When in Brooklyn, do as

Spoke were totally unexpected and a pleasure and my favourite for Wang 2014. Why? Not for virtuosity, although they had this but carried it lightly. More for the clear work that had gone into the compositions, the ethereal chordless sound, the obvious enjoyment of the band and the pleasure they gave, the irony and contemporary nature of it all, the choice of some great covers, perhaps also the Brooklyn vibe of bicycle spills and pleasant street life they exuded. Like Roger Manins and his Hip Flask, this is a jazz band that entertains beyond the cognoscenti. Megan might enjoy it, and this is good. None of this is to say they were not serious or experienced or skilled. There was some great, forward bass playing and the trombone solos especially grabbed me. The alto was no slouch, either; nor was our Aussie contributor, drummer Danny Fischer. This was his band during his stay in NYC. Good enough that I bought their CD and subsequently the previous two as downloads. Their tunes were of real, ordinary things: Adriana (someone's girlfriend, I think, or maybe a new baby?) and Over the bars (about a bike spill) and Shanghai salsa (about renovations in the Shanghai apartment above waking the late night muso) and Melting (more serious, this, about water). And the covers were lovely things, or maybe they just appealed to me: Beatles' Blackbird (everyone has done it; this was nicely understated and undeformed) and Chaka Khan's Tell me something good (great tune, this) and Mingus' Invisible lady (not one I remembered; listening now, I realise it's a take on Sophisticated lady). This was some great playing, expansive but never flashy despite New Orleans references and a touch of free, but it's more a matter of sum of parts. There was lots of obvious work here, arrangements almost big-bandish, playing tight but light. Open feeling and infectiously joyous. No need to talk of individual strengths. This is communal and skillful but primarily a sheer pleasure. Put this one down to the joy of discovery.

Spoke were Andy Hunter (trombone), Justin Wood (alto, flute), Dan Loomis (bass) and Danny Fischer (drums).

Revisiting favourites

Wang JF is mainly composed of the best of the Australian scene and it's a pleasure to catch up with them. In Canberra, I don't see them nearly often enough and Melbourne and Sydney listeners tend to see their own and not those from the other city. As for Brissie, Perth and the rest, I guess they see even less.

I'd recently seen James Muller and Steve Magnusson on two occasions in two different bands. They are such different guitarists and I was intrigued by how they'd work together. James is the ultimate smooth virtuoso; Steve the intriguingly divergent player. In this case, they were playing with Frank Di Sario and Danny Fischer. Scofield and Frisell were obviously on the program, and Solar (claimed by Miles as were many tunes), an original by Frank and some others. Apparently this was the third time that James and Steve have played together. James was breathtaking. I felt Steve didn't quite get the opportunity for his choppy and inventive style. Perhaps there was some competitiveness, conscious or not. I greatly admire each for his playing so I was a little disappointed by this outing. Interesting experiment, but in the end oil and water don't mix.


It's ages since I saw Sam Keevers at gigs with Jamie Oehlers and I've held admiration for his playing ever since. I admire the quiet and respectful with depths to be mined. Certainly his playing was like this when he played a set of tunes by Bernie McGann with his quintet. I felt these was clean, neat, steadily swinging period pieces somewhere around post-bop territory, lithe and steady and admirable as carriages for improv. Spirit song, Brownsville, Sweet Lucy, Mail, Twist. This is standard format with two horns out front. The fabulous pairing of Eugene Ball and Phil Noy were great together and strong apart in solos. Bass was Chris Hale, the first electric bass I'd seen at this festival. From afar, I didn't pick up on the subtleties, but up close this was pick and finger pick and chords with middle, ring and little fingers. This is six-string electric bass, which is an instrument that cries out for a new conception and Chris had one and it was well developed. Not at all standard in this context, but impressive. Craig on drums was steady as presumably required for this outing. Very well played and an admirable tribute and presumably particularly memorable for those who were close to Bernie, for Geoff and others.

James Muller (guitar) met Steve Magnusson (guitar) with Frank Di Sario (bass) and Danny Fischer (drums) supporting. Sam Keevers (piano) led a quintet with Phil Noy (alto), Eugene Ball (trumpet), Chris Hale (electric bass) and Craig Simon (drums) playing a tribute to Bernie McGann.

