Expectancies

I missed Jaco playing our local jazz cub after a Weather Report gig in Adelaide and, I think it was Wayne Shorter doing the same in Sydney.  Anyway it was a long shot that Victor Wooten would drop in to the jam session at Smiths but I visited at the last minute with unlikely anticipation.  It was the first gig of his tour so maybe he was in town, wondering about the locals.  He didn't turn up but I got a play.  Wayne and Gavin and Mitch were there but I missed playing with any of them but Peter was hosting and he had a fascinating e-bass I could borrow.  Ibanez (EHB1506MS?) fanned frets, 6-string, fabulous tone and deliriously confusing to play.  I haven't played 6-string for yonks, very little recent e-bass, and never fanned frets, but when you got it right, the tone was to die for through a Fender amp with tone set flat.  Thanks, Peter, local doyen of intriguing instruments.  And I heard more jazz news but more on that later.  As for Victor Wooten, he didn't make this post but he will make no. 3,101.

This is CJBlog post no. 3,100

Gospels

I was in New Orleans and Houston recently and the music I heard in notional jazz clubs was mainly R&B.  Perhaps I had a limited overview but I perused perhaps 20 bands in Bourbon and Frenchmen Streets and I got to 3 gigs at two jazz venues in Houston.  Plenty of groove that I loved but limited ragtime or bop or Miles.  Luke Sweeting came back to town last night with a fabulously practised, slick and groove-heavy band called Majesty rising: 12 piece soul gospel with slick horns and two keys and rhythm section and a convincing female singer, Eliza Kate, up front and a harmony section of 3 male voices (somewhat unexpected).  The grooves were infectious, the skills clear, the solos worthy, the horns nicely arranged, some funk, even a touch of rap.  All great and, as I said, infectious and musical.  I caught some lyrics  "Walking with you, walking with me / I am alive in Him", "You're going to show me / You're not done with me yet",  "Praise the Lord (rpt)".   The music was wonderful even if the theme was not my thing.  So be it. A great listen nonetheless.

Majesty rising performed at Smiths.

Outings

A morning tea and musical chat led to some playing suggestions and later the jam at Smiths.  It's a relaxed session.  I got to play a few tunes, Nature boy and So what, with its defining bass line, and somewhat unexpectedly, what, Dolphin dance in Db.  Then some time with various other sitins and singers.  Interestingly a pair of female buskers with some delicious if unconventional harmonies.  And several saxes, Richard on his tenor and two female altoists, including a fluent Kristen McGee who told me she was returning to playing.  So a relaxed outing at Smiths and once again, thankfully, we avoided crashing the life drawing session.

Good Knight

 

Not sure how many music students are leaving Canberra given changes in the ANUSOM but here were two.  Tragic, that: Canberra will suffer mightily.  I got to one band having its last fling at Smiths the other night.  Evan and Oliver, bass and drums, setting off, to Melbourne, leaving pianist Mic behind.  MacGregor Hall, upstairs at Smiths, was teaming with listeners.  Mic, Evan and Oliver were playing a storm of intriguing, complex, often obtuse, sometimes playful, improvs.  They were also promoting their album to be released the next day entitled Blues. I listen to that and it's perhaps even more abstruse, a glorious loose improv adding Miro and John and guitarist Oscar to the mix for a very worthy listen.  I was intrigued by Evan's lovely, soft, effective tone, his flexibility and improv across the neck and into the highest reaches.  Oliver soloed less but very strong and established and explosive across the kit when he did.  I later sat behind Mic enjoying his harmonic daring, his expressive lines, his wrist and hand spreads that excited and didn't feel at all uncomfortable, dissonant and daring as it must have been.  Mic apologised at one stage for playing ballads, for All of me and later I fall in love too easily,  but it was a lesson in going out of the staid, safe walk.  Loved it!  Otherwise it was mostly originals with lengthy explorations.  The album is confirmation and a pleasure.  And this gig was recorded so perhaps a final live album is coming.  Let's hope this level of daring is not lost to Canberra, but despair comes too easily these days.

Mic Knight (piano) led his trio with Evan Teece (bass) and Oliver Stott (drums) at Smiths.

Mic Knight Trio - blues

Good night and ...

