarkable and enriching things that all music can do for us – it is important for audiences to engage with jazz so they might assuage or challenge their impression that it’s ‘not for them’, and instead uncover something that will have a profound effect on their life.

Do you remember the first performance that made you fall in love with jazz and improvised music?

The first thing that springs to mind is seeing Phil Slater play his Sun Songbook – music from and inspired by esteemed Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe – alongside Brett Hirst, Simon Barker and Matt McMahon at a spiegeltent in Wollongong when I was in early high school. I remember being changed forever by that music, which is a remarkable thing to pinpoint.

After this, I remember beginning to go to gigs at the Wollongong Conservatorium, which punched well above its weight in terms of programming – Wadada Leo Smith, George Garzone, Dan Tepfer and The Bad Plus to name a few internationals, and of course myriad shows by Mike Nock, Phil Slater, Matt Keegan Trio and so many more at which myself and my friends would sit in the front row about a metre from the musicians, howling as the music built to a crescendo.

After this, I graduated to driving to Sydney with my friends on our variously coloured P plates to see the first of many SIMA shows at the Sound Lounge. These shows too left a huge impression on me and shaped the musician I am today.

I think to be young, and to be exposed to something so dynamic is inevitably going to leave an impression. The music felt very real and raw in such a way that was unlike anything I had heard at the time and I was drawn to that. There was no interface between us and the music – no bright lights or big stage or pageantry. While now I must say I am a sucker for a little bit of pageantry, I still haven’t lost that love of being in the room among my community and hearing Simon Barker do what he does at the drumset. It is an undeniable thing.

Jazz:NOW performances are on from May 20 to November 26 – learn more via the SIMA website.