Out of the West

Ben Vanderwal appeared at the Festival of the Drum at Smiths, essentially leading the evening.  He's renowned and from Perth and unexpectedly accompanied by another Perthite who happened to be in town, but he revealed during the gig that he's got an early connection with Canberra.  I'll let you ask him.  I'd heard Ben several times over the years and he's a fave of mine and no way did he let us down this evening. But then he had a pretty good set of offsiders, too: Miro, John, Greg, Lachlan and that visiting Perth person, Emily Gelineau, on 5 string violin-cum-viola (the extra low string on the violin provides for the full range of the two instruments) who just happened to be passing through with Musica Viva (!).  There were tunes from several members, not least two of Miro's renowns and one from Greg as well as 3 from Ben (one with the title: Paul Motion goes to a dance hall concert) and an arrangement of Summertime and Monk Bemsha swing and interestingly, two rich groove-rich numbers from Don Cherry.  Don Cherry, that's interesting.  The final tune of the night was Mopti by Don Cherry and it just spelt the tenor of the night, deeply grooving, joyous presence, some improv cutting going on.  Emily was on violin and it's not a common jazz instrument.  She told me of her admiration for Stephane Grapelli and how she especially enjoys gypsy jazz, but she was perfectly comfortable in this grouping. There was joy and laughter here from the West to join with the chops of our more sedate Canberra presence.  Of course, Ben was inventive and supremely reliable and steady despite his wildly inventive play.  Something like his humour, perhaps.  And that final tune and the passed solos and infectious joy was just such a groovy pleasure to end the night on.  Just a stunner, in humour and stage presence as well as inventive playing.  Fabulous.

Ben Vanderwal (drums) led a band with Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet, flugelhorn), John Mackey (tenor), Greg Stott (guitar), Lachlan Coventry (bass) and perth-side sit-in Emily Gelineau (5-string violin/viola) at Smiths.