Returns

Finally back to playing after a few weeks off and first gig up was National Press Club Friday evening jazz session. It's an august institution where the cream of local jazzers have played over the years so a great privilege to perform there. We accompanied Josh Knoop, a guitarist with a love of Pat Metheny, softly toned, lithe and malleable. Old friend Lauren Black, once of ArtSound and In Full Swing Big Band, was in the house and we inveigled her into a few jazz numbers. No pic of Lauren this time, but one of the band in front of the monumental and monumentally large photo of Whitlam at the Dismissal, scowling over the shoulder of David Smith on the steps of (now Old) Parliament House. Then another outing the next day for a private function, a significant birthday party (Happy birthday, Alex) so a busy weekend for Tilt. Coming up next weekend, a mix of orchestral and jazz.

Tilt played the National Press Club with Josh Knoop (guitar) and Lauren Black (vocals) sat in. Tilt are James Woodman (piano), Eric Pozza (bass) and Dave McDade (drums).

Back to the fray

It’s been a few weeks since Jason Moran - a few weeks of contemplation rather than attending jazz. But I was invited to In Full Swing's 20th anniversary concert, and it was a gentle reintroduction but a joyful one. IFS are a local big band and they were celebrating their 20th anniversary. As musical director Nathan Sciberras noted, it’s still a baby next to Spectrum BB (was it 75 years?) but still impressive and they will be around for their 21st year of maturity next year. We were all invited. And “all” was the right term. This was a full house in a big room at the Southern Cross Club and it was sold out and 80 people were turned away. I could see why. There was real enjoyment in the audience. The tunes were renowned popular numbers from various decades, the dancers were the local swingers, the band was having a ball and the room was swinging. Being swing, these guys (here I include the guy-ettes with apologies to Simone de Beauvoir) played old numbers, but they ranged over 50 years and Nathan even mentioned more recent Matchbox 20, and the older numbers sometimes got the treatment. So what did they play? A St James Infirmary that was funked up and some Basie and Benny Goodman and Zoot suit riot - all swing and homebase for the K-Motion and Jumptown dancers. I liked the Motown tunes and they were true to style and arrangement, eg, Ain’t no mountain high enough although Superstition is not a favourite of mine. There were a series of cubed tunes: Quando quando quando, Perhaps perhaps perhaps and Benny Goodman’s Swing swing swing. There were some sleazy oldies that I squirm at but ya have to live with, like Danke Schoen (still going around my head) and You’re just too good to be true and Tom Jones and there was audience involvement with Minnie the Moocher. My favourites were Bacharach’s I say a little prayer with its odd timings and L-O-V-E (Love is for the way you look at me) which is corny but I love it. There were others too, but you get the picture. The band was swinging and the solos were short and shared, as is the way with BBs. I especially noted George Cora on drums and a sweet clarinet solos from visitor Tom Manley. The singers were commendable: Lauren Black, a friend of CJ, was in fine form with a voice that rang big and clear and was perfect for the role. A new one on me was male singer Tom Johnson. His first tune was a Tom Jones number and I was surprised by its authenticity. Then some decent belting out of Sinatra and Dean Martin and more left me with some admiration. This is all amateur work, but it was a comfortable and confident front line. The rhythm section was steady and swinging; the horns were nicely timed, too. There may have been too many encores but the band was having a great time and the audience was in perfect concordance. IFS are turning 21 next year but let’s face it, who wants to grow up when you’re having such fun? [Excuse the camera. My normal one needs repairs.]

A runaway artistic success

Jazz Uncovered, JU2010, the second apparition of our local modern jazz festival, was a runaway artistic success. We’d fallen on a theme of variety in promoting the event in the run-up, and this turned out to be the key to the day. Modern jazz is a broad church and JU2010 was clear evidence of it: cool or smooth or experimental or hot, vocal or instrumental, duo or band or large ensemble, richly arranged or free, even circus music or rockabilly. There was variation and exploration everywhere, with both seriousness and joy. I can only bow to the level of creativity and skill shown by our local students and professionals and our visitors. We’d invited the performers with these words: “We are seeking a broad range of inventive modern jazz in varied formats, large or small ensembles, even solo artists if you have something special to offer. We are hoping for original compositions, special performances like replaying renowned albums, retrospectives of famous performers, cross-genre styles like NuJazz, jazz-poetry, breakbeats. We have a definite preference for original compositions, so get your pencils and manuscript paper to work and get in touch.” It was pleasing how eagerly and competently they responded. I know the local scene, but even so, I was floored to see and hear it all together, in one place, on one day, and I was overjoyed with the visitors and their contributions on the day.

