Nick Haywood

Nick Haywood is a prominent Australian jazz double bass player, composer and music educator in Melbourne.

He has worked with many of Australia's best known Australian jazz musicians including Don Burrows, Dale Barlow, Paul Grabowsky, Bernie McGann, and James Morrison, and with many international jazz artists including Nat Adderley, Buddy Greco, Kenny Kirkland, Claire Martin, Jack Parnell, Mark Murphy among many others. He has been featured on over 100 music CDs.

Early life
Born in 1961, Nick first started playing an electric bass guitar at eight years of age but did not consider undertaking a career as a professional musician. In 1976 he started playing the Double bass. After finishing school he worked in a brewery and a tin mine.

In his mid 20's he enrolled in a Diploma of Music course at the Victorian College of the Arts and graduated in 1988.

Music career
In 1999 Nick Haywood was nominated for two ARIA Music Awards: for Best Jazz recording for Sudden in a Shaft of Sunlight by Browne-Haywood-Stevens; and Best Adult Contemporary for Beat Club by The Black Sorrows.

The Melbourne International Arts Festival has provided several opportunities to showcase Nick Haywood's composing and performing talents. In 2001 he performed with his band Dodge in the famous Spiegeltent.

An anniversary concert of John Sangster’s Lord of the Rings at the Malvern Town Hall in 2003 also featured Nick Haywood, along with many of the original musicians.

Nick Haywood, along with Eugene Ball and Andrea Keller, were the nucleus to the 11 piece group, the Bennetts Lane Big Band which was formed in 2001 and has performed regularly to 2008. The band has been described by the National Library of Australia as "Melbourne's premier large contemporary jazz ensemble" and "comprisedof [sic] some of Australia's most celebrated improvisers and composers."

A grant from the Alan C. Rose Memorial Project in 2004 enabled Nick Haywood to study in New York City with world-renowned bassists Gary Peacock and Rufus Reid. Later that year he completed a Master of Music Performance degree at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Nick is also performing and recording with Bennetts Lane Big Band, Deborah Conway, Tony Gould-Robert Burke Quartet, Allan Browne Trio, Joe Camilleri and leading his own trio.

Music Education Career
Nick Haywood has been a music lecturer in the Performing Arts Department at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT) since 2001.

With the establishment of the Bachelor of Australian Popular Music course at NMIT in 2007, Nick became Head of Program/Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music at NMIT. He also teaches privately, and conducts master classes at festivals and institutions around Australia and internationally.

A 2005 agreement between NMIT and the Beijing Midi School of Music, a private music school in Beijing focussing on modern music genres, resulted in Nick establishing a ten week music program and teaching the Advanced Diploma of Music Performance to students in Beijing, as well as the opportunity to perform in various Beijing Jazz clubs. He was one of the prominent performers at the 2005 Beijing Jazz Festival.

Selected discography

 * Browne Haywood Stevens - King, Dude, Dunce (Newmarket, 1996)
 * Browne Haywood Stevens - Sudden in a Shaft of Sunlight (Newmarket, 1998)
 * The Black Sorrows - New Craze (Mushroom Records, 1997)
 * The Black Sorrows - Beat Club (Mushroom Records, 1998)
 * Peter Petrucci Trio - Message from the Past (Move, 1998)
 * Tiddas - Tiddas (Mushroom Records, 1997)
 * Lewis and Young Quartet -	Desert Storm (Mushroom Records, 1992)
 * Hayden Jones -	Whisper Not (Newmarket, 1997)
 * The York Quintet - A Prayer for the Workin’ Cats (Out to Lunch, 1993)
 * Jane Clifton - Incommusicado (Mushroom Records, 1995)
 * Martin Breeze -	Strangers (Newmarket, 1999)
 * Dodge - Offline (Jazzhead, 2000)
 * Blow - Live at Bennett’s Lane ( Newmarket, 2002)
 * Bennets Lane Big Band - The Snip (ABC Jazz, 2002)
 * Robert Burke Quartet - Wide Eyed (Jazzhead, 2003)
 * Robert Burke Quartet - The Edge of Today (Jazzhead, 2005)
 * Allan Browne - Collected Works ( Newmarket, 2002)
 * Allan Browne Quintet - Cyclosporin (Jazzhead, 2004)
 * Mark Lockett - About Time (Move, 2004)