Eternal triangle

The eternal triangle of jazz has to be the piano trio.

Pen Island played the other night at the Loft and they are a piano trio, but they are exuberant and fun and virtuosic and iconoclastic, so they didn’t feel so eternal, except maybe when they played Tony Williams’ beautiful tune, PeeWee, or their own gentle, thoughtful tune called Gloria’s whole. Most of their originals were dissonant and hugely energetic and richly improvised so they felt far more transient. They played a few known tunes, too, in this style. Autumn leaves was one. Now we all know Autumn leaves: no jazz musician could pass his training without it. Pen Island played it, but I had no idea where the tune was or what were the chords or the melody. I asked Brett later, and apparently he had played the chords backwards (starting with the last chord and reading left and up), extending each chord to four bars, and Gerard had played the melody in inversion. Then they’d improvised over that. The first set had been one long improv. Brett confirmed: no key, no preconceptions, just big ears. They finished with Skylark which should be as identifiable as Autumn leaves to my (smaller) ears. This had Brett playing the melody (“fairly freely”) then a solo, then piano playing the tune over a flattened bass riff (b5, b9?). But again, all richly improvised and heavily substituted so I only caught hints of melody during the first bass chorus. Bad Plus came to mind with their knavish energy, and I heard their atonal clamour a few times, but this was more unconventional, more extreme, more challenging. I loved it but I didn’t always understand it. I could hear extensions on bass and sequences on piano and lots of rock-influenced drum grooves and even a few walks. They were clear enough. But the whole was far more enveloping. There was some real beauty at times that took you back amongst the delirious energy. There was a bass tone to die for: big and round and clear as day. There was harmonic cleverness and massed 20th century dissonance from piano. There was a wonderful drum solo at the end that developed on Miles’ coloured and sometimes disjunctive style. There was a precision in the rests and returns that surprised and pleased me. There was some tuneful playing with obvious skills, but that lyricism was a surprise. These were players searching the boundaries with only ears to survive by and doing it at breakneck speed. Exhilarating and devilish and daring.

Canberra has its Parliamentary Triangle, and Pen Island has its Eternal Triangle and looking at their album cover had not only me thinking of another eternal triangle. Pen Island was intellect and extremity and skills and a stretch for many, but it was fabulous. Pen Island is Gerard “Phantom Jazz” Masters (piano), Brett “Lumberjack” Hirst (bass) and Miles “Stallion” Thomas (drums).

Crossing over (DHJF-7)

Jazz players don’t make their cash with swing these days: they have to play all sorts. And there are some great melodies in pop and great grooves in funk, so it can be great fun.

Eon Beats are a big acid jazz cum R&B cum funk outfit playing 16th-note syncopation with trance-like regularity, great solos from traditional instruments, but also choppy guitars and synth patches and spunky vocals. How can you not like funk? This is 70s US black pop tradition writ large. Rick Robinson leads the band. I’ve heard them once before as a funky outfit, and first in a very interesting bass-less incarnation with sax, drums, keys and turntables. And of course, RR led D.I.G. which was such a popular funky outfit around the ‘90s. Too loud, even in the open, but what a groove! Eon Beats were Rick Robertson (sax), Evelyn Duprai (vocals), Lily Dior (vocals), Ian Mussington (drums), Gerard Masters (keyboards), Alex Hewetson (bass), Phil Slater (trumpet), also guitar, trombone and percussion.

Gerard Masters also appeared in his pop-jazz-rock incarnation. It’s a standard rock lineup (keys/vocals, guitar, electric bass, drums; tenor sax sat in later). It’s strange to see jazz pianist as front line singer but the pop is better for it. This was jazz in rock guise, rock with a jazz complexion, Triple-J material. Gerard Masters (vocals, keys), Jonathan Zwartz (bass) and guitar and drums and Rick Robinson (tenor) sat in.

Acca Daiquiris were advertised as a loungish outfit. I’m doing a similar thing with Cognac Lounge so I was interested. This was more rock sounding and less trancy than us, given bass guitar and some pretty insistent playing, but the jazz piano was still there. Tunes were also more rock than funk (Long way to the top, Cocaine and White wedding). Entertaining. AD are Nick Norton (vocals, percussion), Tim Bruer (keys), Geoff Rosenberg (bass) and Antero Ceschin (drums).

James Valentine Quartet played more in the jazz tradition, so I hesitate to list it here, but he was playing a modern rock-pop repertoire. This was pretty easy going jazz, despite some powerful songs: Tom Waits, Throw your arms around me, silverchair’s Tomorrow, Midnight Oil’s Power and the passion. This was the lounge approach of taming the vicious beast. I didn’t catch his offsiders’ names.

