Blowout

I love a big band especially when it's a bit modern and challenging.  This was two BBs, or at least Jazz Orchestras, from the ANU School of Music: the students and the mates.  The students started the night.  They were not just students; the band is open to ANU students and staff more broadly.  But this was not just the old swingers, as lovely as they can be.  They started with Havana, then a Samba, then a string of tunes including the Nelson Riddle arrangement of Night and day for Frank Sinatra and finishing on Dizzy Gillespie Manteca.  So a lively and latin tinged set.  Some nice solos through the group, some movements within the percussionists and drummer, and singer Evie sitting in for two swingers.  Then a break and Greg's mates and drummer son, called the Test Pilot Big Band.  Both bands were directed by  Greg Stott and Greg played guitar for his TPBB.  He introduced the band as friends he could make a call on and there were plenty of recognisable faces.  What friends!  This was an exciting and wonderfully capable, driving band.  The life and energy and confidence and chops were just thrilling.   The tunes were mostly originals by Greg early on then later, when singer Steve Amosa sat in, they were covers, R&B, Earth Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and the like.  A singalong to Donny Hathaway had us joining in and clapping and otherwise just heavy grooving to some great solos and steady driving grooves and pretty sharp written lines.  Nice.  Great music and great playing, but also just infectious fun.  Loved this gig!

Greg Stott (conductor, guitar) led the ANU Jazz Orchestra and the Test Pilots Big Band performed at Smiths.

Clarity

It's not the most common instrument in Canberra or at least I don't see it too often, but I seem to have a few mates taking it up.  Perhaps because of the influence of a (the?) local master, Anton Wurzer.  I've watched Anton over the years, playing jazz, improvising, classical, with harpsichord or even my jazz band at one stage.  A return as a huge pleasure.  Anton played for a Wesley lunchtime concert, all his own music, all sharp and sweet and superbly accurately played, ranging over samba, cha-cha, waltz, bal-musette, through a groove written to promote improv amongst local accordion players, about relatives and tragic events and even Red samba beans.  Pieces written over time, on piano, some up to 18 years ago, so they have a long life.  I noticed a lovely balance of parts, a nifty left hand bass breaking into a life of its own at times, lithe right hand passages, chordal or melodic or lovely improv lines, perfectly spelling out the tune with some chromatics around arpeggio notes and mobile arpeggiated lines and long runs over the 3.5 octave keyboard.  Even some alternative techniques, tapping in various spots or finger snaps with audience participation, and all within attractive original tunes that referred well to the title, perhaps Waves of Mallorca or Madrid to Paris or Groovy man walking.  It's not often I hear the piano accordion like this, or ever, but I am convinced.  In hands like this, this is a hugely attractive band in a box.  Just a lovely outing.  And to top it off, Anton handed out gratis CDs of solo baroque pieces (Bach et al), his third album.  Generous in more ways than one.

Anton Wurzer performed his original music at Wesley.

Ridiculous, sublime, whatever

So, my second musical outing after Japan and following SoundOut was Canberra Bach Ensemble.  How can you not love Bach?  He's so much a great love of our era and his cantatas are big choral works which inevitably thrill and his counterpoint is sublime.  This was CBE's triumphant return concert after performing in Leipzig, Bach's most famous home, for this year's Leipzig Bach Festival.  It must have been thrilling for those who attended.  I know they picked up bass and keys there and maybe others.  These are not instruments to easily travel with.  But then this is the home of Bach and also apparently the oldest orchestra, from the Gewandhaus, and plenty of players who play Bach cantatas regularly, so no particular problem.  This concert was back to Canberra brick rather than German stone but the thrill was still there.  Four cantatas over two hours of performance.  I can enjoy the interludes, the recitatives and arias, the singers with solo or small accompaniments, but nothing does it for me like the choruses, with blaring period trumpets and blurting oboes da caccia and driving gut bass playing with oddly grouped lines that double up unexpectedly and carry on releantlessly.  Thrilling and exultant.  Loved this one as all!

Canberra Bach Ensemble performed BWV119,148,192,137 and an encore of a wedding cantata BWV195 at St Christopher's, Manuka, under Andrew Koll (director).  Singers were Greta Claringbould (soprano), Maartje Sevenster (alto), Timothy Reynolds (tenor) and Andrew Fysh (bass).  Stephen Freeman (violin) led the orchestra and Kyle Ramsey-Daniel (bass) performed on Dave's gut 5-stringer.

