Apologies

It was a busy time and that’s my reason but not an excuse. I missed writing up the CD launch for RasRufus. RasRufus are graduates of the Jazz School. They’ve been lucky in grants, and this is one outcome: their CD launch. The Ainslie Arts Centre was full with family and friends. This was virtually all original material, other than a visit to Radiohead. It was varied: studiously cool with minimal grooves, latin dotted crotchets, jazz rockers in 9/8, a Lonnie Smith tribute, the unpredictable floating odd times of Radiohead, a ballad and the major work, Tanzverbot. Tanzverbot is the name of the CD and the tune is long and complex. It means “dance is forbidden” in German, and refers to dance being banned before religious and public festivities from the 1930s. It’s written as an undanceable piece, although there’s at least one segment of danceable 4/4 mixed with the freeish or minimal styles and punctuated melodies and 7/4. Careful and prescribed msuic and sometimes excitable, especially with solos from Luke and Tom. My apologies to RasRufus for being so late with this one. RR are Victor Rufus (guitar), Henry Rasmussen (drums), Luke Sweeting (piano), Tom Sly (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Jared Plane (bass). Victor and Henry are the composers.

Revisiting the ninth movement

It’s not right that bands should be so mature at 22. Movement 9 played jazz, not pop or rock. This is a complex art form, so how can Joe McEvilly compose and arrange and lead a 9-piece band of such quality in just his second year of tertiary studies? It just goes to show he’s talented and committed and he’s had quality training. And I’m not the only one who thinks it. They were heard playing one of their first gigs at Canberra’s Floriade and were invited to perform at the Wangaratta Festival, Australian’s premiere modern jazz outing. It was in these auspicious circumstances that Movement 9 performed for the final student concert at the Jazz School.

What a blast it was: a melange of styles, mostly original compositions but also clever arrangements played by a great band of the most capable students. You may wonder when you listen to their skills, but they are students. This night they invited several mentors, Eric Ajaye on bass, Miroslav Bukovsky on trumpet and John Mackey on tenor. All experienced and renowned players and all at ease with a band like this. Coltrane’s Giant steps is a favourite tune of John Mackey and Joe’s arrangement was a tour de force. He hadn’t just written harmonies for horns, but he’d reconstructed the feel and time sense to twist memories and still present a joyous playtime for the duelling pair of altoist Matt and tenor John. This was both a blow and a blowout, but also an ingenious rethinking of this challenging standard. That was the end of the night. Before this there were a string of different feels and times and styles: attractive, theatrical, commercial. This was clever writing and the performers played up to the opportunity. Strings of solos, trombone, trumpet, piano, bass, several drum explorations, the best I’ve heard from Henry on drums. These were big, bold sounds and indulgent grooves and they were an inspiration. Tate was studied and expansive as always, even if undemonstrative in stage presence. The trumpet pairing of Ax and Tom were in friendly but serious competition. Matt is just a master, always lyrically clear and never a faked note despite exuberant flourishes. Raf was all smiles and groove and chops as the bass doubler. I only remember one solo from Oshein, fat and bluesy. Patrick’s trombone got quite a workout. Joe himself, led from the bottom, on baritonesax, but he’s equally comfortable on alto. I think of Mingus with his heavy baritone parts and his compositions and think this fits nicely.

Other tunes? They open with a tight rollicking latin with Lola quotes and Cuban trumpets. Then a chart that could have come from variety TV, swinging lightly with a quizzical melody and cool solos. Then a blues-influenced medium tempo hard bop called Green dreaming. Then Wings with a Steely Dan influence that Joe admittedly that he garnered from his parents. Then Winter hymn, a touching secular melody. Then a blow on Supercollider, a favourite big band piece at the Jazz School, featuring the chops of much loved teacher Eric Ajaye. There’s another for composition teacher Miro, slow and with space for Miro’s trumpet and another drum feature. Then Cool change, a laid back cocktail bar latin. Then Pinoaks and that rebuild of Giant steps and a 7/4 groove and a final encore. This is clever and surprisingly mature and varied music. A fat and tight band sound and capable solos and some great writing. The band has done the dying jazz school proud. Eric Ajaye spoke to an assembled audience that students should live their dreams, despite the demise of our jazz school here in Canberra. These guys may be products of a dying institution, but they are proof that it was a success. This was a seriously mature and capable and involving band and I loved it.

Movement 9 is led by Joe McEvilly (baritone sax) with Ax Long (trumpet), Tom Sly (trumpet, flugelhorn), Matt Handel (alto), Oisin Smith-Coburn (tenor), Patrick Langdon (trombone), Tate Sheridan (piano), Raf Jerjen (bass) and Henry Rasmussen (drums). Eric Ajaye (bass), Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet) and John Mackey (tenor) sat in for one tune each.

