Digressions

Jenna Cave returned to Canberra with her Divergence Jazz Orchestra for the final concert of the Capital Jazz Project. Jenna was Canberra-bred and a student at ANU a few years back and this was her first return with her big band. Big bands are not easy to travel but what a sound they have! DJO plays the music of Jenna and other Australian composers. This concert was a Jenna feature: all her own arrangements, mostly her own compositions. What a nice band! Plenty of dynamics, nice intonation and feel, plenty of decent solos. There were several tunes inspired by African rhythms, some tunes I'd heard before when Jenna was writing for student bands, a commission for WAJO (West Australian Jazz Orchestra) in 7, several with the feel of New Orleans recalling her trip there with a few muso mates. One was Jazz euphoria on Frenchman's Street and that rang a bell: I've also experienced the music in every shopfront on night-time Frenchman's Street. Another channeled the infectious rhythms of the NOLA brass bands. There were some more pensive charts, for a renewed sense of optimism, or dedicated to a friend on an early death. For Miro was a Basie swing chart inspired by her studies of Sam Nestico. And an arrangement of Miro's rollicking composition, For Woody. For Miro / For Woody: there's plenty of respect across the generations in jazz. Miro appeared for a few solos, including a New Orleans style duet with trombone, and I particularly enjoyed some solos on bari, alto, bass, guitar and drums. Plenty of decent players here, but the nature of a big band is communality rather than individualism, even if solos feature in virtually every tune. But it's community that makes the luscious tones and fascinating interactions and deep grooves. That's the beauty of the big band and this band has it. Much enjoyed.

Jenna Cave (compositions, arrangements, director) led the Divergence Jazz Orchestra with Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet, flugelhorn) as guest. DVO are Paul Weber (co-Musical Director), Brendan Champion, Tim Coggins (trombones), Luke Davis (bass trombone), Paul Murchison, Rob Campbell, Paul Meo, Will Gilbert, Will Endicott (trumpets, flugelhorns), Justin Buckingham (alto, soprano, flute), Loretta Palmiero (alto, clarinet), Evan Harris (tenor, soprano, flute), Louis Klassen (tenor), Tim Clarkson (baritone/clarinet), Luke Liang (guitar), Andrew Scott (piano), David Groves (bass) and James McCaffrey (drums).

Mulling

Mark Hannaford spoke highly of our Capital Jazz Project and remembered his time at the local School of Music and Miro's influence on his music. It felt at home in some ways. His insight at hearing Andrew Hill and Geri Allen and CJP as our little week of NYC buzz. This concert, with Ellery Eskelin, Tom Rainey and Scott Tinkler, was certainly an unrelenting stunner and an exposure to something rarely heard locally. Intense, demanding, complicated and somewhat puzzling to my ear. The melodies, you could say heads, were clear enough if long and complicated, but I wondered how the music would otherwise be written. How are the underlying chords, if chords they are, interpreted? The obtuse response of the players was thrilling and wildly satisfying. Partly because I was so satisfied by the clear standard chops these guys had. Ellery's playing could spell harmonies with ease, so this was not just obtuse noise creation, but how were the relationships with others and tune established and played out? It had me thinking of Sonny Rollins alone on his bridge. This was of the highest creation. And Tom was all over, spelling out tunes in time but almost nothing settled. My thought here was Paul Motion, famous for his time, but again around the rhythm and the relationships rather than spelling time. Strangely it was a little more obvious when I moved to another seat on Mark's side of the stage. The accompaniment and some regularity became more obvious although still I wondered at it. How was this music written? There were solos passed fairly obviously and there were heads, all nicely organic, but both obvious enough, but the accompaniment and harmony was the challenge for me. Scott deserves his mention, too, of course, blowing immense lines and dropping delightful intervals to end. Firm and meteoric playing. This grouping has recorded and been recently travelling in Australia and talking of the music and this was their last gig. It showed with easy communication despite fairly blank faces. I'll be mulling over this for some time. It's got its connections with the mainstream but it's far freer and more inquiring. Masterful and too rare in this end of the woods.

