Reviews
Bio/s
Interviews
Articles
Selected Reviews / Quotes
— Água e Vinho
“… Rodney Waterman elevates recorder music to heavenly and stratospheric levels of artistry, and Doug de Vries follows him up there on equal artistic footing on nylon-string guitar. The particular timbre of the recorder occasionally lends this duet music a medieval and minstrel-like feel, but the raging virtuosity and deftness of speed of these two players can also result in a synergistic blast furnace of sound out of proportion to the sparse tonal qualities of each instrument alone, most notably on Ade, Salvador and Frevo … this music is at first glance esoteric and unique, but even better… it’s brilliant.”
~ Alan Fark, Minor7th Webzine USA [Edition June/July 2001]
— Duo Windborne, Venus Bay Fireside Sessions
“It’s good to hear music that sounds so fresh and newly minted. As if channelling visual artist Paul Klee, Rodney and Ryan ‘take a line for a walk’, moving freely from different starting points, playing games using hockets, jigs, ostinatos, divisions and rhythmic variations, to improvise a collection of musical vignettes. Long live the wooden fipple flute played with such skill.”
~ Michael Atherton, Australian musician, composer, academic and author [March 2024]
— Bassano Ricercate (1585)
“Rodney Waterman plays the ricercare on a “Ganassi” recorder by the renowned maker Fred Morgan. The captivating tone, and the clear voicing of this instrument is matched by Rod’s sure technique, with apt phrasing and sparingly applied vibrato, distinguishing the performance of music he so obviously loves … A strong recommendation.” *4 Stars*
~ Robert Small, 2MBS Fine Music Magazine (Sydney), April 2023, p.26)
— twelve fantasias
“I was extremely charmed by Rodney Waterman’s twelve fantasias. I can get bored when listening to improvisations, but these are great and stunningly diverse. Fantasia no.7, Swimming Pool, is my favourite.”
~ Joris van Goethem, Flanders Recorder Quartet and FR2 (Belgium), Orpheus/Gecko interview, 2021
“Waterman’s creative work with improvisation … gives us a beautiful travelog that takes us not only through specific geographic locations, but through times in his life – all meaningfully refracted through his experiences and memories.”
~ Tom Bickley, American Recorder, Fall 2021, Vol. LXII, No.3, pp. 44-45
Rodney Waterman — Extended Bio:
Rodney Waterman is an Australian musician who specialises in the recorder. He studied music in Australia, Italy and the Netherlands. His repertoire is eclectic, with a particular interest in improvised and spontaneous music making, relating to both contemporary and historical musical forms. Rodney has collaborated in concert with many wonderful musicians, such as Joe Chindamo (Piano), Riley Lee and Anne Norman (Shakuhachi) and Ben Robertson (Double Bass). He has worked and performed with many brilliant recorder players, including Ruth Wilkinson, Ryan Williams, Robyn Mellor and Natasha Anderson. Rodney and Natasha worked 2 days a week (5 hours a day) in 1997-98 as instrument testers for the great Australian recorder maker Frederick Morgan in Daylesford Victoria. Rodney’s CD Água e Vinho with Melbourne guitarist Doug de Vries, was released on the German ECM label in 2000 — Rod and Doug celebrated the 25th anniversary of the recording with a concert at the Boîte World Music Cafe (Fitzroy North, Melbourne) on May 23, 2025. Rodney was a regular performer at the Eltham Jazz Festival (2007-10). In 2014 his collaboration with sculptor Paul Blizzard, Dancing the Chisel, was hailed as a highlight of the Ballarat contemporary Festival of Slow Music. In July 2016 Rodney performed in concert with Italian jazz recorder player, Gianluca Barbaro, in Milan, Italy. 2021 saw the release of his solo ‘Covid-lockdown’ album twelve fantasias – 12 improvised fantasias for imagined acoustic spaces. And in November 2022, he released the first ever recording, on recorder, of all 8 solo Ricercate (1585) by the Venetian composer, Giovanni Bassano. Rodney performed the complete Ricercate in the Bluestone Chapel, Montsalvat, Eltham on November 5th, 2022. His Duo Windborne group, with Ryan Williams, released an original, improvisation-based album Venus Bay Fireside Sessions in Jan 2024. As an active and passionate music educator, Rodney makes practical and inclusive music making a major part of his classroom practice. He has worked over many years as an ensemble tutor at community music festivals, particularly inspired by the methods and publications of Jon Madin. Until recently, Rodney taught classroom music and Italian in a few small semi-rural primary schools on the north-eastern fringe of Melbourne.
— Shorter Bio:
Rodney Waterman first played recorder in the Bendigo High School Recorder Consort in the 1970s. He has since studied the instrument in Australia, the Netherlands and Italy. In 1997-98 he worked 2-days a week as an instrument tester in the Daylesford workshop of the great Australian recorder craftsman, Frederick Morgan. Rodney has performed and tutored widely in Australia. His recording Água e Vinho with Melbourne guitarist Doug de Vries was released by ECM Records, Germany (2000). His recent independent releases include twelve fantasias – 12 solo improvised fantasias for imagined acoustic spaces (2020); the first ever recording (2022), on recorder, of all eight solo Ricercate [publ. 1585] by the Venetian composer, Giovanni Bassano; and an original, totally improvised album, Venus Bay Fireside Sessions, with recorder player Ryan Williams (2024). Until recently, Rodney taught classroom music and Italian in a few small semi-rural primary schools on the north-eastern fringe of Melbourne.
Bandcamp Website
https://rodneywaterman.bandcamp.com/
Interviews
— Orpheus/Gecko: Bassano Ricercate
— Orpheus/Gecko: twelve fantasias
— Orpheus/Gecko: Duo Windborne, Venus Bay Fireside Sessions
— Orpheus/Gecko: Flûte de Voix — Ruth Wilkinson and Rodney Waterman in concert
— ABC RN Music Show: Recorders, Fiddles, Clogs and Swords, Duo Windborne interview with Andrew Ford & live studio performances, Sunday April 14, 2024
Articles by Rodney Waterman
— Fred Morgan Obituary (Eng.)
— Fred Morgan Obituary (Ger.)
— Fred Morgan Obituary (Span.)
— Fred Morgan Discography (2004)
— Recorders Relatively Speaking – This article first appeared in Recorder and Early Music 22: 7-9 (1998)
— Recorder in Ragtime – This article first appeared in The Recorder, journal of the Victorian Recorder Guild, No.6, June 1987, pp.26-27.
— With the recorder in Italy ~ a personal journey – This article first appeared in The Recorder, journal of the Victorian Recorder Guild No.4, May 1986, pp. 29-33.
— Bassano Ricercate (1585), The Recorder Magazine (UK), Spring 2023, pp. 40.
Rodney Waterman, Musician 