For Canberra’s 100th

I feel bereft and the final student concert at the Jazz School the other night had a sad, even teary, air about it. Eric Ajaye raised spirits with a dignified personal-recovery-from-adversity oration, and that’s admirable and true, at least to some degree. Joe McEvilly was leading the band and I was impressed by both his musical and personal maturity (he’s only 20!) as he avoided being overly political, recognising it was “too late for us” but maybe there was a future for others. I understand current students still don’t know what’s on offer next year. Some are leaving; some are staying to finish. One parent has told me of a student who had been offered a transfer but that it would extend his course by one year. Enrolments are down ~25% but the new Director expects full enrollment by the start of year. It’s a common expectation amongst the jazz community that no-one would come to Canberra for the new course. Perhaps students will pursue it as a second degree and that has some value and it’s cheaper. Good luck to the few worthy staff that remain (let alone those who have left). I imagine it will be a hard road to travel. This from an institution that been with us for half of Canberra’s 99 year life. I’m thinking that the Music School may have been the most popular cultural institution in Canberra. Certainly, tens of thousands of Canberrans signed a petition and all parties in the Legislative Assembly were disappointed with the ANU decision. Is this a 1975 Dismissal moment? The comparison sits easily with me. Remember the suddenness; remember the widely despised GG John Kerr; remember “Mantain the rage”; remember the rent to the Australian fabric. I can imagine an emotional void down Marcus Clarke St right now and some friends speak of it. My more cynical friends predict investments in high rise next to Llewellyn in a few years. I was terribly disappointed by the arguments presented, but the weakest must be to call up the conservative-bugbear of “elites”. How is this elite? Elite as in intellect and discovery like Nobel Prizes? Elite as in high university rankings? Elite as in musicians who are renowned and tour the world? Or elite as in Occupy’s 1% and $?m heads of corporations and too big to fail. With our whole society, even universities, taking the corporate path, it makes you wonder. Yep, the school was elite, but in performance not wealth and that seems perfectly admirable to me and Canberra was the better for its musical success. So, excuse the lack of a concert report. Suffice to say that it was very good. They are invited to play at Wangaratta, Australia’s main modern jazz festival, this weekend. That’s elite, stunningly so for a few students with original charts. But what more to say? Farewell.

Movement 9 played at the final ANU School of Music student jazz series of 2012. Movement 9 is a platform for arrangements and compositions by Joe McEvilly (baritone sax) with Ax Long (trumpet), Tom Sly (trumpet, flugelhorn), Matt Handel (alto), Oisin Smith-Coburn (tenor), Patrick Langdon (trombone), Tate Sheridan (piano), Raf Jerjen (bass) and Henry Rasmussen (drums). Eric Ajaye (bass), Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet) and John Mackey (tenor) sat in for one tune each.

For a full report on the concert rather than a paean over the jazz school, see Revisiting the ninth movement

Cyberhalides Jazz Photos by Brian Stewart

More chalk and cheese, pt.1

Freshbace was two student bands, each led by a visiting jazz luminary. The first was Bennie Maupin; the second was Joe Chindamo. I’d seen both of these musicians in workshop so I was intrigued to hear them in concert as leaders of a student band. Like some other combinations that I’ve attended at CJP, these were chalk and cheese.

Bennie’s band went first. Bennie was involved in some major movements in the late sixties and seventies - Bitches brew, On the corner, Headhunters, Mwandishi – so we could expect a more spacey presentation. We got it. Just to emphasise the approach, the concert started with a string quartet. Then into a concert of heavy grooves, touches of free or at least lengthy cacophony, string quartet intros and washes, plenty of solos including a Ponty-like jazz violin, and an end on a solid funk. The tunes were originals from Bennie’s pen. Jewel of the Lotus and Mapo were spacey ‘70s jazz from early ECM releases. Equal justice was a ballad where Bennie played a slow ostinato of long and somewhat atonal intervals on piano. The final tune was a solid jazz funk that livened up to finish the set. This is probably the era that most influenced me in jazz so I was entranced by the music. The students were playing to their best, aware but smiling, and the music was alluring and physical. I especially took note of the unusual sound of El’s electric violin, which she played with considerable authority and with those characteristic intervals due to the tuning in fifths. Daniel’s guitar solo, especially his overt cutting blues and repeated notes against the funk, was classic Kim: outlandish but convincing. Jordan dropped into slap for the funk and let loose some devastating triplet slaps. I enjoyed watching the string quartet enjoying temporary freedom from dots during several group improv passages. Nice concert and earthy and physical.

Bennie Maupin (soprano sax, piano) led a student band comprising Andy Butler (piano), Matt Handel (alto), Tom Sly (trumpet), Patrick Langdon (trombone), Daniel Kim (guitar), Henry Rasmussen (drums), Llewellyn Osborne (jazz violin) and the Childers String Quartet of Tobias Chisnall (violin), Estelita Rae (violin), Anthony de Battista (viola) and Julia Janiszewski (cello).

Cyberhalides Jazz Photos by Brian Stewart

An autumn serenade

I was late, but it was a buzzing crowd at the CGS Gallery when I arrived during Liam Budge’s set break: confident, friendly and chatty. Somewhat like Liam himself.