Thanks

Richard thanked me for coming to the latest SoundOut gathering and noted that it's not my music.  That's true to some degree but I've attended quite a few SoundOuts over the years and I deeply respect his work in this.  It got me musing on what I like and like less of this form of music.  SoundOut posters proclaim "free jazz and experimental music" and this is perhaps a large field.  I've heard some great jazz-trained players amongst some people lesser trained in the formal arts.  That's not to put them down, but it is a different approach.  I heard that again this time.  To some degree it may be familiarity but I loved Miro's expressive and repeated or developed lines over the partner sounds less formal, often created with non-traditional techniques on traditional instruments or other.  They can be interesting and varied but they can be like pots that you play for a while then switch to another pot, sounding of change but not development.  But then, you could say something the same for sections of formal music, that you lurk in one, then switch.  I do find some comfort and invention in rhythm and harmony and melody that are functions of our formal systems, and again they can go missing.  Much of formal non-European music  ignores harmony.  Miro's lines over the top provided and defined the structures through those techniques.  And Miro was not alone.  There were several players who displayed those techniques even if not always using them in this context.  And also players who displayed good chops without indulging in the traditional forms.  Charles Martin was there with computer and he's well trained although I didn't notice obvious links to traditions this time.  Richard himself has some great chops on tenor and preferred tonguing and alternative techniques.  Karim Camprovin did some wonderful vocal work defining all manner of harmonies and even scalar plays against Miro and also played with alternatives.  Percussion came in too with Karim and Miro.  I think it was Bruce Spink on a classical guitar who displayed classical chops then all manner of dissonances, but that's standard technique these days.  Jamie Lambert, playing with him, avoided standard technique on e-guitar but coaxed some intriguing tones, especially with a small metal strip (?) and a more traditional little bow.  Paul Wong was also on a guitar and Yichen Wang on OP1 (?) with a VR headset and projection and tones varied with hand movements (did I get this one?).  That was strange.  More guitar/keys and invented electronic instruments from Stuart Orchard and Brian McNamara.  Various combinations of commercial effects and noise generators like this are common at SoundOut and can be fascinating and inviting.  Then the all playing as a large ensemble to finish.  And all the while, Nicci Hayes provided a varying projection of drawings, colours and washes.  And the backdrop was NZ mountain paintings by Euan Macleod.  So, is this "my music"?  Yes, I like the formalities and enjoy the experimentation.  I guess I prefer the free jazz to the experimental .  But I also remember a response from a NZ female pianist at a SoundOut years back.  I complimented her on her excellent set then asked what key she was playing.  She answered that she didn't know.  Best to retain some humility in our preferences and opinions.  And thanks to Richard for his ongoing work that is SoundOut.

Richard Johnson (tenor) assembled the latest SoundOut Explorations session at the Drill Hall Gallery.  Miro Bukovsky (trumpet),  Karim Camprovin (vocals) and others performed.

In the meantime, this YT video is relevant > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzodB0Sp6ZI

Ends

Our visit was just 2 weeks in three cities and one has the world largest population (Tokyo, ~37.7m, UN 2018 population estimates from Wikipedia) and another is the 10th largest (Osaka, ~19.3m) so getting around is time-consuming, even with the excellent public transport.  There are cars and some parking and small vans but not all, or even many, can have cars in metropolises like this.  But the trains are incredibly good and the stations are incredibly busy.  Tokyo's Shibuya is the world busiest railway station (3.59m people pd, Wikipedia) and Shibuya crossing is the "world's busiest pedestrian crossing" (~3k crossing at a time, Wikipedia).  So it's busy but not unpleasant.  The people are friendly and open and honest and helpful although I guess a dark side still exists but we didn't see it.  We explored and loved the food until a friend asked if we still enjoyed it, and it had us thinking we'd like some muesli rather than fish for breakfast, but it treats the bodies well.  These people live city lives with public transport and adequate but not excessive food and look well although they can look tired.  Our area in Tokyo was lively with Korean food and K-pop.  They can be playful.  But this seems so short a visit to such a different culture.  I remain entranced and mostly ignorant but quite fascinated.  Some final pics. And to end, cheers to Hong Lai, guitarist of the rock trio Mimosa from Shimokita/Yokohama, who I met on our outings, and Yudai Negishi, who was conducting his interview.

Megan and Eric visited Japan.  Yudai Negishi interviewed Hong Lai who plays guitar in the band Mimosa.

Old Japan

Much of old Japan has been burned or bombed or replaced or rebuilt.  I stand in awe at the size and complexity and effectiveness of these cities, so heavily fire- or otherwise bombed just 70 years ago.  But there remain plenty of temples and shrines, Buddhist and Shinto, from older days, even if often serially rebuilt.  And I'm fascinated by a description I read of religion in Japan.  About 33% are Buddhist believers and ~3% Shinto believers, but all use the traditional religions for rituals, Buddhist temples for funerals and memorials and Shinto shrines for weddings and births.  How sensible and historically aware!   And talking of tradition, the Kimono remains if mostly on days of tradition.  Just a few pics, including from our Philosophers' Walk in Kyoto.    

Muses

Our list of museum visits is truncated this time.  I guess because the culture is so different and the understandings take time to develop and we had so little time.  Nonetheless, here are 2 other museums of interest, although somewhat of Japanese modernity rather than tradition.  The Hakone Open-Air Museum was well out of Tokyo so a train trip through countryside and lovely mountainous terrain.  It was essentially European, but a very worthy collection of art of the era of Picasso and the like, with a big collection of fairly minor items from Picasso and a garden littered with European statuary by Henry Moore and Miro and Rodin and others.  It's one of many sculpture gardens in Japan.  The other was the Kyoto Railway Museum.  Again, a product of the West but applied and enhanced by Japan.  In fact, the Shinkansen were the first fast trains and changed the expectations of rail given it was expected at the time to be replaced by air transport.  Now Shinkansen are all over and dense Japanese cities are examples of effective use of public transport and the rest of the modern world (definitely Europe and China, not Australia or UK or US [AUKUS has other concerns!]) just dreams.

Megan and Eric visited the Hakone Open-Air Museum and the Kyoto Railway Museum.