This was the first concert at Wesley for the year and a worthy gig with distinct Canberra connections.  How fascinating!  Jennifer Hou and Patrick Galvin met while studying Masters at the San Francisco Conservatorium of Music.  During that time, Patrick's teacher, Camilla, died.  Patrick had studied with Camilla for some time and it was a great loss. The result was this musical recital and historical recitation dedicated to Camilla.  Camilla had been a notable violinist of international standard, performing personally to Sibelius, soloing with the NY Phil, playing a Stradivarius.  Her career was interrupted and she sold the Strad to later return with the violin Patrick was playing, by Australian luthier AE Smith.  Wikipedia speaks of AE Smith and his renowned varnishes and Ernest Llewellyn who played one of his instruments and Isaac Stern's admiration and friendship and other AES players including Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh and his eventual death in Canberra on 16 May 1979.  So this story has particular local resonances.  Patrick and Jennifer have presented this musical narrative in several concerts around Australia and will tour to UK and US and their recording (Dear Camilla,) is online and mostly match the musical components played at Wesley although without the recollections.  Here Camilla's story was punctuated by Sibelius, Chopin, Part along with Emma Greenhill, Ernest Chausson, Amy Beach and Jennifer Higdon and included a commission and world premiere from Jolin Jiang, Every wheel turns, including a short Chinese folk song sung by Jennifer.  The playing was fluent and together, quick but ever-expressive, and rich in harmonics, and that violin tone was strong and inviting as promised. So, a very satisfying first part of a good night.

Patrick Galvin (violin, raconteur) was accompanied by Jennifer Hou (piano, raconteur, vocals) at Wesley to recount stories of his teacher, Camilla Wicks.

CIV26

The mysterious title refers to the 72nd Intervarsity Choral Festival held in Canberra over the last week or so.  Shilong put out a call for orchestral players to play with the choristers for the final concert in mid-January to end the 2 week festival.  Given the main work was Brahms German Requiem, I was a ring-in.  It was all brought together over those 2 weeks with the final concert of ~150 in Llewellyn on Saturday, no doubt preceding a celebratory pub party thereafter.  Thus is the way of intervarsity events, at least from what I remember.  It was a long program.  The main work was the German requiem under Olivia with Andrew Fysh and Evangeline Osborne soloing; delicate and desperate and driving over 7 movements totalling ~1 hour.  What a thrill to revisit this work in the luxurious surroundings of Llewellyn Hall.  Then a second half with Phantom of the opera, Slavonic dances, Sabre dance and Brahms again with his playful but still challenging Academic Festival Overture, all under Shilong, and a final work, Everything sings, with the choir and Anthony Smith accompanying.  The first week was only 2 calls for strings while the second was busy with 1 for orchestra, 3 for orch & choir and the final concert.  But the thrill of Brahms stays and this was memorable and concentrated and interestingly with an orchestra thrown together from several local ensembles.  And to top it off, we were recorded by an engineer with 40 professional releases to his name.  Looking forward to hearing that.  A worthy performance of several great works.

Vita et Mors was the final concert of the Canberra Intervarsity Choral Festival 2026 (CIV26).  Shilong Ye and Olivia Swift (conductors) various led the choir and festival orchestra through Brahms x2, Lloyd Webber, Dvorak, Khachaturian and a final song by TC Takach accompanied by Anthony Smith (piano).  Soloists for the Brahms German Requiem were  Andrew Fysh and Evangeline Osborne (vocals).

A new year starts

It seems an absurd combination but the start of my New Year back in Canberra comprises playing bass for Brahms and a Choral Festival, mixing/mastering a Spanish Celtic folk trio and attending an all-ages, afternoon Tay Tay Tribute performance just for fun, and maybe just for a bit of understanding about what is this phenomenon.  And it's all fascinating.  So what of Tay Tay?  It was fun, as tribute bands can be.  The band was keys/guitar, bass and drums with a woman up front as Taylor Swift, complete with numerous costume changes.   They played a string of tunes over 2 generous sets.  There were oodles of girls and plenty of accompanying mothers and just a few fathers.  And plenty of bracelets and costumery and good happy vibes.  I learnt something of the TS phenomenon, something of the commercial success and the changing image and the varied styles and followed the lyrics of a few songs displaying a central focus on relationships matters.  The tunes can be catchy and the lyrics even sometimes nicely polyrhythmic.  But Bowie, Prince and others had similar developments and I maybe preferred theirs.  And let's face it, there's never been another Beatles.  I think it was her synth-pop from Reputation which most surprised and interested me.  And I just enjoyed the company, the chatty people at tables, the shared tables that were still in place and the girls lining the stage.  The Harmonie German Club is nicely ordinary but it's a decent space with decent audio and German beers, so welcomed.  A decent all-ages Sunday arvo gig.  Great fun.

The Tay Tay Tribute was at the Harmonie German Club featuring Mia Isoardi (vocals, guitar, banjo) as Taylor Swift with support by Carlton Sparks (keys, guitar, vocals), Justin Miranda (bass) and Chris McCaig (drums).

