Big Bluesy Band

The chalk and cheese saga continued when I attended the Loft for the full New Sheik experience. Leigh Barker’s full band was there for a night of swinging, down-home dirty bluesy, hollerin’ jazz and it was great. This is a very good band playing music of an era that is is variously touching and refreshing and enlivening to visit. This is Billie Holiday passion, Ellingtonian intellect, Fats Waller bounce, blues growl and corn field holler. Great fun, touching or entertaining lyrics, and the biggest audience I’ve seen at the Loft. It’s an era that entertains and has a following, and this band does the job of promotion and can tickle an audience so deserve the following.

Leigh Barker is the new sheik himself, leading the band from his surprisingly loud unamplified bass (I’m pretty sure even this gig was not amplified). Quipping with the audience and choosing tunes at whim for the gig and the recording that was in train. Heather Stewart is the vocalist up front who also doubles on classically-trained, but down-home violin-cum-fiddle. She’s wonderfully touching when singing Billie Holliday and nicely growling on the blues. Both the horns, Eamon McNellis and Don Stewart were blow-outs. They both display a love of the older styles of jazz, so their solos are delicious and lively diatonic explorations of the chord structure, their playing includes the growls and glissandoes and tonguing that shout New Orleans, their harmonised backing licks are neat and clean and their collective improvisation was intelligent and together. And it wasn’t just old style: I noticed Eamon breaking from sweet diatonics into dissonance several times, but he’d equally sit easily on the most minimal of melodies and drain it for its beauty. And what lovely brassy tones they each had: clean, rounded, nicely articulated. Matt Boden led a few tunes in trio or smaller formats. I loved his simple statements and correct, clear interpretations of the underlying harmonies. And Al McGrath-Kerr was introduced as the band member with the longest name (the band was described as the “least single band I’ve even been in … in case anyone’s getting any ideas”). Al was open and quite minimal, dropping into loping marches or playing with rudiments and rolls.

I love Ellington’s Come Sunday, so that was a delight when they played it as a violin-led quartet. Billie Holliday featured in I must have that man and again in Moonlight and you and you could do nothing but empathise with the desperation. There weer joysome blues, often with the guys in the band hollerin’ responses to Heather’s calls. They played a Tom Vincent original, Big Creek wedding, with a cyclic, songbook structure. Nice to see our players playing tunes by their mates: we don’t just have to play the Real Book. There was an Appalachian fiddle tune that they jazzed up into swinging solos, and a blues tune that the audience voted for, Driving Ducks Blues. And the wit of Fats Waller’s Write myself a letter.

So, a busy night at the Loft, lots of fun, lots of good playing, lots of history and wit and a touch of nostalgia. And the night was recorded in the current full-bore, multitrack recording series that ArtSound is involved in, so we might hear it someday as a CD. I for one loved it. The New Sheiks are Leigh Barker (bass), Eamon McNelis (trumpet), Don Stewart (trombone), Matt Boden (piano), Al McGrath-Kerr (drums) with Heather Stewart (vocals, violin).

LBQ@WE

The Leigh Barker Quintet is still in town. They performed last night at the White Eagle. Other commitments meant I missed most of it, including the trio outfit Leigh runs called “The Shieks”. But the last set I heard was impressive, and the performance I’ve most enjoyed from them. It could be the venue, but I think it’s the White Eagle audience. Here musos are performing for their peers, so they are on their mettle, and able to be, and perhaps called to be, more daring or creative or challenging. There’s an atmosphere of goodwill and there’s no hype, but there’s some residual competitiveness, too.

The core intent of the band was unchanged: a melange of modern improvisation and more traditional underpinnings, presented through mostly original compositions (Leigh prefers to just call it improvised music). But whatever the labels, this seemed a more authentic and lively performance then the others I’ve heard. They played a beautiful, as yet untitled ballad with reference to Charlie Haden. It featured some tasty and convincing soloing from piano, sax and trumpet. There was also a hard-bop original called Guts of steel by Al Mcgrath-Kerr with hints of McCoy Tyer in some passages in fourths by the piano. So, a broader range of materials from an increasingly interesting band.

First of the Gods

Leigh Barker’s Quintet were the first performers in this year’s Jazz Series at the Gods. Leigh and his mates provide a real Canberra ambience at their local gigs. Leigh, the leader and bassist, is a local, as is John Felstead on saxes. But it’s not just the fact of their background, but also the presence of friends and family at his concerts, and the references to the local area, that only a Canberran would understand. Their first CD is called “Off to Moruya”. It’s obviously a reference to the Moruya Jazz Festival, where they regularly play. Apparently, the cover designer was a Melbourne bloke who was intrigued by a grotesqueness in the name, Moruya, so it stuck for the album. Then, there’s the hot swing original tune called Merimbula, another obvious reference to a town and a local jazz festival. But the band is now resident in Melbourne, and apparently is very busy with work there. So in truth this is another homecoming from more successful ex-patriates.

