26 May 2018

A less recognised jazz scene


I'd seen hints of it before, but I'd never really appreciated the jazz following at the National Press Club gigs on Friday evenings. The players are there: some of the best players in town play there and it's been largely organised around the staff of the ANU jazz school. It wasn't unlikely, but it wasn't so obvious in the upstairs bar. That's an attractive and interesting space with balcony and niches and odd angles so attracts a crowd, but it's currently under renovation and the stayers have moved downstairs to a windowless carpet-lined ballroom with a portable stage and what must be a windowed recording/broadcast space. It's the room used for visiting speakers at the NPC, perhaps expanded for the big names and news-worthy pollies. We were offered the extensive stage but chose the more democratic floor-level. The audience was spread around ordered tables and chatty but also ready to applaud. They liked the pop-turn at the end as our Bad Plus moment and came up afterwards for a chat. We like that. So I discovered something about this crew last night: that there's a discrete but seemingly regular and committed jazz scene at the NPC Friday evening sessions. Perfectly understandable given some of the names that play there and a great pleasure for Tilt to be included.

Tilt Trio performed at the National Press Club. Tilt are James Woodman (piano), Eric Pozza (bass) and Dave McDade (drums).

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