Singers do have a way, they have a presence, and Liam has it strongly. He emotes every word, bending knees, moving about the stage with the rhythms, leading strongly as a front man and percussing in support with nonsense vocal sounds. There’s a lot of his mentor, Vince Jones, in his presentation, the overt emotion and the hands crossed behind his back. Not so much the politics. At least at this stage, his presence is more simply musical and, when he writes, more personally emotional. So he performed Bye bye blackbird, but richly rearranged by Luke Sweeting in 7/4, and Autumn serenade, again re-imagined. One original was of lost love, forever a topic of music and also of youth. But his covers weren’t just the old standards. There was a Tom Waits and also a funky George Michael in the mix. This was rich variety, of performers and styles and grooves and sounds. His basic support was a piano trio, Luke, Jordan, Henry, but he augmented that for various tunes with Joe on alto and/or Tom on trumpet. I melted with some of Luke’s solos, but that’s to be expected these days. He is immensely strong, varied in improv, easily consonant or otherwise, and the piano gives him the most orchestral of instruments to play with. Henry introduced one tune with an attractive solo of percussive gentility where I noticed the thuddy tones of a floor tom damped with jacket over skin that contrasted nicely with a mildly played but sharply tuned snare. Jordan took the opportunity of the Tom Waits tune to let go with a fluent bass solo, and we consoled each other later about the clumsiness of the lovely-sounding double bass against the fluency of the middly-toned but easily-spoken electric. Bass doublers have it tough. On another tune, I noticed some lovely unexpected harmonies from Tom on trumpet against Liam’s vocal lines, and lifting fills with Joe on alto. But the voice is closest to human expression in music, and Liam is an overt, emotional, attractive character on-stage and off. Male singers aren’t too common on the ground and Liam, with his presence and depth, has convinced me they have a place. This was a very nicely presented and emotionally rich performance form Liam and his capable offsiders.

I must also mention the venue. The Canberra Grammar School Gallery may be short on lighting but it’s a wonderfully comfortable and even indulgent space, with grand piano, nice wines on tap and art to peruse in the breaks. Currently on display is the Mortimore Prize touring exhibition of realist art works. It’s not a large exhibition, but there are some decent painting skills (and impressive prices) on display.

Liam Budge (vocals) led a band at the CGS Gallery with Luke Sweeting (piano), Jordan Tarento (bass) and Henry Rasmussen (drums) and Tom Sly (trumpet) and Joe McEvilly (alto) sitting in on various tunes.

Turossing it (Moruya 2011/2)

Matt Thompson has been an enigma to me, being a particularly sparse-cum-minimalist performer, but I heard him twice at Moruya and I loved it. Sparse is certainly the word. You ache for the next delayed note in a melody that’s not so much challenging as just right. And when the whole band does it together, it’s quite magical. It seems touched with blues (a blues connotation?) in its simplicity and its infectiousness and, with Josie’s words, it takes on a singer-songwriter significance. Then, given the desert-dry atmosphere, a waterfall of notes in Matt’s solo in the last tune was a stunner. I enjoyed these two sets. Matt Thompson (piano) leads a quartet with Josie Jensen (vocals), Rafael Jerjen (bass) and Henry Rasmussen (drums).

Lakeside Circus is a favourite of mine. It’s a creation of Jono Lake, but he was called back to Canberra and the band did the set without him. I listened to Sun Ra returning from the coast, and the Circus has a similarly playful and iconoclastic vigour. Trumpeter Shane Spellman took to the drumkit that Jono now leads from and Reuben Lewis sat in for Shane on trumpet. This is vibrant, fun, entertaining, even dissident music that thrives on its frolicsome composition and collective performance. Fun and refreshing. Jono Lake (piano, drums) is the leader and composer for Lakeside Circus but was not available. This day, the Circus was Andrew Fedorovich (alto), Max Williams (tenor), Patrick Langdon (trombone), Reuben Lewis (trumpet), Alec Coulson (bass) and Shane Spellman (drums).

Turossing it (Moruya 2011/3)

Duck was unexpected and refreshing band: guys just having fun and music you just hang out to dance to. Josie led this funky, R&B outfit playing’60s tunes like the Stylistics and the classic political protest song, What’s going on. This was deadened thumbed bass, off-beat drum fills, beaming synth solos and an overdriven guitar solo at the end that gave me goosebumps. And Josie, cool and contagious out front. The only goosebumps I had all weekend. Duck comprised Josie Jensen (vocals), Callum Stewart (keys), Matt Dixon (guitar), Caleb Wearne (bass) and Sam McNair (drums).

I caught a family outing in two bands: father David Lole led a quartet performing mainstream featuring Melbourne saxist Roger Clark. His daughter is ANU student Rachel Lole who led a band playing delightful interpretations of the standards repertoire. David Lole (piano) led a quartet with Melbournites Roger Clark (tenor) and Alan Richards (drums) and student Caleb Wearne (bass). Rachel Lole (vocals) led a quartet with Clare Dawson (piano), Jared Plane (bass) and Henry Rasmussen (drums).

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.