Finally, I caught Shivon Coelho (vocals) and Joel Jenkins (piano) performing for an open mic competition. Their song was impressively original with a Joni Mitchell-style levity and a light high voice. Nice one.

Masterly & with integrity

By Daniel Wild

I have had the pleasure of seeing Gerard Masters three times now. A few years ago at the Winebanq in Sydney he accompanied Chico Freeman in what became a coming of age gig, although even then there wasn’t much room for improvement. I also saw him as part of SIMA’s program at the Sound Lounge in the Seymour centre. Inexplicably there were only about ten people present. This certainly affected the intensity of his playing. Masters thrives on intensity, atmosphere and occasion.

The Hippo Bar makes up for the lack of a piano with ambience, closeness and an underground feel (despite it being upstairs). Carl Dewhurst exploited this intimacy by opening with a solo set of experimental and blues guitar. The Hippo is an ideal venue for short solo performances. It is relaxed and allowed Dewhurst to play with the audience dynamic by sometimes musing in the background and then building up his presence with more adventurous guitar riffs.

One piece was decidedly atonal and freeform, making it initially hard listening. But it grew on you and when it finished the listener had begun to adjust to its parameters. Dewhurst made use of an array of pedal effects for this composition. He certainly enjoyed exploring the distorting, bending, shimmering permutations of the strange chords and their relationships. This music is sometimes more safely performed in the privacy of the musician’s home.

Dewhurst finished with a straight ahead blues that became increasingly rhythmically varied and witty. Gerard Masters, who had been watching from various vantage points, appeared after a brief break and began heating things up with Stockton Shuffle. The head has an interesting rhythm and explores minor tonalities before a three beat rhythm asserts itself for Masters’ solo. Evan Manell provides exciting support as Masters builds his ideas patiently, inviting the listener to share in the unfolding harmonic possibilities and melodic fragments that could go down various pathways.

The second piece, Pendulum, borrowed a motif from Chopin’s Nocturne in A flat major. Masters ingeniously incorporates this light, faery motif as a frame around a daring post bop middle section. The original Chopin Nocturne also had an emotionally charged and harmonically challenging B section and Masters expands the romantic depths with some inspiring descents and parallel chromatic chords that define dark and moody tonal centres. Tonality is less important here – it is implied and not stated and engulfed by neighbouring chords which pull and shift the tonality like a gravity-well.

A slower, more relaxed pace, suited for visions looking forward to the horizon and back upon reminiscences, is the setting for Message to My Girl, dedicated to the band’s better halves. The incorporation of classical elements, fourths and rock riffs makes this an accessible trio piece. The Keith Jarrett influence can be seen and again Masters shows admirable patience in building his solo both in volume and intensity. He never overplays and displays his sensitivity and integrity to context. Masters passes the litmus test of the complete pianist by playing thoughtfully and introspectively in this ballad. Many other jazz players who are known for their chops don’t execute as well on ballads.

Cameron Undy’s bass playing is perfect and unobtrusive. The trio complement each other well but both Manell and Undy must be commended for ably supporting Masters’ musical aesthetic. Carl Dewhurst introduced Masters as one of “Australia’s and the world’s best pianists”. I second that. If you are a fringe dweller of jazz, or someone who appreciates classy adventurous playing you have to see a Gerard Masters gig. He is still young and could well be Australia’s answer to Chick Corea, Brad Meldhau and other modern jazz pianists willing to push the envelope and not compromise on musical integrity. Masters’ incorporation of classical riffs, blues, rich harmonies and singing and soaring melodic lines may well convert people indifferent to jazz to this modern and thoughtful music.

Pics coming soon, with any luck

Masters not apprentices

Gerard Master’s Canberra launch for his new CD, Island, was eagerly awaited. The master didn’t disappoint. Hippo’s was home to two sets of ardent, intense, virtuosic and sometimes beautiful and tuneful music. The Trio is Gerard Masters (piano), Cameron Undy (bass) and Evan Mannell (drums). I'd heard this group at White Eagle about a year ago, but Gerard used the house upright with the abysmal tuning and the acoustics were not so tolerant. I noticed the sound last night was unusually satisfying. Hippo has put down carpets on the playing surface, perhaps just to protect the timber floors, but the sound has softened and clarified with the reduced echoes. It’s an improvement.

