BiographyBy adding the traditions of American jazz to his authentic Irish roots, the
singer Austin O'Brien has spent the last 10 years exploring the depths of musical and cultural diversity.
Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, he took his first music lessons at age thirteen. As a youngster & son of a musician, he spent his younger years surrounded by music. He followed the path of most young people his age, school, college find a job.
This path took Austin O'Brien away from his passion, but a call of the stage was to strong.O'Brien came to France in 1994. Less than two years later, he'd started giging with various orchestras & groups based in the region where he lived next to Nantes.
In the past decade alone, Austin O'Brien has maintained an especially busy schedule with multiple projects spanning multiple genres and styles.A regular fixture in the Jazz Festivals in the southwest of France.Austin has drawn from the varied sources of his musical experiences to record the next album "Dualité, which was recorded in March of 2008 with the french pianist Philippe Duchemin. This album follows the succesfull release of the album "Now & Then", where Austin first showed his talent as a singer, songwriter.
Separate and apart from being the best musician he can be, when asked what his style or sound is, Austin answers indirectly:
"My favorite musician is Monty Alexander, I had the privilege to meet him twice in Marciac and to speak to him about music in all its manner and form, I very much agree with his philosophy:Citation taken from Monty Alexander official website"Alexander's most important objective - whether his vehicle is reggae or jazz or soul, small combo or symphony - is to express the joy of music to all within earshot, regardless of prevailing differences in taste or culture. "My goal is to uplift," says Alexander. "The piano, to me, is a vehicle for connecting to other human beings. I'm very open to all forms of music. I'm not a bebop musician, I'm not a calypso musician, I'm not a reggae musician. I'm a musician who loves it all."Review of the album "Now & Then" by Jos L.Knaepen
Austin O'Brien. On track for the big stages !
With the many vocalists;male and female; that are brought to us by the majors it's easy to overlook the boy next door, the boy with vocal skills, with superb timing, a pharsing that brings back the « good old days ». The days when one could really understand what the boys and girls were singing. But most of all, Austin O'Brien puts all these qualities in every songs he sings.He sings a bit before the beat, a bit after the beat. Does this sounds familiar ? Sure thing, it's what you hear when listening to guys like Sinatra, Torme and others, and that's one of the things that makes his singing so exquisite.The boy next door..Why haven't we noticed him before? The saying that grass is always greener on the other side of the hill might hold some truth but, perhaps it's time to look on ones side where talents like the one of Austin O'Brien is ready to let you dream, to get you accquainted with real jazz-singing, in one word, to make you feel good.Just listen to one of the famous songs from West Side Story « Somewhere ». Close your eyes and you can see the place that Austin sings with such great feeling.
On this firts CD Austin has gathered a selection of Frances best jazz musicians. These gentlemen eat, breath and live jazz 24 hours a day and you can hear it. Brilliant.
The technical side is probably not what one is used to hear as compared to when it comes from one the major labels, but just look or listen beyond and you will hear a jazz-singer that is ready to hit the big stages.Jos L.Knaepen - Jazz Photographer - Downbeat - Jazzhot - Jazztime
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