I like this band’s complexity of conception. It’s a real mix. You may hear pre-bop in the rhythm section, cut time on drums, perhaps a gentle swing on bass, along with the sound of French boulevards on the piano accordian, and a bit of modern dissonance on the sax and trumpet. So it’s an intriguing and, to me, unique blend of trad, mainstream and modern styles. And their presentation fits to boot: brown suits, with jackets removed after a few tunes, and rolled up sleeves for the busy end of the night. Leigh even wore braces. Perfect. This is intelligent entertainment. No wonder they have plenty of work.

The night started with Ellington’s The Mooch. (I’m sure they started with this at Hippo’s when I saw them, but it’s a perfect, sleezy tune to set the ambience). There was a tune by Heather Stewart of Melbourne, called Music Room, which featured a cut-time reminscent of European films – cute, humourous and deceptively light music. There were several originals by the band, recalling Moruya and Merimbula, If I had a brain from the Wizard of Oz, and a Nat King Cole favourite called Ruby and the Pearl. They raised a chuckle with a tune called “What this thing called, love?”, and ended with a dedication to Bill Frisell (I think I got this right), which surprised me given the style, called In the country with Bill.

From my modern jazz, soloistic, individualistic point of view, I most liked the solos of the two horns. Eamon played some very satisfying fast lines, and often broke out into dissonance with repeated patterns at chromatic and other intervals. John also frequently dipped into the distorted pool of dissonance, and I liked that. When I previously heard Matt at Hippo’s he played both accordion and piano, and I thought there was more inventiveness on the piano. This time he only played accordion, and the style was not so much jazzy as euro-folk and ambient. I liked this, and it certainly highlighted the uniqueness of the band. Leigh and Al both set capable rhthyms, and did a few nice solos, too.

The Leigh Barker Quintet are Leigh Barker (bass), Al Mcgrath-Kerr (drums), John Felstead (saxes), Eamon McNelis (trumpet), and Matt Boden (piano, accordian)

Leigh’s band plays again at White Eagle on Thurs 14 June, for those who missed this show. ArtSound recorded the concert, so you can also expect to hear the band on radio over coming months. Thanks to Geoff Page for organising the series. The next Gods to visit the Café are Sandy Evans, Toby Hall and Brett Hirst, on 3 July. These are authentic Australian jazz gods, so get there if you can.

In from Melbourne, off to Moruya

Leigh Barker and his quintet played at Hippos last Wednesday to launch their CD. It was a strongly local affair. The band is from Melbourne, but 3 of 5 are from Canberra and studied music here. Even the title of the CD was a giveaway: “Off to Moruya” was an obvious reference to our local and intimate jazz festival down the coast. The band is John Felstead (soprano, alto sax), Eamon McNelis (trumpet), Al McGrath (drums), Matt Boden (piano, accordion) and Leigh Barker (bass). FYI, the locals are John, Al and Leigh.

It was an interesting set. I was initially taken aback with a pretty old-style sounding jazz tune to start the night, Ellington’s "The mooch", and I wondered if this was to be outside my normal (modern) expectations. But any competent and serious artform knows and respects its history, and this was evident as I listened some more. This was a modern interpretation. It displayed considerable fidelity to the original, but the solos were often in a more modern vein, with dissonances not necessarily heard in the original versions. So, to me it was interesting and an eye-opener to other approaches to jazz.

This was music with a laid-back nature, thoughtful and considered. It was frequently composed and complex, but then opening to more individualist solo passages. I noticed a distinct change in the band’s sound when Matt moved between accordion and piano. The piano segments were richer with more complex harmonies and more modern solos. The accordion offered a more folky accompaniment, and while soloing was harmonically simpler and more dense with chords rather than single note runs. To me, John played the most harmonically challenging solos on the night (which saxes are apt to do anyway). I enjoyed following one particularly clear-cut solo which moved through scalar lines, diminished arpeggios, patterns, some nice licks, 4ths and the like: neat and cleanly structured. Al played some really impressive, clear, fast, diatonic bop-style solos, but also went out often enough. Leigh and Al supported with a rhythmic underlay which harked back to pre-modern styles, often playing a cut-time beat (2 beats to a 4/4 bar) on drums, and a matching two-feel bass line within a 4-to-the-bar walk. Occasional concurrent solos by the horn front line just confirmed the underlying pre-modern style of much of the music.

I enjoyed the Ellington starter and it seemed very appropriate, but otherwise the music was original. There was a suite written for the Merimbula Jazz Festival in two parts with a lovely discordant melody by multiple instruments to start the second part. There were ballads and funny titles. We were advised that “Attie’s exit” related to “Ray’s dilemma”, but we are none the wiser than that.

Nice stuff all around. So it seems Canberra is providing players of note for both the Melbourne and Sydney jazz scenes.