But back to the band. They started with a gentle, Euro-jazz style which grew from pensive to impassioned. I expected something like this style for the rest of the night, but was surprised by Bird bop appearing out of some very obscure piano references early in the second tune. But the bop remained strongly altered, even if the form and underlying harmony was evident. Thereafter, the music was mainly in the modern style, but included a touch of pop/R&B with an original dedicated to Ray Charles, a few ballads, and a hauntingly beautiful original tune by Cameron played mostly unison on piano and bass, and called Consolation. From the top, I was stunned by Cameron’s bass tone and rabid virtuosity. I’ve heard him several times, on double bass and this electric instrument, but this performance was clearer in intention and tonality than any other I’ve heard. He was firing: busy but always fitting. The tone was woody, richly low-mid, and plenty loud enough. The solos were stunning: finger and thumb picking, chords, thumb positions (not an electric bass technique), rapid movements up and down the fingerboard. Stunning stuff. This busy-ness worked in the context of Gerard’s style: open, not overly chordal. His also was rich playing, sometimes gentle, other times furious, with alterations and wide pitching. But despite his proficiency, he left considerable space for the others, and often enough sat out for solos and varied sounds. Evan also was minimal at times, both in kit and performance. His was a sparse style, but well in tune with the others, and exploratory. There were real chops, but one time when he dropped back to child-like drumming simplicity highlighted the artfulness of his playing. This was clever and studied playing. And there were some excellent, lyrical drum solos which quietened the audience, especially a long one late in the night. Overall, there was a feel of limited arrangements, but a very satisfying immediacy and improvisation in the playing. Like being admitted to the musos’ private space.

On the goss side, Gerard several times expounding his love for the audience (ironically, of course), and cheeckily allowed for himself to be called “the Master”. Cocky, yes, but acceptable given that this was a night of truly stunning and intriguing playing all round. Great stuff.

White Eagle double barrel

Another great night was had at the White Eagle last night. This is only the third night, but these sessions are developing well, and promise to create quite a stir over time. Last night it was a double bill with the Gerard Masters Trio (Sydney) and the John Mackey Quartet, followed, of course, by the jazz jam session.

First on was John Mackey (tenor) with Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet), Bill Williams (bass) and Ed Rodrigues (drums). John and Miro are teachers at the CSM, so considerable talents with lengthy histories. The tunes were originals, I think mostly from John’s portfolio but including some from Miro. The style is probably best described as hard bop, in the idiom of Art Blakey: solid rhythms, fast walks, sharp unison heads, long structured solos and dynamics rising and falling with the solo changes. John plays challenging solos in the style of Coltrane. Good, authentic, inventive stuff; in and out of the harmonies, all over the beat, and lots of impassioned sounds. Miro was a bit of a surprise to me. I usually picture his playing in the context of Wunderlust rather than in a bop-style, but he did this admirably well. Sharp playing, fast runs, clean playing. Bill and Ed are students (only 2nd year, I think, but it doesn’t show). Ed’s playing with great confidence these days – he was lively and busy and relevant both this night and the night before with the large ensembles. Bill has a great reputation. Just the other day, someone was praising his 300bpm walks at a recent concert practice. He put down a solid and reliable undercurrent, and played interesting solos, and fitted comfortably with Ed. This was a nice band, presumably put together for the night but very capable.

The Sydney import in the second set was obviously awaited with anticipation by the CSM students. They have been saying for some time (in awe, it seemed to me) that Gerard Masters was coming for the next White Eagle session. This was no let down. It was a sublime performance by a piano master with an elite pair of offsiders. Gerard Masters has been selected to contest the Piano prize at this year’s Wangaratta Festival, and we could see why.

The trio was Gerard Masters (piano), Cameron Undy (bass) and Dave Goodman (drums). Again, the music was mostly band originals by Gerard, but included one from Cameron’s sister, Fiona, and another by Sean Wayland. This was subtle and complex music. There was a good deal of swing at times, but it also had Euro elements; no II-Vs here. Gerard plays incredibly mobile interpretations of the harmonic structure. His substitute chordal work is constant, ongoing and convincing; sometimes hard-on soloing, other times gentle and intuitive. Cameron is also a master in this style. He could freely move over the fingerboard, but he’d play simply, then intersperce with incredibly fast and complex little runs. He’s a master of that fingerboard: fast and comfortable and always appropriate. And Dave was there with a big grin, and similarly relevant playing. Dave’s grin was a bit of a symbol for the band – they communicated well, enjoyed each others’ playing, and it showed. But to me, the defining issue was how they could portray the essence of a tune. They were not just running chords, but voicing the very character and meaning of the pieces they were playing. They are trained - that’s clear - but I was surprised by their young age and real musical maturity. These are guys to watch. Too bad about the poorly-tuned piano, but nothing in life is perfect.

Both these concerts were recorded by Chris Deacon of ArtSound, so they should appear on radio in coming weeks.