The culture was reinforced with the dedication of committee and volunteers, the good will and easy interaction of musicians and audience, the recording prizes donated by ArtSound and Infidel (and the ACT Government’s funding support), the low-key but effective sound work by Guy, and of course the involvement of ArtSound throughout the event. ArtSound broadcast live to air early in the afternoon, then recorded most of the rest of the event. You’ll no doubt be hearing sets on Friday Night Live over coming months, and there’s even talk of a JU2010 sampler CD in the wind. Certainly the music deserved it.

But where was the audience? It was a meagre turnout. The committee will ponder the lessons learnt. Was it the long weekend, the two consecutive long weekends, Floriade, the warm spring weekend, school holidays, marketing, Canberra’s habit of pushing off down the coast when the weather’s good? Probably a bit of all those things, but audience is the sine qua non for events and JU2010 was sadly wanting. This is not unknown in jazz. I was chatting to Matt McMahon who observed that some of his favourite recordings are live and with an obviously small audience. It’s a common experience: fine art is a challenge. Not everyone’s up to it or interested in it, and perhaps no-one’s up to it every day. For now it’s over to the committee to discuss the outcome of the day. But on the positive side, here are a few pics. And thanks again to the committee: Brenton Holmes, Cameron Smith, Lauren Black, Reuben Lewis and Eric Pozza.

BTW, congratulations to Matt Thompson who won the ArtSound FNL/Mastering prize, and “lucky Luke” Sweeting and Rachael Thoms who won the Infidel recording session.

JU crew

Thanks to all who made JU a successful event. A great Committee: Brenton Holmes, Cameron Smith, Courtney Stark and Eric Pozza. A great venue: Bill Arnett from the Folkus Room, now in the extensive Italo-Australian Club. Great sound: Kev Austin and George Pass of Active Clear Sound. Recording and live broadcasting courtesy of Chris Deacon, Lauren Black, Neal Gowen and others at our Arts Partner, ArtSound. And our sponsors and supporters and string of volunteers. Thanks to all.

Live to air, weekly, #1

Friday Night Live started its season from ArtSound last night with a quartet of talented and capable students from the Jazz School appearing as the Reluctant Deacons. Reluctant Deacons? The band didn’t have a name before the broadcast started, but we heard it with mirth when the introductions came in the first set. Amusing, given that Chris Deacon was in the engineer’s seat, and Hugh Deacon was in the drum seat. But more seriously, it was a most impressive start for this series of Friday Night live concerts from the Manuka studio of ArtSound.

In keeping with the last minute band name, the tunes were a last minute mix of common standards, but the playing was wonderfully capable. It was consistently changing, but always unified and flowing. The melodies were syncopated and anticipated and delayed and otherwise loose but convincing; the solos were passed obviously enough, but were flexible and supple and subtly interactive between the performers. The playing was fast at times, but mostly exploratory, searching. This is the result of years of study and capable tuition: a sense of awareness, purpose and lightness and mobility. It’s a pleasure. Certainly it was a pleasure for listeners who phoned during the broadcast to express their pleasure and surprise that these were students playing live. Friday Night Live offers a new opportunity for capable local jazz and potential listeners to form new relationships.

But back to the Reluctants. The band was James LeFevre on tenor sax, Austin Benjamin on piano, Chris Pound on bass and Hugh Deacon on drums. The tunes were obvious, but retained their freshness with such valid interpretations: Solar, Invitation, Blue Bossa, Have you met Miss Jones, Caravan, Footprints, Sandu, Blue in green and All the things you are. Nothing new there, except perhaps Austin’s arrangement of Caravan with several bars of 5/4 in the middle somewhere. The band had a good time. The broadcast was played by experienced ear, and went off exactly to the second despite some nervousness around the studio. Austin and James were interviewed live to air by Lauren, and Chris (Pound) even managed a lightning fast run to Manuka for a hamburger in the break. By the end of the second set, the scene was more relaxed and the last five seconds leading up to 10pm were followed by smiles of success.

