Joyspring

Dominique Fillon didn’t actually play Joyspring but he may as well have, because this was a night of great joy in playing. Dominique doesn’t play at the extremes. The style is more latin-influenced mainstream with delicious tonal playing. It’s very attractive jazz and capable of great popularity. We saw it on the night. The two sets went down a treat with a mixed audience. There were smiles all around during and after the show. There was a friendly patter with the audience, even one that started by offering a string of languages. Hands up, who speaks French (plenty), English (most), Spanish (several), Portuguese (a few), Russian (surprising there were several, but this is Canberra). And so it went. Attractive, lively, beautifully played music and open, friendly interaction. Dominique is self-taught, in his bedroom, from an early age, listening to the greats. The result is earthy and personal and perhaps less intellectual. The lines just glowed with melody, not at all hard to decipher or appreciate. This was a performance in which entertainment was important and it was none the worse for it. Jazz was like this through the mid-20th Century when it was a popular art form. It may be still that way in Latin American countries. And it’s no less for it, this lovely fusion of entertainment and art.

Dominique is on an Asian tour with his Australian Trio: musical mate Nic Cecire and Brett Hirst. They are a sympathetic band. Nic is very understated, listening closely and laying right back; feeling grooves and leaving solos to when he’s called. They were exciting when they came, too, loud and thrashing and obviously well received by an excited audience. (What did your Mum tell you? It’s the quiet ones you have to watch!). Brett got lots more solos and they fitted like gloves to the tunes, sometimes melodic, other times rhythmic, mostly with a twangy, metallic Jazz Bass tone. Dominique played with little atonality but one descent into expressionist tonal playing had me thinking he was classically trained. Presumably it was just more listening. He occasionally sang, too, or more correctly, followed melodies with his voice. They played mostly original tunes from his recent CD. Its title, Americas, may explain the latin impression. A big swinging rhumba was well received, but there was also a dedication to Michel Petrucciani and a lovely ballad for his wife, Song for Ake. There was just one non-original that I remember, a funk-rock take on Wayne Shorter’s Footprints. And a piano tone to die for. The band had borrowed gear locally, but Dom carried his piano tone in a traveller’s laptop. What a tone it was: close your eyes and this was a real piano (very different from my experience the following night). But the memory I will most hold from the show is the ironic but very affectionate groans when he explained how he’d written his romantic Song for Ake. This was an audience in touch with a performer and some really nice blokes. Not many shows speak with such joy and humanity.

Dominique Fillon (piano, vocal accompaniment) led a trio with Brett Hirst (electric bass) and Nic Cecire (drums) at the Alliance Française. His Australian / Asian tour visits Korea, Brunei, Singapore, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and perhaps more and is sponsored by the French government and Alliance Française.