Our man in NYC 4b2

CJ Intern's NYC Penultimate Piece ends (part 4b2)

By Jeremy Tsuei

Monday: Jochen Rueckert and Chris Botti 

Another Matt Penman gig, this time with Jochen Rueckert (drums and bandleader), Troy Roberts (sax), and Alexandra Ridout (trumpet). Alexandra was a last-minute call, but she absolutely smoked the gig. Sitting in the corner next to the drums, my friend Tony and I really got the whole experience - big beats and strong sounds. A real mix of musical personalities and nationalities which went towards a really strong and cohesive whole - partway through the gig, Rueckert joked that Alexandra's country of origin, England, had oppressed every other band member's country of origin (Roberts is an Aussie and Penman is a Kiwi) except for his (Germany), acknowledging that his country of origin has had its own set of historical issues... Rueckert also claimed that he would differentiate himself from other acts by not making a joke about selling CD players despite many people no longer owning CD players, but was that not in itself a joke? A meta-joke perhaps - fitting for a drummer and bandleader to have a solid perspective of what's really going on behind it all...

 

Chris Botti has been playing a December Blue Note residency for two decades now, and he launched this season with a bang. Botti has played across jazz and pop realms, and I found his mic'ed up tone a bit too reverb-y, and some of the songs waded into dreaded 'smooth jazz' territory. Still - whenever it started to get too smooth, Botti would punctuate it with a strong, daring tone, something just enough left field to remind us of his 'serious musician' credentials. The band was also stellar, and navigated different feels, styles, and transitions with verve. A tune which Botti described as a "real jazz" song started with a thoughtful bass solo from Daniel Chmielinski, before launching into a full band effort, and then finally morphing into a synthesised dub party while the band traded 4s with drummer Lee Pearso.

Botti's selection of guests was fantastic. Tonight, Botti was joined by Anastasiia Mazurok (violin), John Splithoff (vocals and guitar), and finally Veronica Swift (vocals). I found it a marker of confidence and assurance that the band leader wasn't always playing in his own gig, and left it to others to take a leading role for their feature tunes. And Veronica Swift! I'd actually purchased tickets to this gig because it was my only opportunity to see her live, and she smashed it. A generous collection of classic standards - "There Will Never Be Another You", "Love for Sale", "Under My Skin", "Moanin"... - delivered with sheer power. Swift's scatting was incredible, and during a traded solos with Chmielinski she even started to emulate the sounds and inflections of an acoustic bass - real creative stuff! Swift also commandeered Botti's trumpet at the end for a humorous - and very impressive - bit. And of course some Christmas material at the end, as it is the season - but at the end of the set and with a band this good, there was nothing left to prove.

Other things

As well as all this stuff, I've also been volunteering with the First Presbyterian Church's Tartan Christmas Fair, seen the sights and read up on history at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, had a taste of home country with a Yirrkala Bark Painting exhibition at the Asia Society Museum entitled "Madayin", and had lessons with Joseph Lepore and John Benitez.

There's no shortage of things to do here! It won't be long before I'm back in Australia, but man am I looking forward to my next visit here...

Something for all

Chris Botti has something for everyone. But passing comment caught my attention, about learning how to introduce songs. He'd watched some big names that he'd played with to learn how he now chats and mixes with the audience. There's nothing worse than "that was ..., now we'll play..." It's hard to avoid, but he did. He's obviously got some standard takes. Like the balcony joke that only Canberra understood... And the young drummer who's invited onstage. He did this at his 2011 Canberra concert (although this drummer was younger - 7 years old). How does he find them? And there's a string of feature performers that appear through the night doing all manner of styles. Here it was an acrobatic violinist (as last time), a female soul singer (as last time) and an operatic tenor. The tenor was new but the songs weren't: Time to say goodbye and Nessun dorma, no less. The pop hits of tenor arias. We duly clapped when we recognised the tunes. And a string of massively popular film tunes, Cinema Paradiso and Gabriel's oboe, and popular tunes, The look of love and Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack, and some jazz, My funny valentine as an encore and Blue in green from Kind of Blue (at his 2011 Canberra concert, the Kind of Blue quote was Flamenco sketches). And he came down to the audience, this time playing only a few seats and one row from us. As did singer Sy Smith. Our seats were great: 4th row, centre. And in refreshingly non-corporate style, he invited pics and videos, jokingly requesting that we don't publish a video if he plays flat. Not that I thought he did. The musicians were impressive and very professional and part of the show: some up front, jokey, showy; some quiet but present; the guitarist just plain latin cool. I was surrounded by middle-aged who wouldn't attend jazz, but they were exposed to some piano chromatics and driving jazz rhythms and searing fusion guitar when the core band played. The piano trio was great and easily dissolved into some sinuous contemporary jazz behind Botti's melodious and often quick trumpet and this quartet was augmented with keys and guitar for more ordered but often searing blows. There's nothing like a searing guitar solo. The violin and various vocals added for their features. So, this was underlaid by jazz but sourcing input from a panoply of popular forms. And it worked. Everyone (yes, virtually everyone in the theatre) was up clapping on 2-4 at the end (we were warned against 1-3). All well presented, well played and well insinuated and downright entertaining. Not high art, perhaps, but worthy and capable and involving and great fun. And they are playing throughout the world on an almost daily basis and filling houses and all the while insinuating some impressive jazz musicianship. I'm on board. In fact, I stood up too.

