There were so many ways that this was an unusual Canberra Symphony Orchestra outing. We walked in to find no printed programs, but a QR code with a link to CSO program for the year and the program for this concert. Walking to our seats we find almost no one we recognised: this seemed a new group, different, perhaps younger and that's OK. It was a full house or close enough: film music is popular and this was the music of Hans Zimmer, composer of Interstellar and Lion King and Pirates of the Caribbean and Dune and Gladiator. And Driving Miss Daisy. And a string of films I didn't know, Kung Fu Panda and Holiday and Thin red line and more. Even those I knew of I mostly hadn't seen. But I had played some Zimmer along with other film composers at an NCO concert and enjoyed the whole but he was not one I most admired. Then it was a big orchestra, ~80, and had a rhythm (section) of guitar, e-bass and drums. Strange that, with Chris and Nick from the jazz scene and Dave, normally from the CSO bass section, on e-guitar. They didn't play too much: mostly Nick on drums, occasionally Chris, occasionally Dave, but he did have a standout, they might say solo, somewhere, with a repeating line with sustained, distorted guitar. Standard metal tone if not so exciting. Also four double basses, btw. And a cello taking the part of and sounding often quite similar to a Chinese Erhu, especially up the neck, and voices in another piece that I guessed came from unison flutes and violins/violas although later someone suggested synths from one of two keyboard players. Then later still an actual woman singer, first up wordless, then I think later with words, but not too sure. And demonstrations by the orchestra of things, like how a very known song was slowed and made sparser of become the soundtrack. And all this with commentary that I thought I had read in the program, from two fellow influencers from Melbourne, one a jazz musician the other an academic who is known to friends, about the films and Zimmer and scoring and that he'd appeared in the backline of The Buggles for Video killed the radio star (worthy involvement there!) in both the first and last episodes of MTV. Did I mention the smoke machine? And those crescendos and repeated simple lines, and how someone said of film composition that the amateurs use three notes and pros just 2. Zimmer certainly used few notes and certainly dragged immense dynamic changes from them, sometimes from choice of instruments, and again those repeated four notes (too many?) that I remember the high strings all played, together, incessantly if powerfully. You felt the emotional intensity. So too from the light show, and the smoke machines. The Zimmer man, not Dylan.
Canberra Symphony Orchestra performed music of Hans Zimmer under Nicholas Buc (conductor) with commentary from Andrew Pogson and Dan Golding and song from Cassandra Seidemann (mezzo-soprano) and a rhythm section of David Flynn (guitar), Chris Pound (bass guitar) and Nicholas McBride (drum kit).
I was most surprised by the maturity when the Luke Sweeting Sextet played at the Loft. I shouldn’t have been. I’ve seen all these guys before and watched them over time do plenty of impressive gigs. But here there was a composition unity and voice that spoke to me beyond just solos. They are about to record a CD so I suppose they are well practiced (even if I caught a few bloopers) but it was beyond this. Luke’s voice has impressed me since I first noticed him playing in a large ensemble gig perhaps 5 years back. I asked him then how long he’d been playing, and was a bit taken back at his short history in jazz, perhaps a year or so. Then his compositional voice also impressed with that ensemble a year or two later. These guys are all strong as individuals but here I was most impressed how they are melded as a glorious unit with those three horns, sweet and melodious and dynamically controlled, upfront and Chris’ easily syncopated bass and Aidan’s gently stated but driving drums enlivened with Luke’s own syncopations and ostinatos. This format – several harmonising horns as sextet or thereabouts - and this music, talks to jazz that I love. The deep grooves introduced with lyrical melodies spoken with the cleanest of horn harmonies, and of course the individualist statements of the solos. (I don’t know the exact quote, but) Mingus once said that his band had to effectively perform his charts, but their solos were their own business. I hear that here too. There’s an ease with the charts: they are well understood and interpreted, the harmonies are clear and the syncopations feel right. Then the solos are extensions of the personalities of each player. Matt hit first with authority and structure and fluidity and inventiveness that stunned. It’s not just for Matt’s playing, but I’m feeling more for the higher range of the alto these days, and in my listening it seems to be more common. Reuben is fast and furious and ecstatic but carries a droll presence on stage. Max is softer in tone and more restrained in performance and a fascinating penchant for intervallic soloing. Luke covered the waterfront. Blistering runs of tonal play; rich counterpoint between hands; dissonant chordal soloing; ostinatos and comping and even synth-like swelling chords on his suitcase Rhodes. As I find with the best of music, there was intense busy-ness here, but it felt easy and unfussed: an enviable skill and the mark of the well trained and talented artist. Here’s the result of several years of good training on the best of the students: once unformed, now mature, but always searching and learning. 