Continuing the latin dream

Barney McAll’s album, Mother of dreams and secrets, is one of my favourites so I jumped at the opportunity to see him at Bennett’s Lane. We’re in Melbourne and I’m rather overwhelmed with the jazz choice on offer, despite some clubs being closed for January. Phroenesis is in town soon; will they make Canberra? That’s the sort of realisation I’m having. But what of Barney and his alter-ego Feral Junior? Feral is Barney's new puppet mate, amusingly but somewhat ominously introducing the early sets. It worked; it drew attention and entertained; I liked it; most people listen with their eyes, so why not? But Barney’s talking was mainly through his fingers and also his compositions.

This was his Non-Compliance Trio, sometimes enhanced with alto. It’s a return to a simpler format for Barney: the piano trio as a classic jazz combination. Despite the efficient format, Barney’s concepts of structure and composition were obvious and remain attractive. Plenty of piano expositions, slow feels with down-South blues-infused sensibility, sustained heavily syncopated ostinatos on bass or piano left hand, contradictory and sparse melody from right hand or bass and alto or some other combination, perhaps long and tortuous unison lines breaking the parts. They don’t always sit together with ease, but they communicate a personality and artistic sense that’s not too far from the Yoruba/Cuba of his Mother album. The compositions were mostly his, but he also played Chick Corea’s lyrical Tones for Jones’ bones and a supremely beautiful, theatrical piano solo medley of the standards The party’s over and Why didn’t I choose you, and a somewhat simple song by Rhiannon called Only girl (in the world) which worked well enough but felt somewhat out-of-place. I like jazzers testing newer popular songs, but the simple blues scale melody was not up to the richness of the rest of the night, even if played well. I’ve read recently about the simpler harmonies of pop from the ‘50s onwards not supporting jazz complexity and this has to be one example.

The playing of Barney and the band made this a worthy night. Barney with his full-handed technique was satisfying and big and colourful and dug in and homely. He dropped into left hand chords and right hand sax-like lines at times, but it was this big conception (and his compositions) that defined it for me. There were piano intros and generous head nodding to lead the band. Danny Fischer was right on top of it all. Perhaps he’d played with Barney in NYC and knew the tunes or maybe he just had a great memory (one syncopated snare line that got subsequently taken up as written sax melody convinced me) but he was ready to sit on nothing, then swell and be all over the solos. Great listening. And his own solos were open and expressive of melody and the tune. Wonderful. Bassist Frank Di Sario was impressive as he ran with the fast bop and soloed neatly and read up amongst the thumb positions, but the music was obviously new to him and he was having to work hard. Similarly David Rex, who sat in on alto for around four tunes, read some devilish syncopations but also dropped out occasionally. Syncopation is hard reading. I heard him early on as flamboyantly, perhaps excessively, fast and furious, but then a tune later in the night had him slower and more settled and melodically inventive with an intriguing dissonant and rhythmic contrariness and on listening further to his sprees of notes I found structure and melody, so nice.

This was a concert of return to home and family and friends and trio format, with his own tunes and some ring-ins, but always with his distinct broad-brushed colour and insinuating latin awareness. Contemporary jazz is all over the place and I remain staunchly catholic in welcoming it all, but the colourful latin-tinged earthiness of Feral Junior’s mate remains close to my Spanish heart. Barney McAll (piano, puppet) led his Non-Compliance Trio with Frank Di Sario (bass) and Danny Fischer (drums). David Rex (alto) sat in for a few tunes.

NY up close and personal

Internationals are in the air at the moment. Last night it was a visiting New York outfit, Jacam Manricks’ Quartet featuring Aaron Goldberg. But unlike my recent Opera House concerts, this was in a small room, with a club atmosphere, as jazz should be, and with a chance to chat with the masters. So this was special. And these were no slouches; they all have significant pedigrees. Aaron’s pedigree has to take the cake, being sideman for the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Madeleine Peyroux, Wynton Marsalis, Nicholas Payton and Joshua Redman. But the others have notches including Ray Charles, Ben Monder, Bob Mintzer, Dave Liebman, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Lee Konitz, Jeff Ballard, Barry Altschul, Andrew Cyrille, Gary Bartz and Mark Levine. Wow! Jazz heaven. It’s a long way from NY, but Jacam and drummer Danny are Australians so are presumably on a working holiday back home. Great to see the good turnout and organisation to keep Canberra on the circuit. Saves a trip to NY. But what of the playing?

