High peaks

I reckon hard bop is the fave, the high peak, of any jamming jazz instrumentalist.  I dropped in on Molly after the Cowboy Shakespeare and that's exactly what we got.  This was like a jam session but at the highest level.  Tunes I recognize but can't always name (lyrics help to remember song titles) but Salt peanuts (again, Dizzy's "Salt peanuts" refrain is exactly why I remember this tune), Caravan, Whisper not, Watermelon man and the like.  Plenty of cycles, delirious heads, 32-bar or blues-related forms.  The players were Con Campbell, Mic Knight, Ben O'Loghlin, Mark Levers, the Wednesday Pro-jam scene transposed to a Friday.  Ben sounded clear and purposeful and I was enamoured by a bass line (perhaps for Whisper not?) that was just the recorded take.  To my mind it indicated listening rather than transposition, this not being too difficult to recognize, but so nice a referral.  I got that from Con, too, with heads that were spelt like the originals, perhaps twisted a little to be slower or otherwise for the occasion and the players, but such close recognition to the originals.  Mark is always ready for a solo with his rudiment-rich precision that I love.  He can play a session with just a snare and it's still richly exploratory and interesting.  That's rudiments for you.  And Mic busy on scalar lines for solos, perhaps interrupted by chordal contrasts.  Back to Ben, fully over the fingerboard, studied in the thumb positions and with a setup that sounded so good up in the upper reaches.  And those patterns up the neck, consistent, perhaps scalar, into a thumb stratosphere, all clear and noted.  And the whole, changing, playful or thoughtful, sometimes sitting or alternatively driving walks or effective grooves.  All as the essence of a challenging jam session.  So glad I dropped in.

Con Campbell (tenor), Mic Knight (piaqno), Ben O'Loghlin (bass) and Mark Levers (drums) performed at Molly.

Aces in the hole

Well, how do you conceive of this?  Actors with glasses, presumably of plonk, or beer cans performing Macbeth as a cowboy play.  Given the company has the, perhaps temporary, title Sloshed Shakespeare, maybe it's apt. And maybe they were drunk.  Dunno.  Certainly they had a good time, what with murders and moving forests and the like and handguns for knives and a close audience to involve and that frequent horse riding motif.  This was all upstairs at Smiths, in MacGregor Hall, small and cosy with seating quite temporary.  I was lucky to get a last minute ticket when it was otherwise sold out.  Had a good chat to the Canadian-Australian next to me studying archaeology at ANU, but didn't so much as get a name. But then I almost didn't get names for the cast until I noticed signs on the back of some seats with a big QR code.  I'd rehashed Macbeth from Wikipedia and still confused acts, but then the rich difficulty of standard Shakespeare was just augmented with cowboy articulation so I missed a bit.  I didn't miss the laugh and joy and playfulness and improvisation of the cast, Lady Macbeth once slithering up the corridor to collect for their chosen charity and good on them.  Suffice to say this was a blast and a joy and must had had the richness and complexity of the original in there somewhere.  Certainly there was a forest.  I could highlight a few cast, perhaps Ava and Sam who stole the show at various times, but it would be somewhat barkin' at a knot.  Just a blast and the most pleasant of outings.  Must skedaddle.

Shakesoc (ANU Shakespeare Society) presented Sloshed Shakespeare in Macbeth in Macgregor Hall, upstairs at Smiths.  Overseen by Jamie Campbell (director) with cast Ava Ferrari (Lady Macbeth), Caitlin Daw (Macbeth), Julia Wedgewood-Oppenheim (Duncan, Macduff), Sam Odgers (Banquo, Malcolm) and an ensemble of various roles comprising Gerogia Macdessi, Belinda Lawrence, Caitlin Selge and Georgia Nolan.