An alternative to Smiths

AvantGarden in Houston reminds me of our much beloved Smiths Alternative in Canberra.  It's in an old building (for Houston, perhaps ~1910?) and it hosts weddings and events in several spaces and has a program of burlesque and poetry and hip hop and open mics and a weekly jazz jam.  The jam is not early (9.30pm-2am) and the bar was noisy even before the jam and leading in was the guitarist on a DJ deck and the host band started at 10pm.  It wasn't exactly what I expected but interesting.  Dancing and loud chatter from the people in the room before.  Videos happening.  A crew of jazzers arriving in the early hour and perhaps later.  The band was the Houston Ensemble / Cory Wilson Quartet and they seem to host each week.  I didn't get names but I assume Cory Wilson is the tenorist.  But this was very electric, very loud.  Jazz-fusion-cum-blues to my ears.  Noisy and in your face, apt after the guitarist on his DJ deck. A screaming guitar, strat, pentatonics and blues-rock feels.  Polyrhythm solos from drums and a clashy broken cymbal.  Flashy 6-string bassist playing unison heads with sax and nifty solos.  Fingerstyle.  I'm thinking, not likely too many sit-ins will be up to the 6-stringer; maybe 4-stringers bring their own.  Tenor sax, effective and often understated or maybe better to say sparse as in considered, modern not bop.  I noticed a trom offstage who was merging and a flautist had put his instrument together in anticipation and their were plenty of faces that looked keen.  I thought I caught tunes by Ornette (When will the blues leave?) and Herbie and perhaps a very disguised standard but not too sure.  I chatted with a drummer next to me who was there for his first outing.  All in this avant, boho space with a noisy audience and a stream of sit-ins who were quiet and obviously anticipating.  We were limited in time so didn't see the jammers really get going and it would perhaps have been an uncomfortable challenge anyway, not having played 6-string or even e-bass for yonks.  But then it was probably a reversion to standards and blues for the jam, anyway.  Suffice to say vibrant.

MFAH cont.

We revisited the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and that might look like a failure of adventurousness or even imagination but we've otherwise been busy on various things that aren't reported here, like several Tex-Mex and a classy Japanese and even a Michelin star Indian restaurant and dive bars and the like.  This MFA return was for some dear styles that we had missed, especially a temporary exhibition of life in Trajan Rome (stunning) and the more of the Haute Couture from the Louvre (stunning if often unwearable) and Mediaeval and Renaissance Euro art (unfashionable but I love this stuff), the statue garden and even contemporaries like James Turrell.  As an aside, I get annoyed by works entitled "Untitled" as the artist should know best what a work is about, but I was amused by one entitled "Untitled (Broccoli) / Harry Betoia" which was exactly what it was.  My faves were some lovely works in the style of Cranach, the famed Portrait of an old woman by Hans Memling, a heart rending Botticelli lady and a lesser but large Botticelli nativity roundel, a glowing blue-white Andrea della Robbia and a few French bronze nudes in the garden.  Plenty of others of interest, too, of course.  Not a collection like the Met or Louvre or Uffizi but still a pleasure and given a second visit, we are satisfied.

The Museum of Fine Arts is in Houston.

Musical families

We're back in Houston and again off to Red Cat Jazz cafe for another gig.  This time a male singer, Spud Howard, fronting the house band.  But it led me to query definitions: Soul, R&B, neoSoul and related jazz and funk.  I know jazz well enough but the others merge into a mush of similarity in my thoughts, being similar and related.  My readings suggest a matter of historical development, relationships and influences (including from jazz), varied instrumentation and lyrical styles all grouped under the broad umbrella of R&B (from an AI overview but clearly taken from Wikipedia and probably some other sources).  Listening to a string of tracks from Spotify playlists just confirmed the similarities and justified the confusion.  Whatever, this night was the male voice of Spud Howard in place of Jenni P and her female voice.  I expected a difference and there was plenty despite the same back-line band.  Perhaps I'd judge Jenni as neoSoul and Spud as Soul or perhaps R&B, for what it matters.  There was energy of drive and funk here, and immense expression, with or without accompaniment.  Arms adrift and feet moving across stage.  Occasionally songs that I knew and plenty more known by the audience who sang along.  Busy, bent notes, screams, dense improv and touches of spoken words, dirt and emotions raw and evident.  Immensity and intensity that expresses but also invites, so many of the audience, as usual virtually all women, were up and dancing along, then perhaps a slow, staccato reverb on a pensive ballad then the snap and excitement resumes.  This was a show of obvious energy and rabid invitation.  Again pretty much a medley for an hour or so.  Just a stunner.  A second week at Red Cat and a second week of stunning R&B-somewhere music.  I smiled widely, whooped frequently and loved them both and I was not alone.

Spud Howard (vocals) performed at Red Cat Jazz Club, Houston TX, with the host band comprising Pierre Grijaliva (bass), Ronald Dorsey (drums) and Jorvan Butler (keys).