Chris Botti (trumpet) appeared at the Playhouse with Geoffrey Keezer (piano), Reggie Hamilton (bass), Lee Pearson (drums), Leonardo Amuedo (guitar), Rachel Eckroth (keyboards, organ) and feature players Sandy Cameron (violin), Sy Smith (vocals) and Rafael Moras (operatic tenor).

Botti as in goatie

Is it Botti as in goatie or Bottie as in tottie? I’m Italian so I was of the tottie (or Totti) persuasion, but the radio (ArtSound and ABCRN) was using Botti as in goatie. To my surprise, Chris Botti was to appear on Life Matters on ABC RN and the theme was toast: he’s such a traveller that he hadn’t toasted a slice of bread in 10 years, or for that matter, cooked anything. An itinerant troubadour, I thought, not sure I’d like that life. I like my morning toast with honey or perhaps jam. But my mind wanders further. To me, goaties signify beatnicks and the ‘50s and Maynard G Krebs and cellars and cool jazz and bongos and post-bop. Very cool. Is Chris Botti cool?

To my surprise, he was. There was considerable soft-pop in his show, Ave Maria with the longggggggg trumpet note, string pads, Nessun dorma (always stunning but who can trust such easy emotions), sexy suits and frocks, even a contortionist rock-cum-classical violinist. And lots of name dropping amongst the stage patter (Sting and Herbie Hancock and Rolling Stones and Grammies and 4.5 presidents). But that’s the style. This is not music for the initiated. This is jazz crossing over to popular styles so that’s all to be expected. It’s a tough market out there. There was also some decent funky playing, several Miles tracks, some great soul singing, a fabulous trumpet tone and some very lithe and clean lines and a certain amount of dissonance. It’s the same argument we had over George Benson and similar to those over Herbie Hancock and Bob Dylan. Yeah, the state of the art is somewhere else, but this approach spreads the word, brings in an audience (not that many will end up with the avant-garde) and fills theatres and stadiums not just clubs. And he didn’t just play standards with hot solos like some popular jazz names. This was a show. He went into the audience; he played to a 4-year old at his first jazz concert; he brought up an unexpecting student drummer, Rohan Moore, who had been at his workshop at ANU the day before (and treated him well); he chatted and involved the audience, and even infiltrated some jazz lore and history.

The repertoire was mixed opera-pop and standards. Ave Maria, Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, Cinema Paradiso, Nessun dorma. All infectious songs if often syrupy, but well-known and you can’t help but fall under their spells. The standards were equally attractive and mostly balladic - My funny valentine, Willow weep for me, The look of love, When I fall in love – done with funky energy or deep melodrama but always as showpieces. And Flamenco sketches from Kind of Blue with a very nice bass solo and an introduction that taught me something about Miles and Kind of Blue and that tune. As I said before, the trumpet was full and rounded and clear and rich with reverb and CB had impressive technique. Pianist Billy Childs was a lynchpin and played some very sophisticated jazz solos, although I couldn’t hear him too well. He was left of stage and I was right, and I’m guessing the PA was stereo. Andrew Ezrin on keys, Mark Whitfield on guitar, Carlitos Del Fuerto on bass and William Kilson on drums did commendable jobs and seemed to be having a great time. This band has been together for 7 years and there seemed to be real enjoyment on stage as well as a bit of tongue-in-cheek showmanship. I liked that. The features were Caroline Campbell on violin and Lisa Fischer on vocals. Caroline was sexy in a body-hugging evening dress that clung to her every frequent movement (pant pant). It’s all part of the show along with Chris’s natty suit and the shaved heads and some Jagger-like revealing leather. I don’t know violin, but her classical solo in a gypsy-like piece was well intoned over long intervals and all four strings at speed and certainly impressed me. Lisa was great soul singer with a large range, gospel inflections and a mic technique that was a revelation.

OK, so it’s not the bleeding edge, but there’s room for CB in my jazz universe. I’m happy to call Chris Botti cool. Chris Botti (trumpet) led a very entertaining jazz show band with Billy Childs (piano), Andrew Ezrin (keyboards), Mark Whitfield (guitar), Carlitos Del Fuerto (bass), William Kilson (drums) and feature front-liners Caroline Campbell (violin) and Lisa Fischer (vocals). Rohan Moore was called up for drum duties on Nessun dorma.