Berklee comes to town

Sheryl Bailey, NYC guitarist and professor at Berklee College in Boston, came to Canberra. She was playing with some Australian mates, Andrew Dickeson and Ashley Turner. It was a stunner of a concert, but not just that: there was a workshop, too. All open to the public and free. First up, the workshop. We had two student groups up to play a few tunes and get comments from all three performers. I certainly got lots from this session. Communication and dynamics; comping and listening; some generous commentary on drum matters, eg, on the swing inherent in traditional versus matched grip; two-feels and four; knowing the language / familiarity with the genre, playing along to recordings and learning how key players have dealt with tunes and grooves and chords; comping for guitar; groove as key ("no-one ever lost a gig from grooving too hard"); the importance of 3rds and 7ths while bass provides the root ("if you don't know the 3rds and 7ths you don't know the song". Sheryl displayed this brilliantly with a melody of phrasings leading to 3rds and 7ths); laying out, even sometimes on drums and, alternatively, keeping energy when playing quietly; transcribing rhythms, even if not voicings ("be provocative rhythmically"); 8th notes and the power of accents and learning by singing; a suggestion to get the Omnibook (referring to Charlie Parker) and learn Monk and Wayne Shorter; learn tunes; solos as melodies on harmonic form, not just chords and arpeggios. Also some stories: Jimmy Cobb said "we didn't care" about his trio playing behind Miles or others, implying the strength of the groove was what mattered; jazz is "not guitarist's music, it's horn players' music" so think fingerings, etc; practising by long application, eg, playing one tempo 1 hour pd for a week; record yourself; "isolate things you suck at and practice them" then integrate.
Then the concert. Nine tunes over 90 minutes, all standards, three by Monk (both Sheryl and Andrew had entered the Thelonious Monk competition). Wayne Kelly sat in for a blues towards the end. Some slower tunes, Lover man in 3/4, Isfahan, Panonica; two more Monks, Eronel, Epistrophy. Jobim How insensitive (I didn't know it was from a Chopin theme) and Invitation and You stepped out of a dream. Nothing too unusual or particularly out although there were dissonant harmonic colours at times, all stunningly sharp and interesting and skilled and fabulously expressed. That's what practice does, as it should. An eye-opener.

Sheryl Bailey (guitar) led a trio with Ashley Turner (bass) and Andrew Dickeson (drums) for a concert and workshop at the ANU School of Music Band Room.

Messages from jazz history

We all know of Art Blakey for his longstanding Jazz Messengers as a training ground for so many jazz musicians of note and of the great post-bop tunes that the band played. I hadn't realised quite how much this was a cooperative venture, but it seems obvious when you consider that so many members penned tunes. And it was no surprise to hear of AB with the bop crew and especially Monk. But what did surprise me was to hear of his playing with the swing big bands of Fletcher Henderson and Billy Eckstine. Perhaps we shouldn't be. Bop-era names played in swing bands while bop was still a developing revolution. Sothe extent of AB's history was a revelation, from the '40s through to that long post-bop ascendancy that only ended in the late '80s. So it was a great pleasure to hear Andrew Dickeson take on the Messengers mantle for a performance at the ANU PopUp for Geoff Page. There were tunes we know and love and some lesser knowns. We all love the insinuating melodies of Ugetsu, Along came Betty, Nica's dream, One by one, Ceora (by stars in their own right: Cedar Walton, Benny Golson, Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan). I was less taken but still exhilarated by the quickies (both ~340bpm): Bu's delight and The beehive. I enjoy the speed but the melodies suffer as solos become screed rather than passages. The band was great: sharp, accurate, neat and with great solos all round. They were mostly fairly senior, although with a young gun on piano, as was AB's way. I enjoyed Andrew's chats and snippets of history, like how his wife disliked hearing Along came Betty, written for a prior girlfriend, until the royalties started coming in. Or the talk of Nica (Baroness Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter), she of jazz patronage and Rothschild fortune. I also enjoyed our own Wayne Kelly coming to the stage to feature on Now's the time. He has recorded with Andrew. He did a great job, but they all did, not least the young gun. I noticed plenty of knowing smiles around this stage during the night. The two horns were beautifully intoned, authentic in their counterpoint on heads and both soloed with discretion but lovely phrasing. Piano was young and more expansive and mighty in speed through his longer solos. Bass sounded great, took some nice solos, held walks at ~340 (not relaxing!) and spelt some lovely lines. Andrew himself was reasonably discrete, although had a fair share of solos and they were incredibly neat and always a blast. He told a story that AB had complained of young drummers who thought drumming was all too simple. His style was of steady swing regularity but could be intense with hits and noisy responses. I never caught Art Blakey so this was as close as I am going to get and it was great. Hugely satisfying and very strong swing and some memorable jazz hits.

Andrew Dickeson (drums) led a quintet comprising Al Davey (trumpet, flugelhorn), Andrew Robertson (tenor), Matt Harris (piano) and Ashley Turner(bass). Wayne Kelly (piano) sat in for one tune. They played the music of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers at the ANU PopUp for Geoff Page.