Mike Nock

Mike Nock: Hearing

by Barry O'Sullivan
December 21, 2023

Mike Nock has had a varied sixty-five-year musical journey, receiving many awards and honours. It has been thirty years since he released his celebrated solo piano album Touch, recorded at the Australian Broadcasting Commission's Eugene Goossens Hall in Sydney in 1993. Hearing has him returning to the same hall for another solo album and, as the title indicates, it is all about the facility of perceiving sounds aptly and interpreting them in a particular way on a range of his ...

The Many Sides of Mike Nock

by Jakob Baekgaard
February 12, 2016

Throughout his career, the New Zealand-born pianist, Mike Nock, has explored many musical forms: fusion, modern jazz and classical music. You name it, and he has played it. At one time, he was even involved with the Naxos Jazz label as a producer and the music he helped bring to the world once again showed his diversity: big band projects, an organ combo and solo piano, just to name a few. However, there is one thing that unites the many ...

Mike Nock / Laurenz Pike: Kindred

by John Kelman
September 14, 2012

Despite the lack of major label support--or, perhaps, as a result of it--jazz appears to be in a strange period of ascendancy, where the number of people playing it seems diametric to the industry support it receives. New Zealand-born Mike Nock should know; since relocating to Sydney, Australia in the mid-1980s--after spending a quarter century in the US, co-leading early fusion group The Fourth Way, releasing a series of outstanding records like In Out and Around (Timeless, 1978), and cutting ...

Mike Nock: Making Music Flow from the River Within

by Jakob Baekgaard
June 15, 2012

It almost seems as if there's no other place on earth like it. New Zealand is truly breathtaking, with its diverse geography of mountains, beaches, green plains and forests forming a complex triptych where different strains of nature melt into a sublime scenario. And then there there's the water, the ever-flowing source of life, finding its way through the landscape, reaching the shore and resting in lakes among the rocks. This is the place where pianist Mike Nock ...

Mike Nock Trio Plus: Hear and Know

by John Kelman
February 28, 2012

It's an admirable objective to push the musical envelope, but it's unrealistic to expect artists of longevity to make each and every record a major milestone. What goes a longer way for those with careers measured in decades is consistency. New Zealand-born/Australia-based pianist Mike Nock has a handful of particularly memorable recordings including In Out and Around (Timeless, 1978) and, more recently, Mike Nock's BigSmallBand Live (ABC Jazz, 2004) and Meeting of the Waters (Jazzahead, 2007), but there's nary a ...

Mike Nock Trio: An Accumulation of Subtleties

by John Kelman
August 5, 2010

As fine as Mike Nock's recent releases have been--Meeting of the Waters (Jazzhead, 2007) and Live (ABC Jazz, 2004)--the New Zealand-born, Australian-based pianist's primary focus has been on larger ensembles. They may have provided Nock a broader textural palette with which to explore his always-compelling writing, but they've lacked the inherent intimacy and unfettered abandon possible in the more liberated context of the trio, last heard nearly a decade ago on Nock's sublime Changing Seasons (DIW, 2002).An Accumulation ...

Mike Nock Project: Meeting of the Waters

by John Kelman
December 27, 2007

Think globally, act locally could well be Mike Nock's musical philosophy. Returning to Australia in the mid-1980s after spending a quarter century in the USA where, amongst his many accomplishments, he led seminal fusion group The Fourth Way and recorded a series of fine discs as a leader, including In, Out and Around (Timeless, 1978) with Michael Brecker, the New Zealand-born pianist has released a string of equally significant and undeniably world class albums, largely featuring fellow musicians from Down ...

MIKE NOCK with MARTY ERLICH TO HEADLINE NAXOS JAZZ LABEL SHOWCASE

Source: All About Jazz

Mike Nock, pianist/composer extraordinaire and A&R Director for Naxos Jazz, will be in NYC to record in September. He'll also give a rare NYC performance with Marty Erlich at the SoHo Caviarteria, 310 West Broadway, NY, NY; Saturday, September 16th. Many Naxos Jazz artists will also be performing that night, including Sarah Jane Cion, Donny McCaslin, Dave Phillips, Ron McClure, Gordon Brisker, Barbara Sfraga, and more. Reception: 5:30 - 6:30PM, performances: 7PM

A native Australian, Mike Nock lived and gigged ...
read more