Unexpectations

This was fun.  A session recording at ANUSOM that ended up in the recording studio, although I wasn't on the massive Neve desk.  But a decent Yamaha piano and comfy space and Rhodes and more gear to inspire in the background, even if not in use.  We were there to revisit a track by Jessica on trom with accompaniment from Hilda.  It sounded different here, and it was different, recording in a studio instead of for listening ears.  It's a different world from a a live recording, both more and less tense.  But my part was easy so I could just enjoy it.  Nice and thanks.

Jessica Hall (trombone) with accompaniment of Hilda Visser Scott (piano) recorded Alexandre Guilmant Morceau symphonique op.88 for trombone and piano in the recording studio at the ANU School of Music.

Promising futures

Piano teacher Elena Nikulina returned to Wesley with 3 current students and they were mightily impressive and this was not unexpected.  It's a daunting task to learn these tunes by memory given demands of Handel, Brahms and Bach but they did it with panache while all still at school.  The performers were Amber Ye, Kaylem Kua and Rosy Zhu.  Each played two tunes, Handel and Chaminade, Brahms and Sabin, JS Bach and Glinka.  A mix of fast or tempestuous, power and passion, flowing arpeggiations, Bach counterpoint and sweeping bird-like melodies.  A lovely outing and anticipating some mighty local piano chops, given what's already there.

Amber Ye, Kaylem Kua and Rosy Zhu (piano) performed at Wesley.

Pleasures and confusions

A day of both pleasure and confusions but it all worked out well in the end.  I planned to record Apeiron Baroque and expected a 3pm start but that was the start time for AB's children's concert.  It interested me and I enjoyed it immensely, if not really quite so closely involved.  Lots of kids chatting through the music but also listening and also learning from John and Marie and Simon about their music and their instruments, not least Simon's baroque musette, and following the stories of the music performance as the movements progressed.  This was John telling of French pre-revolutionary aristocracy wishing to attend the Canberra Show and their experiences therein.  Not sure the music was written quite for that narrative, but close enough.  At least the instruments fitted, musette and baroque violin and harpsichord.  Then an ending where the kids could see the instruments up close and learn more.  What a fabulous opportunity with real musical connection.  Then a wait for the adult show at 4.30pm and Tim and Michael turned up and I passed on the recording to them.  I had an appointment that was to be delayed so it all worked for the best in the end, what with those kids then my kids.

Apeiron Baroque performed per-concert for kids at Wesley.  Performers were John Ma (violin), Marie Searles (harpsichord) and Simon Rickard (musette).

Things of wonder

The National Gallery appears to own all the Arthur Boyd tapestries in his series on St Francis and they are all on display together for the first time.  There are 20 huge tapestries taken from "source images" 20x smaller and often enough monochrome, so the experience of the tapestries is something far beyond.  They are supremely beautiful, detailed, each tapestry containing 4-8.5 million stitches, created by women working in shifts for years.  The display ended with a little play-studio to see how all this was done.  A video showed all manner of detail in the original drawings plotted and allocated colours and then intricately converted.  There's something strange here, the modernist drawings, somewhat thrown together as is the modern way, creating such immense work for the female weavers.  It hints to me the somewhat-somewhat-not jokey tag of mansplaining, but I guess you can't question the intentions and creativity of AB for a long-standing interest in the St Francis and St Clare.  It's all detailed variation on colour schemes with occasionally contrasting colours, in faces or strangely in body hair, if I saw right, underarm and pubic both seemingly to be of interest.  But the immensity and subtle faces and somewhat lost bodies and the accompanying stories are interesting.  And also the chance to see it all in possible action as we left.  I've visited the Cathedral in Assisi and the Giotto frescoes and St Francis' reconstructed Portiuncula down the hill and, as I remember, a nearby room with some history of St Clare, so lovely to recall somehow, even if this exhibition doesn't particularly remind me of the mediaeval story.  As for these tapestries, they are a phenomenon and perhaps more respected that that bigger AB tapestry in the Great Hall at Parliament House with its excision for the (forgotten?) doors that must be obeyed.

