A dedication

I wasn't the only one who wouldn't miss such an impressive selection of Melbourne jazzers visiting Canberra.  Smiths was packed and we got a show of a special intensity and beauty.  I was wondering what to expect, but from the first notes the front line of trumpet, alto and tenor was bell-like with precise harmonies and interpretations and the written lines were a dream, rich and varied with sometimes unexpected twists of intervals or chords.  Just lovely.  The back line was as impressive, steady and precisely intoned bass (it's a concern with my playing at the moment so I can only admire Sam's intonation) and exploratory drums and richly effected guitar and of course the joyous smile and rich complexity of Andrea Keller on our Smith's piano.  Along with Andrea and leader Sam Anning, the players were Mat Jodrell, Carl Mackey, Julien Wilson, Theo Corbo and a newby for me, Kyrie Anderson.  Enough said.  This was not a night of flashy solos, but the solos were did hear were perfectly formed things, adorned only as required, stunning and beauteous.  They were launching Sam's new album, the third from his septet, a tribute to Archie Roach who he played with for 3 years and who he obviously admired immensely.  And the players on the night were the band on the album, so we got their awareness of the music and, from the top, a clarity and presence that was studio-like.   They played acoustic, or at least all but bass, guitar, piano did, and yet it could be very loud from my pretty close seat.  Acoustic, so sadly no mix on my part.  I complimented Sam on his compositions after.  I think I can mention that he does an exercise of writing five themes in 30 mins and these often join into a tune or otherwise lead to one.  So this is music based, rather than lyrical, but there was one poem recited at the end of one piece and at least one piece had an obvious  theme, of music and life partners Ruby Hunter and Archie, written after the death of Ruby.  I hope I don't offend or break protocol in mentioning these names, but  they were mentioned openly at the gig and were the theme of the album.  This piece was light and joyous and bouncy and quite different from many others, which more seemed in tune with the album title, Earthen, and Archie's comments and Aboriginal Australia's relationship to country.  Whatever, this was a stunningly capable and emotionally-rich concert to launch the album and I was not alone in my admiration.

Sam Anning (bass, composer) launched his new album dedicated to Uncle Archie Roach at Smiths with fellow composers and recording artists Mat Jodrell (trumpet), Carl Mackey (alto saxophone), Julien Wilson (tenor saxophone), Andrea Keller (piano), Theo Carbo (guitar) and Kyrie Anderson (drums).

Thanks, Nugget

Andrea Keller was in Canberra for her ANU HC Coombes Fellowship and she presented a gig at the Drill Hall Gallery.  Her generosity was evident with its structure, featuring her trio with John and Miro but also with short features from three ANU student pianists, each displaying their skills and works.  The title of her concert says it all: New collaborations.  Andrea's trio played two sets including several new compositions from the Flicker series, Flickers no.2,3,4,5 and Carefree daze, Cobourg  and Hope in the thing with feathers (Andrea) and Peace please (a masterpiece by Miro). These were virtuosic presentations, clear pianistic accompaniments or intros and with clarity in solos truly to die for.  This was lucid with no bass or drums filling space, just master musicians speaking to open and live air.  The Drill Hall reverb worked a treat in this format.  I was taken aback by the beauty of some passages, clear and open as they were.  To hear how John could investigate a tune, calm and searching and occasionally explosive, was a thing of wonder and so evident in this format; the clarity of expression and harmony of Miro and John as a pairing showed their long history; Andrea leading, introducing, accompanying, ever clear and evocative, ever decisive and gently stated.  Then the three younger pianists, students or recently so, from a mix of classical and jazz backgrounds but essentially in a jazz idiom, if more latin than bebop.  Elliot Kozary played Estate and Blue in green.  Caleb Campbell played a his Spinning wheel, an improv on recurrent motion, and a major work, originally written in 11 parts and here reduced to solo piano, somewhat biographical, called Drift.  Ronan Apcar claimed a more classical background, playing an improv on folk Armenian tones, dark and deep, and a take on Brad Mehldau When it rains.  Truly a stunning concert and a thing of great beauty.

Andrea Keller (piano) led a trio with John Mackey (tenor) and Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet, flugelhorn) at the Drill Hall Gallery.  Elliot Kozary, Caleb Campbell and Ronan Apcar (piano) presented solo pieces.

