Recently nominated for The Freedman Jazz Fellowship (2021), Bell Award-nominee for Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year (2015), and recipient of the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music Jazz Prize (2013), Jessica Carlton is a trumpet player and composer originally from Melbourne who has made a new home for herself in WA. Carlton has formed a sextet to explore composed original compositions with improvised sections in a sextet featuring incredible Perth-based musicians Kristian Borring (guitar), Kate Pass (double bass), Alex Reid (drums), Sarah Ramsey (vocals), and Luke Minness (tenor saxophone). 

The inspiration for this music comes from Australian jazz artists such as Julien Wilson and Andrea Keller, ECM artists such as Jakob Bro, and the music of Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Jim Black’s Alas No Axis, among others. Carlton recorded her debut album in 2014 in a sextet format and has since explored many different composition and improvisation avenues in a number of trios and quartets (including very recently recording an album with chordless quartet Carlton/Macpherson/Pass/Valenti) and is excited to return to the sextet format for this performance.