Mark Hannaford (piano, compositions) led a quartet with Ellery Eskelin (tenor), Scott Tinkler (trumpet) and Tom Rainey (drums) at Street Two for the Capital Jazz Project. And thanks to the foyer band of ANU students: Andrej Thompson (tenor), Brendan Keller-Tuberg (bass) and Alec Brinsmead (drums).

Pleasant surprise

I booked the internationals for the Capital Jazz Project, given that I've seen many of the locals over the years and would more likely see them again. One international act was the Ospina Brothers form Colombia and I knew nothing about them. They were two brothers and two South American support players based in NYC. Each brother led a trio for one set. Colombians; latin fusion was mentioned. Since the days of Diz, jazzers have loved latin for the rhythms, the patterns, the clave, the space for improv and the life of it all. I lucked on a great night. These brothers were young, on an early tour. At least one had studied at Berkeley. There was enjoyment and energy and enthusiasm here. There was a source in the rhythms of Colombia, from the seaside and the mountains and the plains. There was some singing. There were arrangements. Andres' e-bass was modern, 5-string, playing with slap and fingers and chord style, and plenty of nice solos and nifty little written lines. The drums weren't drums but percussion. Marcel sat on a cajon, had bells on one leg, played two djembe and another drum and several stacks of cymbals with sticks and hands and brushes and brooms (yes, brooms! You could have used these for cleaning the floor and the sound was soft and fat). There were some very nice divisions of the beat here. I especially liked the congas with their more cutting, higher tones. Juan Andres played the first set with his jazz-influenced takes on Ecuadorian grooves and plenty of effective jazz solos and just a few songs. Nicholas sat in for one tune on maracas and this was a revelation. I've only ever seen them played as something simple, but this was all body movement and rich rhythms and true interpretation of the tune: maracas as a genuine instrument. Nicholas led the second set on piano and plenty of singing. I guess he was more true to a folky Colombian music, more sentimental, less jazzy improv-ed. Juan Andres sat in for one song on some nicely effective melodica. I caught some lyrics but mostly didn't catch the titles. What a pleasant surprise! Young guys; enthusiastic, lively and likeable; interesting takes on Colombian latin grooves. Much enjoyed!

Juan Andres Ospina (piano, vocals, melodica) and Nicholas Ospina (piano, vocals, maracas) were supported by Andres Rotmistrovsky (e-bass) and Marcelo Woloski (percussion). They played at the Street Theatre for the Capital Jazz Project. They were introduced by Caroline Stacey (Artistic Director & CEO Street Theatre) and the Colombian Ambassador, Dr Clemencia Forero-Ucros.

Leggero

Stefano Bollani had the most incredible touch that made the Street Theatre's Yamaha grand sound astounding. And he was a monster who could play anything at any speed and drop into dissonance on call, even when it wasn't expected, not least by the audience. And his mate Hamilton de Holanda is probably the best 10-string mandolin player I've heard. He's even been described at the Hendrix of the mandolin, although I can't imagine his the Stars and Stripes would bleed quite like Hendrix' did. HdH was all speed and accuracy and all the right lines that spelt every chord. Not sure I caught dissonance here: mostly consonant but so correct. Correct like what I've heard before, but then I've heard a lot of soloing on changes just like this. Stefano was a great showman, too, prancing and feeding the audience for its entertainment value. That's good and it got a standing ovation and some serious foot stomping for the encore. Not sure I've heard foot stomping quite like this before. But I found it all a bit light, even if the chops were evident and very obviously impressive. I'd like to have heard Bollani in a different format. This one was effective for the latins they played, but tonally limited and didn't offer great variation. Both were obvious masters of their instruments, but just not quite my animator for the night.

Stefano Bollani (piano) performed with Hamilton de Holanda (mandolin) for the Capital Jazz project at the Street Theatre.