OWJF2022-2

Off to another church for a paring that was much longed for and much loved.  Andrea Keller playing with Sandy Evans.  Two stars of the Australian jazz firmament, female to follow the blokes of the dark patterns.  Yes, this was more hopeful but that wasn't particularly what I heard.  Rather, it was occasionally playful and meditative, somewhat visual and explicative but deeply mostly communicative and open to each other.  I needn't say they were musically inventive and capable, they are renowned for this, but I melted with Sandy's clearly spelled melodies and rich flourishes (sadly sometimes quiet so could be lost) and varied tonalities and I was floored by Amanda, who I have only seen rarely, with her chordal plays, not arpeggios but phrasings repeated and moved, like birds, spelling a phrase then repeating, altering, developing.  Just stunning playing and done with such intimacy and joy.  And to top it off, a piece written for and dedicated to Miro Bukovsky called Polar bird.  I have no idea how the title came to be, but it was a lovely tune.  To be so honoured!  An endearing, personal, intimate concert by two deeply telling players.

Then Hilary again for something very unexpected, Visions of Nar.  If I'd kept up with news for Sydney I shouldn't have been so surprised.  Margossian was a name I'd noticed but I didn't know of her band with Jeremy Rose playing music of female energy and Armenian mythology.  All grooves and mind blowingly quick phrasings played unison, dotted 16th notes (or thereabouts, with the dotted note following if I heard right; quite odd to Euro ears) in scales that also sounded odd to my ears, and those tabla-like percussion outings, sometimes steady, often with glorious rhythmic and tonal percussion colour.  I was entranced, not least by Hilary's versatility and sitar-like effects and Zela's leadership and presumably compositions.  And interestingly, the crossover to jazz which seemed most evident in later track/s. Too bad that Jeremy Rose was absent with Covid and was to be missing for some other outings, too.

Andrea Keller (piano) and Sandy Evans (tenor, soprano) and Visions of Nar played at the inaugural Orange Winter Jazz Festival.  Visions of Nar comprised Zela Margossian (piano), Hilary Geddes (guitar) and Adem Yilmaz (percussion).

Touching Heaven

It felt like a flight of angels passing by. The closest thing to Heaven. This was the Allan Browne, Tamara Murphy, Andrea Keller Trio playing in the dim light of Bennett’s Lane. It was a Monday night, which seems to be an evening allocated to Allan for his gatherings. He’s a long term name. I mentioned hearing his name in the ‘70s from Adelaide and he corrected me to the ‘60s. Then he was telling a visiting Canadian saxist that he’d played at the Montreal Jazz Festival, and it was big, everyone was there, Miles… I think of Art Blakey and Paul Motion, serious and respected, who gathered such important musicians around them.

This is a trio formed out of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival four years back. There’s a air of caring here and Allan mentioned it. The music is gentle, the volume is low - mostly - and the listening is obvious. Andrea’s tone is a thing of Heaven, the lightest touch that speaks of her attachment and love of playing. It’s obvious as she sits, bent over the keys, smiling. This is intimate; you feel privileged to be allowed into this space. Tamara, too. It’s a heavier instrument and her strings are not light. As bassists interminably do, we discussed strings and setups (Tamara, excuse me). She obviously works to get the sounds from her bass. It’s quite a hard sound, with short sustain, played expressively and very melodically. She grimaces with some notes. She often sings with phrases. It’s a recommendation made to many players, to sing with solos to avoid muscle memory and clichés. Tamara is not faking. This is clearly real. And the old man of the set is the host and raconteur, introducing with wit and affection. His playing is also of the lightest touch, switching through mallets and sticks (not sure if I remember brushes), but can also be explosive, louder, just once I noticed it drowning out the rest, but always responsive as the wise and experienced can be.

Their music was mainly original. Tamara’s Lullaby at the end was a clear favourite of the audience and a feature for the band, but there were a string of others, like Tamara’s Travellers or Andrea’s That day or Allan’s Cyclosporine. They all wrote. They played Monk’s Hackensack and I think it was an another Andrea original that had clear strains of Monk. They played Fats Waller’s most perfect jazz tune, Jitterbug waltz. They had started with Henry Mancini’s Days of wine and roses. From the top, this was softly spoken and richly altered. The tune only became evident after perhaps a chorus of Andrea’s improvisation. Then even when the cycles were obvious, the phrasing remained displaced, sequenced, expansive over a patter of busy drums and the bass working the changes. This is classic piano trio stuff; the stuff of legend. Andrea said later that Bill Evans had a light touch. I checked Youtube. Bill’s touch was somewhat heavier than Andrea’s, but I felt in company like that. Invited to an intimate space by fluent but reflective hosts; entertaining but not entertainment. A gift. My theology is rusty, but I could imagine that’s what Heaven is, or is said to be. Allan Browne (drums), Tamara Murphy (bass) and Andrea Keller (piano) performed at Bennett’s Lane.