Arthur Boyd art and tapestries were on display at the National Gallery of Australia.

This is CJBlog post no. 3,200

Many men

This was the Canberra Men's Choir in its 40th anniversary year singing in Wesley and slightly amusingly directed by a woman.  But so what.  The voices are what we come to hear, this close harmony from male voices, TTBB (Tenor 1, Tenor 2, Baritone, Bass) so also pretty close and rich even if for one tune they took 5 tenors to sing countertenor, high voices, female like, but not enough in this context to stand out too much.  There were lots of other low voices around.  And a string of songs of fairly recent vintage, as in C20th, other than King Henry VIII.  The others ranged from George Harrison to Rogers and Hart, Carly Simon to Elton John, Perfect day by Colin Towns rather than Lou Reed, that emotive invitation You raise me up, an Appalachian folk song, and an original by Leanne McKean, conductor and director, called Sing and an opportunity to singalong with the choir while guided cleverly by some choir members, one half of the audience having a rising line, the other a falling line, with lyrics "we sing with every voice / we sing with jubilation" the all coming together very neatly and a very decent song too.  The voices were great, the presence and pleasure was obvious, the costumes were welcoming humourous, black with big yellow bowties (not that I like bowties!).  BTW, those countertenors were in Pastime with good company, the Henry VIII tune, and the Rogers and Hart had another quintet out front, this time singing jazz offbeats.  Nicely done and worthy of an experienced 40-yo outfit.

Canberra Men's Choir performed at Wesley Church under Leanne McKean (musical director, conductor) with accompaniment from Martin Magill (piano).

Exotic jam

I got to another Smiths jazz jam and the host band was playing a cute tune/song in Cantonese called Eyes on me from the computer game Final Fantasy VIII.  Suffice to say I didn't know it but there were sounds of recognition through the room.  Then a renowned pop hit Sukiyaki, originally by Kyu Sakamoto, with and introduction about the lyricist's sadness after the 1960 ANPO Treaty that allowed the location of US nuclear weapons in Japan despite the US nuclear bombing of Japan in 1945.  A fascinating but apparently discrete response. The host band on the night was Jonathan, Cheuk, Jeremy and Mark and it was Jonathan who sang the lyrics in Cantonese and Japanese.  Quite an achievement and a fascinating look at these musical cultures.  Then on to a series of singers and other performers and general good will and sometimes confusing song calls with Nitya, Peter, Mitch and more.  Maybe I got over excited, playing my MIM JB, but I called Giant steps and finally, when most had left, we played it; a challenge but not impossible.  Otherwise a great night much enjoyed upstairs at Smiths.

The host band comprised Jonathan Bscrt (vocals, tenor), Cheuk Cheung (piano), Jeremy Tsuei (bass) and Mark Levers (drums).

Play it again

This was a fascinating choral outing, perhaps limited in theme and definitely in lyrics but consistent and varied in style and periods.  This was a concert by the Llewellyn Choir under Rowan Harvey-Martin with accompaniment from Anthony Smith and the content was 9 versions of Dona Nobis Pacem (= Give us peace), that hymn sung in Catholic churches, sourced from an earlier Da Pacem Domine taken from various Biblical quotes and finally introduced into the Mass in 687CE.  So it's moderately recent for the oldest institution of the Western World.  Our takes were more recent but to several centuries back.  Famed names including Haydnx2, Grieg, Mozart, JS Bach, Schubert, renowned moderns Vasks, Part, Jenkins, and Margutti and M Franck.  All with an encore of the trad. standard version that the audience was invited to join in on.  That was fun.  Rowan joked that we should know the words.  The styles were varied even if the words weren't and theme was common and apt for the times.  So, a quite intriguing concert of very unusual structure nicely done by this experienced choir.

The Llewellyn Choir performed 9 versions (10 with encore) of Dona Nobis Pacem at All Saints under Rowan Harvey-Martin (director) with accompaniment from Anthony Smith (piano, organ, glockenspiel).

