Be there or be square

Wayne, Ben and Mark have got a great little gig going at the Old Canberra Inn: mid-week, very good beers and food, a comfortable early evening timeslot, a great first set by the trio, some of the best players in town, and the chance for sit-ins. It's a jazz jam in the long-serving tradition. This night was surprisingly busy in the garden outside but fairly quiet inside. Not that this is passing judgement on the music for I felt it was still well appreciated and, although the general public may not follow jazz, they can recognise commitment and chops when they see and hear it. I got there this week but I've been there too infrequently. Brendan O'Loghlin was there but didn't play this time; Julian Fung was there and did; I had a play. This week, Mark was replaced by Aidan Lowe, visiting from Berlin and playing a storm. It was great to listen and a pleasure and challenge to play with these cats. As I remember, my tunes were Alone together, a blues, Have you met Miss Jones and Stella, the last with Julian sitting in. Julian carried on with Beatrice and Out of nowhere and others. The trio had blown Rhythm changes early on, in the form of Dizzy's Salt peanuts, Afternoon in Paris (?), others. Wayne was wonderfully free all round, not least in adding twists and substitutions and vamps and endings. Ben was so firmly toned and inventive in walks, nicely crossing the neck at high positions, often bowing some lovely melodic inventions for solos and just generally sounding fat and solid and newly amplified. Aidan is showing his considerable time in Berlin: more busy, coloured and intense than ever. We're busy these days but support is needed to maintain gigs like this and this is a special one. Thanks to Wayne, Ben, Mark and the OCI for staging this gig and jam and let's hope we can maintain it, despite the depleted jazz scene.

Wayne Kelly (piano), Ben O'Loghlin (bass) and Aidan Lowe (drums) were the host band at the OCI jam. Jammers were Julian Fung (alto) and Eric Pozza (bass).