Cool big band on location

Bennetts Lane Big Band was very cool, as was the venue. The film being made outside the door just added that additional bit of swizzle. Jazz clubs are great for that dark, searching, existential atmosphere that suits movie realism, so it shouldn’t be too surprising. The amusing thing was that it was all shuffle and busy-ness and light for the movie’s creation, and this was so different from the personal themes being filmed. Film making is like that. But musos stood amongst film crews while having a smoko, listeners lined up to pass through the blocked door after the performance, and generally the music had proceeded totally oblivious to the video-based arts happening just outside the door. It was strange in that way.

The BL Big Band was formed in 2001, and plays monthly at the club, along with other occasional performances. Big bands are not easy to gather, so you takes your chances when you can catch one. I was glad I got there for this evening. The band had three irregular players sitting in, and I’m not too clear who they were. Everyone seemed to be concentrating on charts, or otherwise sitting with distant faces while waiting for their parts to arrive. Nothing unusual here. They played two sets totaling 9 or 10 tunes: all originals other than Ian Whitehurst’s arrangement of Ellington’s Half the fun. Half the fun was a unique setting, with a steady rhythmic pulse underlying the whole. The other tunes were more complex, more varying, more symphonic. There were passages of simplicity, others of rabid bop lines, others of subtle and smooth harmonies, and those glorious individual efforts as solos and other features. There were ballads and lively rhythmic pieces and lengthier suites. There was leader Eugene Ball with introductory comments, and some witticisms. According to Eugene, one tune was like “James Brown on acid”, and another was “written for some visiting Danish deros”. I was amused by abstruse changes in a tune by Tim Wilson which moved between swing and sharp staccato horns through boppy lines to piano solo and ultimate cacophony and ended in baritone sax and bass trombone passing solo passages between themselves. It seemed a challenge for the band too, with starts and stops and counts and calls helping the players through the charts. I recognized several of the tunes from the band’s CD, The snip, but I found the performance was far more satisfying than the recording, perhaps given that the actual recording was from the first year of the band, although only released fairly recently. Tunes like Andrea Keller’s Portrait of a simpleton and Jordan Murray’s long and baffling Requiem for a parking inspector obviously tell stories although I was a bit befuddled by such a long piece for a parking inspector. But then I overheard the band talking of parking before the gig, so maybe it’s a big issue around Bennetts Lane and worthy of such an epic.

Some impressions to follow. Andrea Keller’s piano fills and solo passages were of great harmonic complexity and unexpected dissonance layering washes of emotions. Tim Wilson floored me with a really superb feature solo on alto: lengthy, totally unaccompanied, sounds of breath and flapping pads. The bass instruments featured occasionally: Sam Anning (who was sitting in) provided another stunningly effective solo; Adrian Sherriff on bass trombone was fabulously lithe in several solos; the bass horns, Adrian Sherriff and Phil Noye on baritone sax, swapping lines for that big bottom-end feature I mentioned above. Visitor Paul Williamson played another wonderful solo that was smooth sounding and inevitable, but with some challengingly jerky and edgy lines thrown in. But a large ensemble is not about individuality, rather community. Despite some players sitting in for the night, this was a mature and together performance, with sharp rhythms, clear-ringing harmonies, and mellifluous horns parts, to go with their modern, raging and sometimes confronting charts.

This was my first visit to the legendary Bennetts Lane. I obviously chose a great night to attend. I’d heard the CD several times, but I was not prepared for the stunning live performance and the good natured, relaxed presentation in this small and intimate space. Very, very nice and very memorable. See the film (Centre Place) by all means, but go out of your way to hear this big band. Just wonderful.