A live broadcast does not allow for carelessness, but this was professional all round. The players did their parts well, Chris and Lauren Black performed their radio roles capably, and now we can look forward to a string of live Friday evening broadcasts.

Friday Night Live will feature live concerts from a number of sources: live to air concerts from the ArtSound studio; live concerts recorded by ArtSound at Canberra venues over the last 20 years; and featured concerts from major European jazz festivals. ArtSound is partnered with the European Broadcast Network, and this gives us their concerts to broadcast, but also give us outlets in Europe from our musicians.

Listen to Friday Night Live on ArtSound at 8-10pm each Friday. Look for a link to the program page soon on CJ.

Jam jar

I got to the second Jazz at the Folkus jam session on Saturday. It was not quite what I had expected. The music was fairly mainstream, rather than out-there modern, but jazz has a history, and it’s made up of a rich tapestry of historical styles. These were some that I love, but don’t always indulge in.

The host band for the event was the In Full Swing big band. It’s a community band based in Belconnen. It’s made up of about 20 players and is led by Nathan Sciberras. This is swing, the popular music of the 40s or thereabouts: think Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and the crooners, but with some popular modern classics. I love this stuff, and it’s become very popular again with the emergence of Sinatra-stylists like Michael Buble. The repertoire ranged from Cry me a river and Fever, through Lady is a tramp, Georgia, Night and day and Take 5, to Song of the Volga Boatman. All good stuff and the playing was satisfying. There was a very reliable beat from a capable rhythm section, and some good swing and interplay from the horns. The intonation was a bit sus at times, but the charts were professional, the dynamics were strong and the enjoyment was obvious. I took note of Samantha Seckold on bass and several solos, Lauren Black on vocals and Nathan himself as leader. It was a nice one all round and much enjoyed. Congrats to the band. I’ve grown to admire such community activities in recent years. Oh brave new town that has such things in it!

Next came my band, Toucani. We were Trio Toucan, but we recently added a sax so the small name change. We chose to do an originals set, but did sneak in our theme-tune standard, the lovely and slightly kitsch Out of nowhere. Most of our originals are penned by Daniel, who writes harmonically rich tunes as only pianists can. I wrote two others, and these are typical bassist tunes: latin and rhythm-based but with reasonably complex call and response melodies. I like to think we introduced a harder post-Coltrane edge to the proceedings, and hopefully our mistakes just appeared as early-60s explorations. Toucani are Daniel Wild (piano), John Baczynski (tenor), Brenton Homes (drums) and Eric Pozza (bass).

Kooky Fandango followed with a very different set. KF seem to me a bridge to more popular and bluesy styles, which makes them a sellable proposition, only enforced with the female vocals up front. The players are good, the style is clean and precise, the levels are restrained. This is quite a professional outfit and was popular with the audience. Peter is a well-known local player on his 6-string Alembic bass. I especially noticed one massively fast, flamenco style solo. Cameron is classically trained so his intonation is always good and Nathan Sciberras (leader of In Full Swing) reappeared on baritone sax giving some interesting counterpoint. Courtney has a strong and deep female voice, which suited the blues-influenced style. Kooky Fandango are Courtney Stark (vocals), Cameron Smith (trumpet), Nathan Sciberras (baritone sax), Peter Barta (bass), George Cora (drums).

A jam session ended the day with players from the In Full Swing small jazz ensemble. The tunes were obvious ones of the period: Summertime (hate it!), Caravan (love it!), Don’t bug me, hug me (more 12 bar jump blues than jazz), and Don’t get around much anymore. It was a bit too subdued for me, but I warmed to the head of Caravan, which seems to be impossible to play without passion.

I hope to see a wider mix of players at future jams, including a smattering from the Jazz School. James LeFevre might bring a few along when he provides the host band in a few months time. The venue is roomy; the beers are club prices; the entry is free for musos; there’s a very impressive PA and a big car park just out the door.

Jazz at Folkus jams are held the third Saturday every month, 2-5pm. Entry free for players; otherwise $12/$10. Folkus Room, Serbian Club, Mawson. Queries contact Cameron Smith 0422 842 605