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

Mainstream with edge

I was wondering just what to expect from Mike Nock’s CET (Creative Electronic Trio). They played last night for the first Gods session for 2010 last night. I thought maybe e-bass and several keyboards, but it was a more limited excursion into electronics than that. Mike was playing a Nord, with its identifiable piano sounds and retro synthesisers, and I guess that’s what gave the label Electronic, and there was one funky tune that benefited well from synth bends and the like. But otherwise, it was frequent brushes on the drums and even gut strings on the double bass, so that instrumentation was quite conventional, even traditional. I’ve seen several more electronica-style bands recently, but so what? Mike played a style I love and I enjoyed it immensely. I heard it as a modern, challenging ‘60s performance, playing mostly standards-type tunes (and one funky jazz-rock number), but with verve and excitement and high skills and always challenging and on edge, with some dabbling in electronic timbres and washes. The grunts and facial contortions and singing with solo lines and the sheer exuberance confirmed to me that this was not an easy, relaxed outing, but one that the band played with awful seriousness. As serious as your life, to borrow a famous jazz expression.

Mike led the band, although with clear respect for his fellow performers. He’s known as generous and supportive and as a mentor for many young musicians in Australia. This trio has been playing together for many years. The ease with which they threw around the decision of what tune to play showed that. They obviously had no formal set list. Their familiarity and informality was evident in Mike’s chats, where he asked the audience about the sound or briefly mentioned his history with a tune. As for playing, you could hear the long experience and skills as he took on a tune, worked over the chords, took ideas and retained them as long sequences through dissonance and back to consonance. Long solos of skill and edgy challenge and essentially pianistic techniques. But with an obvious melodic sense and references to the mainstream history of jazz.

I felt that Ben responded similarly, with a good solid tone and a strongly melodic conception. After the gig, he told me about a buzz in his bass (it’s an old German bass that suffers from the dry air of Canberra) and explained the gut strings don’t speak as quickly as steel strings. But I still heard long, hammering solos well into the thumb positions, and rapid movements through the fingerboard. And a melodic approach that was embroidered with challenging rhythmic patterns. There was also one fully French-bowed solo with reliable intonation (bowing is far less forgiving of intonation than pizzicato). It was a big role on the night, with frequent and long solos, and a deadly serious look on his face while playing versus an open smile between tunes. Brother James seemed more modest in performance. Openly looking on to Mike and Ben, drums faced in to his colleagues, sideways to the audience. He took a few solos: I especially noticed his last, long solo that was a more funky or rocky style. But mostly I heard softly responsive brushes and sparse, open playing that spoke with the melody. It was open and respectful playing that nonetheless seemed to lead each solo to build in intensity. More evidence of that era of jazz: the solo as the core exploration and purpose.

They started with an easy blues, House of blue lights by GiGi Gryce, all comfy swing and melodies that oozed over the bar lines. Then Ellington and a melody played unison by piano and bass, and particularly impressively on the bass. Then Cry me a river as a slow waltz and a “burner” in bop style that had some luscious contrary motion and counterpoint on piano that said classical to my ears. Also Armstrong/Fitzgerald tune (I would be friends?), another waltz, a funky original, and a few others.

It was a wonderfully intense study of modern mainstream jazz as I heard it, and I enjoyed it immensely: on edge, and challenging for both audience and performers. Hot. Mike Nock’s CET (Creative Electronic Trio) featured Mike Nock (piano) with brothers Ben Waples (bass) and James Waples (drums).

Bass awards

Bass is the instrument for the National Jazz Awards at this year’s Wangaratta Jazz Festival. I'm not there, but I’ve just listened to the finals on ABCFM JazzTrack. The finalists don't seem controversial: Sam Anning, Phil Stack and Ben Waples. All are worthy players. I know the first two from several performances in Canberra. I’ve heard Ben, but don’t feel I know him as well as the other two. The judges were Mike Nock with Craig Scott and Jonathon Zwartz. I’m interested to see if I agree with the results this year. I was at Wang last year and came to a different decision from that of the judges. But they were capable judges, so it just shows the personal nature of such things. I have various thoughts on this year's performances and I’ll only give the smallest summary here. For the record (written before I hear the results), I would give it to Sam Anning for intellectual adventurousness and harmonic richness, second to Phil Stack for exuberance and drive, and third to Ben Waples. I'm not too keen on competitions like this and all three are all capable players, but life is like that.

And the results are ...

First: Phil Stack, Second: Ben Waples, Third: Sam Anning.

Congrats to all three, irrespective of results, and to the seven others who performed over the weekend, and who we didn't hear on the radio. Also to the great accompanists, Sam Keevers (piano) and Simon Barker (drums).

Triosk tour Canberra

Triosk played to a full house at Hippo’s last night. How do I know? I was left out in the cold with a changing group of others. Given it was a cold night (predicted -4degC, and it clearly reached it) I didn’t hang around for long. On the other hand, Hippo’s is generous with its sound, and you can clearly hear the band from outside, so I got a good listen for ~30mins, even if not a view.

Triosk are Adrian Klumpes (keyboards/samples), Ben 'Donny' Waples (bass), Laurence Pike (drums). They are touring to publicise their new album. They have received great reviews in Australia and Europe. They are jazz trained and are talked about in the same breath as The Necks, so I expected a different, although jazz-influenced sound. They have also recorded a CD with Jan Jelinek of Germany (1+3+1), which was interestingly done over the Net, and toured Australia with Jan.

I heard a gentle, minimalist soundscape. The show started with screeching cymbals from a stick being dragged around a cymbal. Then a slow bass line, with a lovely, biting double bass tone. The other member was piano, playing regular patterns and minimal changes. The drums grew, and over the next few tunes were very busy, with the bass and piano holding steady. There were sounds or effects, I guess from the piano, and later, very high pitched notes bowed on the bass. The drums had lovely loose tones. They seemed to be detuned, so the stick sunk into the skin, and the snare drum was played infrequently, and mostly (at least what I heard) with the snare wires out. I know they perform with laptop/s, and there were some sounds I couldn’t identify – perhaps PC-based digital effects, or sampled sounds interwoven with the performance. Hard to tell without seeing them in performance. And the performance obviously demands a great level of listening between players, as every note counted hugely. What I heard was an intriguing, beautiful and spellbinding performance.

But it was cold, so I didn’t hang around. I hope they return or I can catch them another time. But for now, a picture of some die-hards outside Hippo’s has to suffice.