The concert comprised two sets of nine tunes in total, mostly taken from Jacam’s new CD, Labyrinth, along with Coltrane’s Countdown. Mostly it was modern style with syncopated rhythms, complex heads, sometimes repetitive grooves on madly syncopated ostinato phrases in odd time signatures, sometimes long chordal patterns, sometime complex structures. Gangbusting was a lively opener. Long ago and old fashioned was a mix and reharmonisation of parts of the standards Long ago and far away and I’m old fashioned. Mood swing was a tribute to Milton Nascimento. 2-3-2 and Sketch were examples of those difficult repeating syncopations. Aeronautics was a gentler ballad style. Microgravity was originally called New bolero, so obviously bolero in feel, but in 9/8 time. Countdown was Countdown with its Coltrane changes. Labyrinth was the final tune, a hugely complex melody with a super-fast little filler bridge.

Jacam led all this with a honey smooth tone and snake-charmer glissandi on some tunes, but then hardened up with honks and squeaks for some others. Hugely fluent arpeggios and extensions over the full range of the alto; dropping in and out of long double-time passages. A mate commented it was like a sax trio alternating with a piano trio. I didn’t hear it quite like that, but Aaron’s piano was similarly powerful and well spoken. He was often relaxed in finding the muse (there was a common feeling of space and sparseness in this band) but then he’d grow to consistent patterns ranging over the higher octaves, with varied left hand harmonies and an uncanny, drummer-like ease with maintaining a left hand syncopation against a right hand solo. I commented on the difficulty of reading the syncopations, and bassist Andrew agreed, saying it was only on Countdown that he could really play rather than read. So his was very much a challenging support role in this outing. Danny seemed more comfortable with the pieces. I’ve heard him with Jacam in the past, so presumably they play together often enough. He was a master, providing busy rhythms and colour using bushes and sticks and one time hands. I noticed again that ease with kick drum syncopations against complex right hand solo lines and the sharpest of stick techniques presenting mathematical permutations of beats and divisions.

Suffice to say, it was a magical concert, well attended and very well received. Thanks to the band for the fabulous performance and for saving us at least this trip to NY. But also to the decent turnout that will keep Canberra on the touring map.

Jacam Manricks (alto sax), Aaron Goldberg (piano), Andrew Emer (bass) and Danny Fischer (drums) performed music from Jacam’s CD, Labyrinth, at the University of Canberra.

A cut above

From the first notes it was evident that this Hippo event was special. Jacam Manricks took a very tarnished alto from his case, and the dull lustre said commitment and experience. He blew a few notes, and they said practice and preparation. He wondered aloud if this was a listening audience. Well no … Hippo is always noisy and chatty, except maybe at the end of the night when the clubbers have departed. But, with the support of Australia’s Contemporary Music Touring Program, he had a powerful quartet of players, and he blew through it with that committed, searching playing that we expect from that jazz mecca, New York.

Jacam has been based in New York for 7 years, after a few years in Sydney, but he’s a Brisbane boy. Danny Fischer, on drums, is a NY-based Melbournite. They both turn out with a swagger and visage which is obviously not local. It’s the same style that was evident with Don Byron’s Trio. Joining them were Brendan Clarke, bassist, Canberra born, bred and trained, and Jackson Harrison on piano. Both Brendan and Jackson won their respective instruments at the Wangaratta Festival’s National Jazz Awards. No slouchers here.

We got what we expected. There was fabulous, intense, closely responsive playing all round. Original compositions and richly reharmonised standards; long complex melodies and charted bass lines in accompaniment; constantly changing implied chordal movements; simple changes that occasionally emerged amongst the reharms; a buoyant extravagance of improvisation. I heard Jacam’s solos as exploring pitch structure and intervallic options within harmonies in a modern bop-influenced style, comfortable with long eighth-note passages which morphed into 16th-notes on call. Jackson seemed more dissonant to me, and perhaps more pensive; I thought I heard more substitutions or chromatic lead notes. Brendan accompanied with a busily moving left hand, dropping lovely but unexpected syncopations freely, and sounded with a soft underlying tone. Danny drummed with a marked smoothness in his movements and soloed with a sustained 16th-note pattern which mutated around the kit then ended with long sustained pattern that held tension but dimmed oh so gradually over time. There was a general feeling of comfort, a lack of struggle with fast playing against presto tempos which was evidence of their abilities.

