Blues crews

Ah it is fun to grab the JB and tail it down to the Canberra Blues Society jam session on a Sunday arvo and have a nice simple blues blow with that loud and clear backline.  The host band this day was Wally & Eric Crew and they are long termers in the CBS and authentic in their renditions and voices so a great pleasure.  The first item I encountered the CBS was yonks back at a venue near the Manuka Oval, was it the first location of the Eastlakes Club?  Then Tuggers, Austrian Club, Spanish Club, perhaps more, and now the Harmonie German Club with a decent hall and wonderful gear.  I'm revisiting recently.  My blow band just came together literally minutes before we went on stage.  Vox, 2 x guit, bass, drums.  Just three tunes, loud, D blues, A blues, an original with instructions: E, don't play the third. Well I played maj and min thirds in chromatic runs and b7 of course and it was a blast.  Again, noisy.  Aaron on vox, I missed the other names but drums was an ex-Army Band Euphonium player.  Big smiles.  Then a string of bands with familiar faces, some of whom I'd played with.  Once again no pic of my jam band.  Just one excellent German beer (dunkel) on tap and I had to leave before the end, but I came away with a smile on my face.  It's not complex music but it does have its style and authenticity and can merge into rock and it is fun.

Wally & Eric Crew were the host band at the Canberra Blues Society jam session at Harmonie German Club.  W&EC comprise John Van Buuren (guitar, vocal), Steve Hartnett (harmonica, vocal), Brian O’Rourke (bass) and Jonathan Jones (drums).

At times quirky

Bianca started with Bluesette, all scat over a classic standard, subtly interpreted and nicely felt then explained that she liked humour in her tunes.  Not that that's all she did, but it was obvious and her chatter just confirmed it.  The next tune was I'm hip then later Peel me a grape and Is that a monkey you've got.  But there was also a twist with very effective story told in person concerning Greek politics, known to her if not to most of us.  The lyric-writing was a stunner, personal and sincere and chilling and ending "Think of the people I've killed / I never will".  Geez, that's expressing politics.  Otherwise, this was a joyous and touching occasion at the end o her ANU degree (SOM and politics).  Not just that, but touching and intimate piece by Joni Mitchell and Graduation Blues, another of her originals.  I just stayed for the first set but this was a stunner.  A top band, piano, bass, drums, subtle and relevant and underplayed despite solos, swollen with harmony vocals and guitar or three horns or whatever.  A celebration of that Graduation.  Not at all the blues.  This was one I hadn't seen or expected to attend and it was a beauty.  Glad I stayed, even if only for one set.

Bianca Tzioumis (vocals) celebrated her graduation and EP release with Ruben Hinton (piano), Harrison Whalan (bass) and Oliver Stott (drums) and a string of invitees at Smiths.

Tidda

City Tidda was the name of this concert and it came with a veritable program like a classical concert, with tunes with explanations and performers with histories.  This was obviously an important outing for Sophia Rose, a proudly aboriginal woman from Sydney.  Tidda means sister, so City Sister, Soph who had studied at the Wollongong Con and plays trumpet and had written several of the pieces performed.  Her offsiders were, interestingly, all originating from Canberra, they were a lovely, serious, effective group: several driving drum solos; frequent fluent bass solos and intriguing piano solos, and Sophia over it all with melody and solos and chatter.  Other than her songs or jazz standards, we heard a string of personally influential tunes, of black diaspora and Aussie performers and influences to Sophia, Vampires and Dr G Yunupingu and Kokoroko and John Mayer and Bob Marley, so a fascinating and nicely played mix with a theme honouring Blak Australia and Black America.

Sophia Hunt (trumpet) led a quartet with Oscar Lubbock (piano), Harrison Whalan (bass) and Nate Griffin (drums) at McGregor Hall, upstairs at Smiths, with Nate's father occasionally sitting in (guitar).

Many happy returns

It's a regular event and quite fascinating in its presentation of development through musical education.  Jinbo Huang comes regularly to Wesley and I've seen him and the students playing this day over time.  This time, Naomi, Daniel, Arabella, Charlie and presumably sons Frank and Charles.  They play a range of composers, some obvious and challenging, Chopin and Liszt, some more forgiving, interestingly this time, one very much more theatrical or filmic.  Some names were more obscure - Gurlitt, Burgmuller, Yu, Tertu - but even amongst these some themes were well known.  Perhaps listeners to ABC Classics would know of them.  And the peak of Chopin and Schubert and Liszt, the impromptus and waltzes and that Campanella were a blast and a display of significant chops.  So, again, something more than would otherwise be expected.

