Miro’s mob

Miro gathered a band of students and staff from the jazz school last night for a Trinity gig. A nice blow session, with some lovely playing from experienced, challenging staff and some of the hottest of the current students. And nice, well known tunes from Wayne Shorter and Miles and the like from that most famous era, 50s post bop: well-known melodies and straightforward charts and lots of room for extravagance and dissonance. Nothing like some jazz-based performances which I missed at the CIMF (Canberra International Music Festival) in the last week: a conglomeration of national jazz players at the Street Theatre for “To the Moon and back again”, and a concert of Sculthorpe’s music performed in a jazz idiom. I caught some of the Moon performance on ABCFM. It was certainly adventurous. The performance was billed as a “film score in 10 chapters to accompany the NASA Apollo missions’ footage”. It might have worked more comfortably in person and with the visuals, but on radio I found it was formidable with nary an obvious melody in sight. Worthy, but a demanding listen. But back to Miro: melodic, well-known tunes, loose and open and a nice base for improv. I hardly need to speak of these players, as they appear so many times on this site. I was mostly chatting, but formed a few impressions. Miro has a lovely, rounded tone, and it was clear and flowing this night. John Mackey’s tenor was fluent and fast, but tuneful and expressive. He’s always like that. I wondered: is sax particularly suited to fast playing, due to fingering or tonguing? Certainly, the fingering is vastly different from brass valve control, and I don’t think it has the harmonic structure you play with brass instruments and that bell-like mouthpiece. Mark Sutton is sounding so solid and heavy these days with fusion-like snares. It’s masterful and reliable playing, and he’s so in control. Drummer Evan recently said to me that Chris Pound has “big ears”. Yeah, that explains it. Lovely, expressive, flowing playing that provides such a strong harmonic infrastructure, with this deadened bass tonality. He’s quick enough, but that’s not what you notice. It’s more the aptness of the playing, the interesting playing on inversions and scales, the moving rhythms and grooves. Andy Campbell’s playing with panache now, too. Long, complex phrases, and somewhat intellectual. So these were both worthy musical experiences, but so very different and an interesting contrast. But just another few busy musical days for Canberra. Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet) led a band with John Mackey (tenor sax), Andy Campbell (guitar), Chris Pound (bass) and Mark Sutton (drums) at the Trinity Bar, Dickson. “To the Moon and back again” was a performance for the CIMF at the Street Theatre and was broadcast live on ABCFM. Bill Risby (piano) wrote the music, and performers were Timothy Constable (percussion, vocals), Michael Askill (percussion), Phil Slater (trumpet), Matt McMahon (piano), Simon Barker (drums), Steve Elphick (bass), Carl Dewhurst (guitar), William Barton (didgeridoo, guitar), Chris Latham (violin) and Bob Scott (sound design, electronic processing).

To the Moon and back again

The Canberra International Music Festival certainly is aiming high this year! I may jest, but they certainly are aiming to be a major festival, and what I’ve seen is impressive.

I’ve just attended the launch of the program for this year’s CIMF. It was a busy affair at Pialligo with plants all around and a crowd of classical enthusiasts. There were speeches by Don Aitken and Festival Director, Chris Latham (as well as nice wines, of course). The feature of the night was a presentation of sketches from a bigger work by Elena Kats-Chernin which will have its premiere at the National Museum during the festival. I say a sketch, because it’s to be played by goodly set of players, rather than just piano. Elena introduced the piece, discussed the various parts, and played one part and snippets from some others. It was a wonderfully intimate experience, which is perhaps enjoyed regularly by students, but not one most listeners get to experience. Much enjoyed. And it was surprising to me just how relevant and close this music was to the modern jazz that I mostly hear. There were some occasional chordal movements that were unexpected, but mostly they would have been at home in the music I know. Also, the interpretation was written as dots rather than improvised, but again, was not madly different from my jazz. I’d had this feeling with Marcela Fiorillo when she played Piazolla. Modern Western musics are increasingly intermingling, and also various world musics. This was just a confirmation to me. I found it very a satisfying piece and a very intimate and memorable experience.

BTW, CIMF has a few jazz events of note. One is a multimedia piece with film and jazz. It features an array of renowned Australian jazz players (Phil Slater, Matt McMahon, Carl Dewhurst, Simon Barker, Steve Elphick, Bill Risby) with several players who I think are from other fields (Timothy Constable, Michael Askill, Bob Scott, Chris Latham). The show is called “From the Earth to the Moon and back again”, and is a celebration of the International Year of Astronomy and the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings in 1969. A similar set of players also present the Sculthorpe Songbook, a show that reimagines Sculthorpe's music as jazz standards. There's also a History of Sound which features several of our local jazzers surveying the evolution of music for this year, Darwin's 200th anniversary.

Canberra International Music Festival

Elena Kats-Chernin on MySpace (listen)