Floriade finale

Flowers and Floriade go well with the ANU School of Music. I caught the final concert of the Rhythm & Blooms series yesterday and it was varied and grand, with Vince Jones and band as the feature and amix of classical and jazz. The School has been presenting concerts all week at lunchtimes. It's good performance practice for the students, on a big stage with a big PA, but not something a worker can get to, so no reports. But back to Vince and co.

This was an intriguing concert, given the mix. Firstly, the head of the School, Adrian Walter, is a (classical) guitarist, and he played an andante and rondo by Carulli in a duet with Bill Grose. Interestingly, this was on guitars of the period, smaller, thinner, with different pegs and quite a different, lighter tone, which I could hear near the stage, but was lost through the PA. Then Luke Sweeting performed a solo piece, and two songs with Liam Budge. Luke, of course, was his stride and substitution best; always a treat. Liam was obviously the student of his teacher, who we were to hear later, doing heartfelt You don’t know what love is, and one other standard. Then something more unexpected: The Classical School’s Contemporary Music Ensemble. Classical improvisation is a very different beast, although perhaps not so far from free jazz. There was some tail wagging here (and the ironic laughter of the players confirmed this) but also some seriously involving music. I may be too unadventurous, but my favourite was the last, with hints and echoes of a pop/folk tune that moved between the players at different pitches and tempos and confirmed the wonderful skills of the players. Other tunes were played to a poster photo of a room (!) and various abstract charts, so this was not the dots that classical players otherwise live with. Neither were the titles, such as Deconstructing decadence, Fantastical acoustical circus, Will the mosquito survive the onslaught. Enjoyable if you’re prepared for the aural challenge. Or, for that matter, was the conducting. An interesting outfit. They perform occasionally at the School. Keep a watch on the Concert program at the ANUSM website.

The second set was a long one by Vince Jones and his band with some local friends joining later. Vince was his thoughtful, concerned self, singing his songs that speak of alternative, but not new age, political themes. They are usually slow, solicitous tunes claiming social justice and questioning how injustice is allowed to be, eg, the presumably post-GST theme “Who will arrest the banksters, we’ve put up with them for too many years”. I still have the immersing, emotive rise and fall tag of The nature of power in my head. The band played with appropriate restraint while the tension sat ready to explode, but never did. Vince is like that. Vince only picked up a flugelhorn for one tune, otherwise just sang with the band of Matt McMahon, Ben Waples and Simon Barker. The outfit sat like a glove for the music. For the last few tunes, local friends, John Mackey and Miro Bukovsky joined in for some admirable solos and Miro’s superb Peace please to end. Vince’s music talks with darkness and intuition, despite the purposeful words, so to achieve such success on a sometimes-sunny spring day amongst the tulips just speaks of the authority of Vince and the band. Lovely and touching and worthy of purpose.

The Floriade Finale concert was performed by Adrian Walter and Bill Grose (classical guitars), Luke Sweeting (piano) with Liam Budge (vocals), the ANU School of Music contemporary ensemble led by Leanne Baire (violin) and the Vince Jones band comprising Vince Jones (vocals), Matt McMahon (piano), Ben Waples (bass), Simon Barker (drums) and friends John Mackey (tenor) and Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet). BTW, Luke Sweeting has some pics on Facebook. The link’s below.

Luke S's pics of the Floriade Finale concert

ANUSM double header

Jazz was the style for the first evening of the ANU School of Music Premier Concert Series for 2010. The bands were the Mike Price Trio and Vertical, both led and largely composed of teachers at the Jazz School, and it was a diverse offering.