Naomi Feng, Daniel Zhao, Arabella Lu, Charlie Sanoubane, Frank Huang and Charles Huang are piano students of Jinbo Huang.  They performed at Wesley.

Repeats

Could this become repetitive?  No, never.  Perhaps the greatest excitement I have in music these days in a big orchestral choral concert.  Doubly so in a good location.  This was my second play of Carmina Burana, again with National Capital Orchestra and Canberra Choral Society and the Woden Valley Youth Choir and the soloists, again in Llewellyn, second choral concert in 2 weeks in this our major Canberra concert hall.  What was different was the hall was very close to full with the upper balcony open, and the standing ovation.  I've never had a full hall doing a standing ovation for any work before.  This was something special.  Carmina is like that, though: everyone knows it from Nescafe ad or film Excalibur, or Therion or Nas or Turn up the bass.  There were times it took off in tempo but the restraint just heightened the changes so the excitement and tension.  So the arrival after 60 minutes was ecstatic like much of the work.  But first up was something very different, religious, much reduced in lyrics if again in Latin, Poulenc Gloria.  This as choral, one choir and one soloist, soprano, modern.  It didn't get the recognition, but the worth was there and the performance and musical discovery was satisfying.  At least it had standard notation, unlike the strangely presented Carmina.  But again some tricky pizz/arco changes on bass and plenty of odd and changing meters and rhythms.  So, repeated but not at all monotonous.  Loved it!  Ciao to Jeremy who's off to NYC to study.  And thanks to the NCO FB page for a few pics.

National Capital Orchestra, Canberra Choral Society and Woden Valley Youth Choir performed Orff and Poulenc under Louis Sharpe (conductor) with soloists Rachel Mink (soprano, Orff and Poulenc), Sitiveni Talei (baritone, Orff) and Dan Walker (tenor, Orff).   The bottom enders were Jeremy Tsuei, Greg Perkins, Mel Fung, Juliet Flook and Eric Pozza (basses).

Guitars

Mike Price talked of a band with two Carls, Dewhurst and Morgan, sometime in the past and I've got reports on CJ of various combinations of the 3 guitarists.  Mike was teaching and leading the jazz scool while the Carls were there, although at different times and has got together with them at various times.  It's all part of an ongoing jazz experience.  This gig was another incarnation.  Mike Price and Carl Dewhurst with James Luke and Nick McBride: a formidable combination.  The two guitarists remain diverse in presentation and approach: Mike more smooth, quick, scalar; Carl more dirty, loud, unanticipated.  The tunes were a very modern guitar bunch, from Scofield, Metheny, Stern, related sax Michael Brecker and Horace Silver Lonely woman and the uber-classic Bright size life (originally Metheny with Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses) and a contrafact (strange word that) on The night has a thousand eyes.  To top it off, a guitar duet on Wichita Lineman: strange in this context but still a beautiful and touching tune and very fitting but different with the two guitars.  So a night of superb guitar artistry with quite different approaches, supported by top brass of the local bass and drums community.  Wonderful and 2,4 foot tapping and just a huge pleasure of many solos throughout over some testing tunes.

Mike Price Guitar summit featured Mike Price and Carl Dewhurst (guitars) with James Luke (bass) and Nick McBride (drums) at Smiths for a Geoff's jazz session.

Immersion

Mark Jurkiewicz presented a string of Chopin works for the latest Wesley lunchtime concert and I was mulling over such depth of immersion in the topic and long term commitment.  Chopin gets a poor showing at times, given every young pianist has a go at his waltzes or other and thus they can present as trivial, but hear someone with training at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw, playing from memory, with a program named also for George Sand, and with an obvious depth of musical knowledge in the program notes, and Chopin comes alive and his renown is immediately obvious.  Read the notes and learn of the Mazurka as three types of folk dance: the mazur, oberek and kujawiak.  The concert was entitled Chopin and George Sand: Love above all and the works date from the time of their relationship.  The works performed were Mazurkas op.33, as well as an impromptu, a ballade and a scherzo. There's more in the notes and much more in the performance and composition that becomes obvious in Mark's hands.  A concert to mull over for some time.

Mark Jurkiewicz (piano) performed works of Chopin at Wesley.