Monday whatever ...

What to do on a Monday night when other responsibilities are in abeyance?  First up was a night at Smiths for Geoff Page's poetry.  He was featuring two poets this night, reading for a group of ~40 people.  First up was KT Nelson, a local who now spends time in Central Australia, has won prizes and released poetry, not least in her book Inlandia, with references to her outback experiences with Aboriginal resonances.  Then Jelena Dinic, originally from Serbia, now Adelaide, who immigrated during the collapse of Yugoslavia.  Again, an award winner and quite a prolific publisher of her poetry.  In this case, somewhat influenced by Serbian poetry, as Serbs seems to be.  As she said at one time, in Serbia "even war criminals want to be poets".  I found KTN's poetry to be fairly straightforward with well formed political, personal and such opinions.  Jelena seemed to write in a more colourful style on matters personal and otherwise.  I was startled a few times (in a most pleasant way) by unexpected combinations and colourful images.  Maybe not literally accurate, but one was something like "dust ... as if the walls were undressing".  Wow!  Poetry is not a normal outing for me but I might occasionally try some more.  Then walking about a pretty quiet Civic, I passed Hippo and there was gear in the window.  I went up to find a blues night with no less than DJ Gosper.  I arrived in the break so mostly chatted with Dean Edgecombe and heard just a few tunes by the band.  Nice, somewhat laid back, authentic and well felt blues, mostly original but one very well spotted tune out of Melbourne.  So much enjoyed if only for a short outing.  And dancing, not be me, but by a few mature rock'n'roll couples.  I shouldn't be so surprised but I found plenty to do on Monday night in Civic.

Geoff Page present Poetry at Smiths featuring KT Nelson and Jelena Dinic.  DJ Gosper (vocals, blues harp) led a band with Jeff Prime (guitar), Dean Edgecombe (bass, vocals) and Jack Barnard (drums) at Hippo.

Rhythm methods

Gossips played at gig last Friday night with singer / blues harpist DJ Gosper sitting in for Gossipist Leanne. It was a great gig. I noticed first off during our take on Herbie Hancock’s Chameleon. It’s a common enough tune and I’ve played it many times, but this felt sharp and tight with that lucid melody over the top of choppy clavinet-style keys from Mike and crisscrossing rhythms from Brenton and me. Great fun. Then some unusual takes from DJ and Goss on any number of well known songs. DJ comes from the blues traditions. She sings with a strong, impassioned voice; she performs with a sense of steady structure and solo form; she solos with blues harp and blues scales. It’s a fascinatingly different take on tunes and I, for one, heard them anew. Great fun.

This was Goulburn and Megan and I took the opportunity to duck down to see friends in Sydney. On the way back, we stopped at a winery for coffee expecting country calm and a Euro-chic cellar door experience. Certainly the surroundings, the gardens and flowers suggested it. But we got something else. We’d happened on a 4-day (!) Taikoz Taiko drumming workshop. This is earthy and elemental Japanese drumming and very far from the synopated Afro-Cuban stuff of jazz. It's simple, heavy, meditative and can be terrifyingly loud. I enjoyed it and other visitors joked of it but, at least indoors, it was too much for these ears. A very different rhythm method.

Gossips played with DJ Gosper at the Tattersalls Pub in Goulburn. The Taikoz Taiko workshop was held over the Australia Day long-weekend at the Elling Forest Winery.

Turossing it (Moruya 2011/5)

Moondance was a hit this year as in previous years – they were the popular favourite band at last year’s Moruya, and perhaps other years too. They play a gypsy-styled jazz with professional competence and presence. They had a drummer in the program but none on stage – I guess he couldn’t make it – so the instrumentation was unusual: violin/vocals, soprano sax, guitar and bass. There were lots of smiles, very capable playing on all the instruments and a supportive audience. Bassist John Conley is a friend of my band. I shared a beachhouse with him and was intrigued to hear his stories of years with Galapagos Duck, the renowned and popular Sydney jazz outfit that was the house band at the early Basement. Well played, John. Moondance are Kathy Bluff (violin, vocals), Paul Burjan (sax, flute), Pete Malone (guitar) and John Conley (bass).

Canberra local DJ Gosper was at Moruya this year as a headline band with two members of my band in tow and I caught a few tunes at the Golf Club. DJ is well presented, easy with the audience, considered in performance and with a strong blues influence and approach. This was nice playing and well received by the mainstream audience. DJ Gosper (vocals, harmonica) led the band with Mike Dooley (keys, vocals), Richard Manderson (sax) and Mike Stratford (drums).

Finally, my band. Members of Gossips appeared this year as Sax & the Citizens. We were a quartet with Mike, Richard, Henry Rasmussen and me. Thanks to Henry for helping out given Brenton was not available – nice job done despite little rehearsal, original tunes and few charts. It was a strongly bop and swing set, opening with Moment’s notice, and with several originals by Mike and one each by Richard and me: a balled, a swinger, a bop, an Arabic tune, a latin, a ‘60s modern. I preferred our gig on Friday evening which settled in quite nicely. Our second gig was changed from Sunday to Saturday morning and for several reasons was less relaxed and less satisfying. Mike and I got in a short jam with Reuben, Max and Aidan at the Air Raid later on Saturday. Good on the Festival for that innovation. It gives a sense of involvement and mixes the players a bit and it’s a view of a musician’s real world for the punters. Good idea. Sax & the Citizens were Mike Dooley (piano), Richard Manderson (saxes), Henry Manderson (drums) and Eric Pozza (bass).

I saw one of two other bands in passing and missed many others. But you should always save something for next time. Thus I saw it: an entertaining weekend and an update on the Jazz School. Moruya 2011.