Astonishments

There was something very Japanese about Mitsuru Tabata and Shoji Hano performed at Smiths, single minded, committed, excellent, but also connected in joy.  It's not an image we think of but it's what I saw well enough in Japan when there for a few weeks.  Very busy so that's a first image, distant, private, but not that way really.  I chatted with Mitsuru and he was friendly, welcoming, perhaps given a pic of a Tokyo club with free improv.  So what of it?  I was amused to find a cast of many older but also younger for this outing that no one knew but promised a blast.  It was a blast!  I was initially confounded, it being hard on, unrelenting, atonal, noisy improv, effects on guitar and loops and hard hitting unrelenting drums.  How does this fit with other loves, orchestral, choral, bebop and the rest?  Nothing of that order, but perhaps not absolute improv: I guessed some shouts may have signified changes, but they had both been shouting and the end of the first number (~35mins) came neatly given Bevan's clock viewed form the stage, and the request for another that then lasted neatly to 15 mins and the gig's end-time, and there were chords that suggested song (just maybe) at the start of this second tune. So maybe (very slightly) more ordered than I noticed.  But a string of different eccentric sounds and styles if not obviously structured, plenty of pick influence from guitar and those driving drums beyond beats, effects and effort and abandon all round.  Pretty loud too.  I was initially perplexed but finally captivated.  So much fun, too, to see how they managed the crowd for a long cheering finale and plenty of smiles and expressed captivation.  We all love the Japanese and there was much love for Mitsuru and Shoji at Smiths that night.

Mitsuru Tabata (guitar) and Shoji Hano (drums) performed at Smiths on tour from Japan.

In our veins

I heard only hours later on BBC World Service a passing comment that there are more punk bands and the like now than in the '70s/'80s when it all happened and also that those old punks are still pogoing.  It was something like that for band and audience when Fowl Weather Vein played at Smiths for a very mixed-aged audience who enjoyed all this immensely.  Their spiel talks of post-punk, post-blues, post-whatever and sea shanties and spaghetti westerns.  All manner of presumably originals, solid bass and unassuming keys, driving drums, choppy guitar and outlandish vocals (and pouncing vocalist) as is the way and as we love it.  I liked it lots.  Fun to revisit the era, even if I'd shied away into bebop pretty much when it first arrived.  It was Dylan who sang wisely "Ah, but I was so much older then / I’m younger than that now" (Back pages / Bob Dylan, 1964).

Sydney group Fowl Weather Vein support Mitsuru Tabata and Shoji Hano at Smiths.  AI advises FWV are Paul Simpson (vocals), Paul Berwick (guitar), Keith Claringbold (bass), Paul Timmins (keys) and Mark Nicholson (drums).

Dalla Sicilia

We don't hear music like this too often, meaning authentic performers from Sicily or otherwise, but we did this night, upstairs, in the bar, at Smiths.  It was a small gathering, Fabio and Barbara were travelling and performing in various cities, with daughter Adele who sat in for the final song.  And they performed quite a mix, what with Fabio on classical guitar playing solo music of Spain and more and Barbara joining in for a string of songs from Naples (Napoli) and Sicily (Sicilia) and more too.  They mentioned that Neopolitan song was more serious (was that the exact description?) but at least one was a luscious film tune (Torna a Surriento).  We were struggling with language, F&B with English, me with my Italian, helpfully there was a Chilean with Italian and lots more.  We can travel anywhere and default to English and it's handy, but a limiting thing, I feel, curbing our opportunities to enter a culture.  But song works regardless and there were plenty of lively, dancey tunes sung in Italian, perhaps in some local dialect, not sure.  This was a night of closeness to a famed local culture from 12,000km away.  Many thanks and ciao to Fabio and Barbara and Adele.