Mike played first. He leads a guitar trio in a mainstream-modern West Cost guitar style. It’s a blend of originals with a smattering of standards played in a diatonic and cool and fluent manner. There were some interesting themes. The set was bookended by Kenny Wheeler, starting with a tribute composed by Mike and ending with a KW tune that opened free and settled into a neat groove. The Gong was an unusual jazz workout that was heavily country-influenced, with Mike reminiscing on his home town Wollongong and the imposing local steel works of Port Kembla with strummed and picked chords against a rock drum beat. There was a beautiful ballad by Henry Mancini, Two for the road, that Mike advised was Mancini’s favourite composition. Also another ballad beauty, You don’t know what love is, played with an afro-latin groove and a pensive piece that was being called Newish in the absence of a final title. Mike’s playing was fluent and cool, sharp and unvarnished; Col’s was restrained with his minimal kit, but I especially noticed unusually extended passages of contrasting rhythms that held long tensions against the underlying groove; Eric is always primally smooth and flowing, but I was having some problems hearing him in this context. The hall was decked out with a nice looking PA (good on ANUSM), but work is ongoing to tune it to the Llewellyn acoustics that suit classical so well but seem problematic for amplified music. Eric’s sound over the PA improved during the night, but even if I couldn’t hear too well from the start, I could still feel his steady and confident grooves and subtle fills and improvisations. So, it was a cool and intelligent first set from Mike Price (guitar), Eric Ajaye (Bass) and Col Hoorweg (drums).

Eric led Vertical for the second set, and a very different set it was. Different in style from Mike’s trio, but also different from the expectations of the band and the program. Paul Dal Broi is Vertical’s normal pianist but he was unavailable due to sickness. Paul is a calm player who speaks with quiet but intense harmonic clarity and intelligence. On the night, he was replaced by Michael Azzopardi, who has played and recorded extensively with the rest of the group, so it was a different band, a somewhat different repertoire and a very different outing. Michael is rabidly and virtuosically explosive, and he showed his best this night. Vertical played a series of originals by all members. Eric’s Homeward opening the night with a drum solo using mallets that moved into a melody on soprano sax with piano fills and washes. Then a genuine post bop hard swinger, Monday night at BMH, composed by Niels. BMH is London’s Bar Music Hall where Niels performed during his London sojourn. This was exciting and everyone soloed, but Michael especially lifted the roof here. Then a ballad written by Michael, It’s in your eyes, starting with soprano sax against what I thought was a 14 beat rhythm (8-6) moving to 4/4. Then a bass solo intro into Realisations. Here I particularly noticed how effectively the band handled dynamics that rose and fell against the melody line, and the different sound of orchestral synthesiser washes against the otherwise acoustic sounds. Then Michael’s tune, Another year, with a rock rhythm, Eric’s From here to there to hear, with its long and tortuous boppy melody played on soprano sax against a fast walk. Then Niels’ ballad, Let me be, to end.

It was a wonderful modern-jazz set, not extreme in effect although harmonically interesting and sometimes virtuosic, varied in sounds and feels despite steady walks and grooves. You couldn’t help but notice Michael for the way his solos developed to explosive statements, through all manner of pianistic techniques: endlessly sustained lines, solos in octaves, contrasting left hand chords, easy harmonic alterations, the nerves to hold onto tensions. These were endless, excitable sprays of notes; a veritable emotional waterfall. Niels’ approach is more constrained but no less interesting or capable. He’d state melodies with the slightest of variation and solo phrases with ease and clarity, then readily drop into sustained double time lines that were articulated with precision and purpose. I noticed the slaps of pads in one quiet ballad passage. It’s an unconventional technique, but intimate and attractive, and I’m sure he must have been playing for it. I felt in many ways Chris defined the band’s sound on the night, with constantly changing colours and interpretive playing. These drums didn’t just set the groove or even state rhythmic contrasts, but rather coloured and echoed and mimicked the rest of the band: truly a constituent part of the dynamics. I felt it as a rock approach but with jazz chops and expertise. Eric was the elder of the tribe, underscoring and defining the grooves and harmonic flow, and making his own individual statements in solos. These were more intelligible than earlier in the night and mellifluous and flowing as always. A wonderfully original, capable and modern sounding outing for four mates with history. Vertical comprised Niels Rosendahl (soprano, tenor sax), Michael Azzopardi (piano, keyboard), Eric Ajaye (bass) and Chris Thwaite (drums).