There were several originals by Jacam. I think it was Super size slippery stick that was I got rhythm under the covers. You could feel the cyclic movements, but the melody was long and complex and the harmony was recreated and richly embellished. There was another that appeared to start as a ballad and later took on a march-like presence with snare drum rudiments but in 9-time. Olivia, a friend from the Jazz School, counted the drums and bass playing in 9/4 and 9/8 so they crossed every two bars. Another tune, Number one, developed into a free extravaganza. The title of another tune, Fours and twos, suggested an intellectual approach to composition, and had choruses ending with a massively quick little unison run. They also played a few from the fake books: Monk’s Introspection and Coltrane’s Satellite and finished with I hear a rhapsody.

Megan mocks me as finding every event as fabulous. I know I take a positive approach and for that reason I call these posts “reports” rather than “reviews”, but this really was a cut above and in a style which is current, and both emotionally and intellectually satisfying. How I long for NY.

Visitors from NY: Jacam Manricks

New York is a gathering place for jazz players from around the world. It has something like 10 major jazz clubs, and perhaps 100 venues for jazz. It’s still a mecca for advanced players, and the home of many famous jazz names. So jazz visitors from NY are something to look forward to.

Hippo’s NY visitors were Jacam Manricks (alto sax), Steve Newcomb (piano), Jasper Leak (bass) and Danny Fischer (drums). Jacam is the leader and composer, originally out of Brisbane. He’s the son of professional orchestra-playing parents and has a impressive history of awards in Australia and OS. In NY, he’s currently working on his doctorate in composition, and earning as a jazz educator. So, he arrives with lofty expectations. But these are all Australians with NY connections. Danny and Jasper have been in NY for several years; Steve was in NY but has now returned to Brisbane.

So what is it about NY? I feel you see immense commitment and seriousness (that classic book of modern jazz, “As serious as your life”, comes to mind). Also, I hear original compositions with a hard, exploratory and energetic edge. I imagine that’s partly an expression of the individualist, live-or-die, competitive world of the US (which is presumably at a frenzied pitch in NY) and modern jazz itself. And obviously, high levels of musicianship and vigorous renditions of standard tunes.

JM’s band didn’t disappoint. JM’s original compositions were spikey inventions, with big intervals jumping up and down through sinuous melodies, often with syncopated, written rhythm section accompaniment. The piano solos were thoughtful and adventurous; the sax solos were initially non-legato, and developed into long, atonal flourishes; the drums solos were frequent, fast and disjunctive, with lots of rolls and rudiments finishing with frequent staccato slaps. I only remember one bass solo, but it was highly competent and interesting. I’d heard Jasper Leak’s album, and, as a fellow bassist, I was very happy to hear his name mentioned when the band started up. He was absolutely solid in underlying these hard charts, and an immensely interesting foundation. There were a few walks, one which appeared spontaneously in UMMG, and another lovely walk throughout Countdown. Otherwise, he played syncopated, rhythmically diverse lines throughout the night. I discovered something when I noticed how he would break up the rhythm, playing on -2-4, then perhaps 2-41-34-2-4, so the beat moved from the 2-4 to the 1-3 then back again, usually at unexpected times. It’s like a rhythmic version of playing substitute chords: not wrong but quite disconcerting. Great playing.

The non-originals were Sam River’s “Beatrice”, Stayhorn’s “Upper Manhattan Medical Group” and Coltrane’s “Countdown”. Otherwise, the show was all original. As I remember, the played Numbers 7, 3, 2, a medley of 4/5, and 1. Trust me; the compositions were more creative than the titles. There was some complex reading and writing demanded of all the players: good and interesting stuff. Check out Jacam’s website for a generous collection of his original music.

JM is playing at Wangaratta in a few days. I hope the band gets a larger audience there than last night’s disappointingly small one. They deserve it.

http://www.jacammanricks.com/