Sweet composition

What I really noticed was the compositions when Jared Plane led his quartet at the Band Room for the Student Jazz series. The playing was great too, but it was the very neat and smooth compositions that caught my attention. It’s not that they were unlike anything I’d heard before (musicians are by nature magpies) but the chords just sat nicely and moved with melodies in unobtrusive ways and the harmonies supported interesting solos and the styles were varied. I hate rhythm changes was authentic bop; Reverence was devout; Passing time was laid back; Bridges was latin; Pichushkin was a free and unrestrained tune about a murderer. They all worked for me and I felt I could easily hear them in a commercial setting like a TV series. These were a set of mainstream tunes that were unforced despite changing time signatures and added bars. That was nice. It’s no surprise that Jared composes on a piano. These are not groove-based tunes written on bass. Guitarist Andy Campbell also provided a few tunes, and I was interested to hear the difference. My guess is that Andy composes on guitar, because his were rapid and flowing scalar melodies that fell easily under a guitarist’s hands and which featured some angular plays on time. Nice composing all round.

And the musos were enjoying their performance and playing well. Jared was comfortable and interesting in accompaniment and obviously enjoyed his solos: nice melodic things, varied in speed and plenty fast when required, extending right up to the highest thumb positions (I thought C thumb on G-string). Andy is more urban-chaotic in his solos: fast lines than bend and permute and stop and start; clear but iconoclastic. Max is lyrical and purposeful. He can easily drop into dissonance and flourishes, but his playing is always thoughtful and with musical intent. And Aidan is playing so solidly these days: busy but nhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifever overplayed; simple but sharp percussive statements with clear tone and deceptive ease. He took a few solos and they just sat so easily, moving through rhythmic colours and washes with relaxed skills. He’s a drummer who’s just easy to play with. Another pleasure.

Jared Plane (bass) led a quartet playing very satisfying original compositions with Andy Campbell (guitar), Max Williams (tenor) and Aidan Lowe (drums) at the ANUSM band Room.

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