Roiling

Eric Harland's gig was a writhing, roiling, rhythmic adventure. The band is called Voyager and he promised a voyage with his opening words. They played two sets with an interval. Each set was nonstop, a medley of 3 or 4 tunes from one or another album. I didn't particularly take note of the tunes or melodies. The whole merged into a maelstrom of groove punctuated, or perhaps more accurately, coloured with solos: solos more as features than as individual statements. They seemed to come and go. Some were particularly notable. Drums took a big feature towards the end (common enough and huge with a master like this). Piano had one display of unaccompanied classical chops and another bop-styled solo that stood out, and another that was described as a feature (on the encore, Maiden Voyage) that was, to my ear, more richly varied harmonic accompaniment than solo. Julian on guitar took frequent solos or inserted single line responses, all clear with just some driven edge from a Telecaster. He could play some devastating, light, lithe sweeps but these were not frequent. His approach was more formal, crisp, with regularity that spoke of exercises over octaves. Sax spelt much of the melodic movement while mostly immersed in a sea of groove although also making several clear solo statements. It was hard work for the bass, responding to this maelstrom; he took an occasional little spot, but job seemed to be mostly following Eric's kick while spelling the changes. Eric had two kick drums and the layout allowed Harish to see at least one beater. The compositions were nothing spectacular but the performance was to die for. To my ears, Eric Harland defined it all. He'd sit on most complex grooves, unyielding or mutating, moving accents and features and tonality at will. This was chops holding immense, sustained, unreleased tension. Bars split with 16ths, triplets, whatever, for dense colour and life. I was amused to hear a passage of occasional hits on kick drum backing the sax feature: he had two bass drums and the two tones became evident and the divisions of the beat was so clever, irregular yet spelling clear time. He smiled here, picked up some little hand percussion, took a drink from a water bottle. All in the line of work. There's a YouTube video that I have yet to watch that has Eric Harland explaining how to make a five interesting (Eric Harland on making 5 pattern more interesting, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHxMg4Dm6rs). Basically, it's by "accenting the 5th beat in every other cycle. Then moving it around for a different effect." Yeah, we had a lesson last night in just this and it was a thing of wonder. This was exhilarating and a display of just how good the best can be. Just one style, simple melody, interesting features, but some of the hottest, most intense and exciting rhythms I've heard.

Voyager were Eric Harland (drums), Walter Smith III (tenor), Julian Lage (guitar), Taylor Eigsti (piano) and Harish Raghavan (bass). They played at the Street Theatre for the Capital Jazz Project.

doubleplusgood

Capital Jazz Project looks incredible this year, timed and fed as it is by performers from the Melbourne Jazz Festival. First up for me was Bad Plus and they were very good. I'd known of them for the hubbub over their takes on Nirvana Teen Spirit and Blondie and the rest but they've now got to 10 albums and still visiting grunge and pop but playing plenty of their own compositions. This gig was all originals. They all composed fairly evenly. And what tortuous, fascinating, compositions they were! Heavy on complex and changing times and pauses and inserted bars and long, long bass lines and mutating rock grooves. And not just rhythm. I was intrigued by the flyover piano with dense dissonance, the rapid and long phrases, the repeating chords and single notes. Bassist Reid told me after that they all write on piano. No way they could compose these harmony changes without a piano (or a perfect ear) at hand. They had all studied classical con, and that too makes sense of the immensely dense and cerebral music and odd changes. I notice that John Shand heard it as a "collective predisposition to engage the intellect much more than the heart"*. I could feel that too but I wasn't at all disappointed, rather, I was intrigued. This was a performance of seriously considered music, created in the mind and performed in the flesh and considerably embroidered if not too much improvised. Not a gig of virtuosic flings and flourishes, but of thought and invention. Bad Plus play themselves; even when they are playing covers, they are identifiable. I wasn't particularly taken by any one solo, even if some piano had me intrigued, but I was fascinated and deeply satisfied by this gig. Not just swing. Unexpectedly plusgood, even doubleplus.

Bad Plus are Ethan Iverson (piano), Reid Anderson (bass) and David King (drums). They performed at the Street Theatre for the Canberra Jazz Project.

*Good vibes in Basement as solos eschewed for fuller sound / John Shand in SMH 28 May 2015, http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/the-bad-plus-review-good-vibes-in-basement-as-solos-eschewed-for-fuller-sound-20150528-ghbbxf.html#ixzz3bmh0jpDe, viewed 1 June 2015