Neat flight

Volant was touring and they were playing at Smiths as their penultimate gig before a final outing at the Milton Festival.  Volant is fronted by Matthew Ottignon but interestingly it's otherwise a trio of women which still remains less common although there are now plenty of female jazz instrumentalists out there.  This was a delightfully precise and careful band and it was playing acoustic and at a very moderate volume.  I felt I was in a studio given great precision and restraint and correctness and I put it down to the membership, but I was wrong.  The penultimate tune of the second set got louder as they played on and the final was a blower and it sounded just like any similarly competent band of whatever composition.  But these were competent all round.  Hannah's an old mate and also a bassist so I especially watched her playing.  Just so reliable and apt and unpretentious and deeply serving the tune.  Serving the tune is a great skill and I loved this.  Matt was similarly careful and precise, although as the sax out front, he had a more outspoken role, but still very neat.  Lauren on piano played restrainedly, too, but there was a good deal of adventurousness there too, some dissonance, various interpretations or melodic takes in solos.  Hayley was mostly quite understated, lightly played, heavy on cymbals and hi-hat and kick, but then she too let go with sticks on skin and drama and drive.  So, I feel comfy in my concepts of second-wave feminism, that we can all do much the same thing in similar circumstances and we should have the opportunity.  But my-oh-my did I enjoy this calm precision.  Just lovely.

Volant performed at Smiths.  Volant comprised Matt Ottignon (tenor, alto, minor percussion), Lauren Tsamouras (piano), Hannah James (acoustic bass) and Hayley Chan (drums).

SoundOut 2025-2

Then Zosha Warpena from USA playing hardanger d'amore.  This caused quite a thrill, both for the performance, sometimes drone-like or rhythmic developing from a 3-feel, all with overlaid vocals, and the instrument.  We weren't alone in being perplexed by the instrument.  Hardanger is a Norwegian viola with 9 strings (read Wikipedia), four played and 5 resonant strung underneath or through the neck, a flat fingerboard lending itself to double stops, gut strings and baroque-like convex bow.  Quite lovely and something quite new to the room.  Zosha told me she's studied classical violin but did her masters on the hardanger and the vocals were something of her invention.  Quite lovely.  Then a session with piano, soprano sax, drums, trumpet/flugelhorn and cello.    Hubbub pianist Frederic Blondy was enthusiastic and creative and essentially led this performance to my ears.  Italian soprano saxist Gianni Mimmo was fabulously expressive in fluid, harmonically clear and penetrating response in somewhat like bop-styled chordal movements and cellist Peggy Lee of Canada/Melbourne strongly parallelled and supported the piano with obviously well-trained ostinato and other rhythmic patterns.  Miro listened and inserted himself several times with busy and apt jazz-like phrasings and Sydney drummer Hayley Chan was reserved primarily on cymbals. 

Zosha Warpeha (hardanger d'amore, vocals, USA) performed solo.  Federic Blondy (piano, France) performed with Gianni Mimmo (soprano, Italy), Peggy Lee (cello), Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Hayley Chan (drums).

Two monsters

These were not really jazz other than that all music can be, or is influenced by, jazz.  First up was Moussa Diakite Trio.  Afrobeat, huge fun, demandingly danceable, fascinatingly rhythmic.  I tried counting at times with some failures.  Nice to see they had plenty of whoops and a few up and dancing in the Uniting Church.  Just three blokes, all with hats.  Strange, insistent, immersive rhythms that demand movement, then stop suddenly or twist with some odd unison line, and those harmonies simple but sure.  I was intrigued by the relationship of bass and drums, sometimes obvious enough, other times strangely various in rhythm.  But it all worked, despite my disorientations.  And that classic jagged guitar that also goes with the territory.  A huge joy here and lots of foot tapping.  Then a taste of something completely different.  Monstress.  It's an amusing name.  Four 20-something women impressing both with musical skills and awareness and also purpose in lyrics.  Again not that I caught the lyrics but the tunes were introduced.  There was a wonderful funkiness, nicely structured and easy pedalling and an awareness of the hypnotic and the value of statement.  I heard Meshell Ndegeocello in the first tune and Sarah later acknowledged the influence.  And she volunteered Esperanza Spalding.  Well chosen influences create worthy music.

The Moussa Diakite Trio comprised Moussa Diakite (guitar vocals), Lenny Samperi (bass, vocals) and Junior Jones (drums).  Monstress were Sarah Homeh (bass, vocals), Jade Slater (keys), Jenna Lewis (tenor) and Hayley Chan (drums).