On the night, the Bennetts Lane Big Band comprised Tim Wilson (alto sax), Julien Wilson and Ian Whitehurst (tenor saxes), Phillip Noy (baritone sax), Paul Williamson and Eugene Ball (trumpets), Jordan Murray (trombone), Adrian Sherriff (bass trombone), Andrea Keller (piano), Sam Anning (bass) and Rajiv Jayaweera (drums).

Indie songster

Gian Slater’s concert last night at the Gods seemed to me a hugely sophisticated indie-pop concert just as much as a jazz concert. But that’s as much a statement of the breadth of jazz these days as it is of the concert itself. Why? Firstly, it was sung, and that’s not very common in the jazz I hear. Secondly, the lyrics were passionate and personal, and that’s not common in the vocal jazz I hear. Thirdly, the musicality was a fusion of styles, and not strictly in the jazz tradition, although there were obvious jazz sensibilities all round. Gian was playing with Andrea Keller and Chris Hale. Interestingly, I read an article where Andrea is quoted as describing herself as a “contemporary pianist and composer”*. It was apt for both Andrea’s playing, and for the music on the night, for there were numerous ways in which this night escaped the confines of a style. Let me count the ways.

Gian sings with a soprano voice, often in her upper registers, so there’s a certain whispiness to her voice. I mentioned Blossom Dearie and she said it’s a common comparison. It was with some profundity that we could enter into Gian’s experiences, in the lyrics themselves and the introductions to the tunes. As a male, it was at times an eye-opener to the experiences of women, although we hear suggestions often enough. Musically, Gian sang plenty of complex melodies and some exploratory scat-style lines in improvisation. I found it clearly exposed instrumental jazz lines, but in a less frantic style. It was a pleasure to follow the scalar, chromatic or arpeggiated lines, and guess the underlying scales. To me it was something revelatory to hear in her voice that longer interval that defines the harmonic minor scale. Gian also played with sound, having a little Yamaha mixer and what seemed to be an echo unit on steroids (Korg Kaoss Pad) close at hand. This was enticing, and gave a feel of the studio to the live gig.

I mentioned above that Andrea described herself as other than a jazz player. In fact, the quote continues "I was never comfortable with the term ‘jazz' … I never felt I fitted into that box, because I'm a woman, because I'm an Australian. I didn't grow up listening to jazz but grew up listening to Bach. I didn't have that sound."* This disturbed me somewhat. Admittedly women are not so prominent in jazz, but there are many very good ones. Also I see jazz as a broad, international art-form these days, and we seem to have some great jazz around Australia. Her approach is not in the mainstream of comping/RH bop lines; it’s more expressionist, romantic. She’s classically trained, so there’s another fusion, although there were occasional visits to the jazz mainstream, too. I felt Andrea gave textures and colouration as much as solos, even though solos abounded in the tunes. And she provided several of the original tunes on the night. It was also lovely to see the women on stage. There was something more interactive, responsive in the way they communicated. Gian and Andrea have experience in working together, so there’s a musical closeness, but there was also a personal warmth on stage.

As for Chris, well I told him (jokingly and admiringly, of course) that he did everything wrong! He plays a semi-acoustic bass guitar; it’s 6-string; he plays with a pick; he’s got effects pedals; he fingerpicks and even strums (!). And I loved his lightning fast runs and melodic solos across the full range: very nice playing although quite guitaristic. He also played lap steel guitar for one tune. Strange combinations all round! His tone was middy, but fret-buzzy too. I thought it was chosen, but he explained the neck hadn’t settled after the flight from Melbourne. When I felt the guitar, I could see he must have been fighting it all night. Nonetheless, it was a tuneful, melodic display and welcomed by the audience.

There are other things to note. Gian is a local Canberra girl now resident in Melbourne, so it was also a family and friends gathering. I like them for their intimacy, and we have them fairly frequently in Canberra. It was even a school reunion: there were connections with Narrabundah College (Gians’s school) and the Jazz School (where she did some jazz studies). The tunes were all originals, mostly by Gian, but also by Andrea and one by Chris, so again this made it unique.

So, indie-pop? What’s in a name? It was emotionally and intellectually satisfying music, both lyrically and musically; it was complex and well played, and crossed boundaries freely yet wisely; and it had rhythm and improvisation which, to me, defines the jazz form. In all, I loved it; it was very satisfying and also quite different.

* Improvisations: Jazz pianist Andrea Keller, in The Monthly, No. 32, March 2008, p.?. It’s behind a paywall, but you can read the full text in Google's cache.