Doing a number for a dying friend
No Postcode, the title track of jazz composer and band-leader Mace Francis’s latest album, has a very personal story behind its composition.
Mace’s close friend, sound engineer Victor O’Connor, knew he was dying of cancer and commissioned Mace to write a piece for his “farewell” party.
Mace said: “Victor sent me an eclectic mix of bombastic music styles, so I knew this wasn’t going to be a sombre, slow work.
“He organised a great farewell party with all the food he loved, and had the Mace Francis Orchestra play his piece. He had even organised security to prevent anyone getting up and making a speech!”
It is called No Postcode because of its extended time signature.
Mace said: “The number looked like a postcode, so I searched for it but it came up as ‘no postcode’. It seemed quite appropriate because Victor had sold his house to pay for treatment and had no postcode at the end.”
No Postcode is Mace’s 4th studio album with the Mace Francis Orchestra (MFO). Mace, artistic director of the Perth International Jazz Festival and WA Youth Jazz Orchestra, said the album had been written over the past six years and combined contemporary and big band jazz, funk, rock, noise guitar, ambient sounds and dark country influences.
MFO will launch aunch the album next
Saturday,
April 13, at
The Ellington
Jazz Club.