Cameron Undy is the bass player and group founder. “We have just been rehearsing a whole bunch of new material to go along with the material that we have on our first studio album, its really great. We have four or five festivals leading up to the Brisbane Festival, which is great too, so it’s always nice to have a landmark event to be able to pull the guys together and get things happening.”

20th Century Dog has taken on many forms over the years, and their sound has evolved from international influences to become a part of a distinct Australian jazz vibe. “We are not in the dead centre of what you call jazz, by any means, and I’ve been influenced along the way by afro beat music and afro Cuban music, rock, there is some mainstream rock in our vibe.”

Improvisation and jazz have been synonymous through generations of musicians, and while it has played a part in shaping the sounds of the ‘Dog, these days they concentrate more on cogent melodies and relevant themes. “Improv used to feature a lot more in the older incarnations of the band but in recent times become driven less by extemporization and more by composition. There is certainly scope for improvisation, but its probably more in terms of interpretation of thematic material. So it’s much more thematically driven.”

Cameron and the band are expanding their sound by playing with weird and wonderful time signatures. “I always like to when using the odd meter rhythms to make them feel like they are danceable, and that’s very much a driving feature of the band – the music shouldn’t be too heady, even though maybe if you went in there and analysed it, it might be a little bit more complicated. But the driving force is about a danceable rhythm and a singable melody.”

When 20th Century Dog descends on Brisbane later this month, they promise to unleash an invigorating jazz experience. “It will be journey of rhythm, and dance, improvisation with a very singable melodic framework. And they journey will hopefully leave everybody vibrating at a higher level and perhaps with a little bit of wonderment as to what it was they were just a part of. “

Catch 20th Century Dog at the Brisbane Jazz Festival, at the Powerhouse, November 1.