Fabio Barbagallo (guitar, vocals) and Barbara Intagliata (vocals, tambourine) performed at Smiths and Adele (vocals) sat in for the final song.

Miro and Miles

Miro returned for Geoff at Smiths and we got what we love, his tuneful glorious tunes, his fabulous players, his good understated good cheer and this time there were extras.  Firstly up a second set with a dedication to Miles to celebrate the anniversary of Miles' birthday (26 May 1926) playing All blues and Blue in green and Footprints, presumably celebrating Wayne Shorter and Miles' second great quintet, and another I missed.  The first set were famed and much loved tunes from Miro, Mumbo Jumbo, Bronte Cafe, Delicatessence, and one introduction from the pianist, Sophie Min.  I've raved many times about Miro, James, John, Fabian, James but not heard Sophie although I'd heard tell of her as a new piano teacher at the ANUSOM.  So great to catch her and she was great!  Hugely mellifluous in harmonic movements, dissonant or consonant, moving intervals or steps, right hand lines with the left hand chord or perhaps not, forceful and driving statements, moving colours and challenging note relations, wonderfully playing off and to John, Miro, James.  It was her first outing with Miro and obviously well received by all.  Hear her on Bandcamp and elsewhere with her orchestra, solo or in groups with the likes of Helen Svoboda, Phil Trelour, James Sherlock.  And looking forward to some local outings.

Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet, flugelhorn) led a sextet at Smiths for Geoff's Jazz with James Greening (trombone), John Mackey (tenor sax), Sophie Min (piano), James Luke (bass) and Fabian Hevia (drums).

Kingslanders

We heard a few CSO Kingsland Fellows before but not a feast of them as in this concert: flute, violin, trombone, accompanied by piano.  It is a good thing to see our local symphony orchestra offering this positions, it being an opportunity to develop and test yourself, I guess, amongst the pros (or part-time pros here in our modestly funded Canberra SO.  The theme was Ladies and gentlemen of French romanticism and the program cover was the flag-carrying Liberty leading the people.  Revolution=romanticism?  Close enough.  The composers were Chaminade, Saint-Saens, Farrenc and Guilmant, pretty much around late 1800s.  The performers were Amanda Tao on flute playing Saint-Saens; Jacob Aziz on violin; Jessica Hall on trombone; Hilda Visser Scott on piano for a solo Chaminade, then accompaniment.  Nicely played and well enjoyed all, and some challenging reading for Hilda.

Amanda Tao (flute), Jacob Aziz (violin) and Jessica Hall (trombone) are CSO 2026 Kingsland Fellows.  They played at Wesley with accompaniment by Hilda Visser Scott (piano).

Jampacked

I got to the latest Smiths jam and it was a string of varied players of various levels but as always a love of the art.  Many were local I'd seen at this session, but there were also new people with various instruments, not least singers.  This incarnation was led with inspiring bass playing and inviting stage management by Ben O'Loghlin.  Several names I've mentioned before at these jams, not least Mic, Oliver, Mark, Simon H, Jeremy.  I was interested in Simon Milman on guitar and how he didn't just run chords but moved over harmonic structures.  Oliver was something like that too, and Mic lithe and flowing over the tune while Simon Halabi was more evident, rhythmic and historically engaged. As for Ben, you could see his mind working to recover and interpret each tune, unfazed and great memory.  All interesting.  But I'll highlight Flynn Marcus.  I've seen him at events and heard him sometime back, but this was the most recent outing that I've taken in and I was floored.  Lovely, lovely tone, expressive plays on melody and the song with occasional explosive runs, perhaps scalar, perhaps dissonant, perhaps pentatonics, and a presence that supported players and easily took on a leadership role.  I guess he has easy access to training and his gear is good and obviously well setup, but a very fine player already.  As for me, I couldn't handle the heavy house bass, but had a go on fretless e-bass later and struck some very tricky post-bop I'd heard but never played, so an exercise not done too well but enjoyed none-the-less.  Thanks to all.