AN ARCHIVE OF FEATURE STORIES, mainly about artists associated with Merri-bek band in one way or another.

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GETTING BETTER  is a music and video project exploring the role of music in recovery from catastrophic illness. The project presents stories from some of our finest musicians, all of whom have an affiliation with Merri-bek City Band. It combines personal narratives and original music, integrating screen content and live musical performance. 
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Work from this project - including the short film Everything Was Fine...  was presented as part of the Cross Street Music Hall Reborn event in November 2022.

The initial stage of this project was developed with the support of Merri-bek City Council.

​MCB especially acknowledges the contribution of Angela Lumicisi (1977 - 2022) to this project.

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JIM CUOMO (1945 - 2018) was a composer, saxophonist and writer who spent the last part of his life in Melbourne, working extensively with the MCB Phoenix Project.

Originally from the US, Jim studied and worked in Texas, Illinois and New York - including a period working closely with avant-garde composer John Cage - before relocating to Paris which became his base for 30 years.  Jim's bands included - at various times - Spoils of War, Mormos and Pacific Eardrum. He was a prolific collaborator and session player, working with Marianne Faithfull, Tim Hardin and Vivian Stanshall, amongst others. Jim was also a noted artist and music composer in the early era of computer games.

This video, produced for a special event at Cross Street Music Hall in March 2021, is compiled from material in Jim Cuomo's personal archive. 

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A VERY MORELAND CHRISTMAS, 2020
MCB Phoenix Project, under the direction of Eugene Ball, presented a suite of Christmas tunes in a special short film produced by Moreland City Council. 'A Very Moreland Christmas' was produced under COVID conditions in lieu of the regular 'Carols by the Lake' event.

​Featuring star performances by singers Kutcha Edwards, Kylie Audist and Sarah Ward (aka Yana Alana), the film can be viewed here.