Melody

We bassists have too little awareness of melody.  Even our awareness of chords is limited other than as movements and intervals, say, compared to a pianist who plays the colours.   It's understandable.  Our role is rhythm and we can play whole gigs with just a chord chart and it's common with many (primarily) single note instruments.  Nonetheless, melody and those chordal colours are central to well written music and Burt Bacharach is a key example in C20th popular music and I was astounded yet again at Smiths this night.  Greg Stott was leading a group playing the music of BB.  I was late, given some confusion over the starting time, but what I heard had me almost in tears.  Admittedly, it's music of my lifetime and that's of relevance, but the complexity and sheer inevitability of the tunes, their plays with time and abbreviated bars, their glorious unexpected colours and beautiful while self-evident melodies overwhelmed me.  The band was good too!  Great even.  Chris with a Beatle bass with pick and occasional finger style, thumping apt rhythms and grooves and plenty of expressive solos.  Nick a wonder on steady and determined beats that exploded with sharp fills.  Greg just shredding with his quick and neat guitar, and some delightful jazz solo takes on a few tunes.  El had a new 5-string e-violin that had me thinking viola until I heard of the low C string.  Her solos were expressive and right, but she stunned me with neat and glove-fitting fills, expertly played over Burt's captivating chords and melodies that just asked for such treatment in good hands.  And Liam who put the words, sometimes queried in our different world, of love and loss.  Anyone who had a heart had to be touched by his fluid jazz interpretations.  But the love, or the look of it, was filling the hearts at Smiths.  Not that it was a young crowd: this was of an era.  I mostly missed the first set, coming in on an instrumental Look of love (as I remember) then a break.  Then That's what friends are for, Wives and lovers, Alfie, Walk on by, Close to you, What the world needs now is love.  Just one of those would crown the work of virtually any songwriter.  Truly a master amongst  Lennon/McCartney, Dylan, Carole King, Joni Mitchell and the like.  But this was just some tunes.  I remember seeing Greg at the BB gig at the Royal Theatre here in Canberra in Oct 2015.  Just look at his playlist for that concert and fell the awe.  Given Burt's and the Greg's band, this was the concert I was most awaiting this year and I was not disappointed.

Greg Stott (guitar), Chris Pound (bass), Nick McBride (drums), Llewellyn Osborne (violin) and Liam Budge (vocals) performed music of Burt Bacharach at Smiths.

BB setlist Oct 2015

Elastics

The name was a little odd and to some degree so was the music.  Richard suggested Swamp jazz for a style.  And this mix of guitars and violin made for memories of Mahavishnu from tone if not from style.  Two crisp guitars, again of quite different sound and style.  Lachlan was hard and sharp, uneffected, with short bends suggesting heavy strings.  Dylan played lighter, fingers gentle and delicate and with softer tone, perhaps reverb, or chorus given his Roland jazz chorus amp.  Then that unusual instrument for jazz or later styles, the violin.  That was spacious with reverb and tight and fast with chops.  We wondered why there's not more violin in modern musics.   It's a great tone and there are tons of well trained players if not necessarily players with understanding of the styles.  Certainly El has solo chops but also an awareness of the context and accompaniment.  Lovely.  Arpeggiated sequences and scalar flourishes and all manner of bowed effects were common, but also tenderness as in her lullaby composition.  As for the back line, as a bassist I much admire Chris, his aptness and ease along with fierce chops when that's called on and that insistent while soft tone, and Gus on drums was tight and expressive.   We heard several guitarist tunes, from John Abercrombie and Pat Metheny, and a few originals, demanding or relaxed, always played with respect and understanding.  And this is just the opening band for the night?  Looking good.

Elastic Molasses comprised  Lachlan Coventry and Dylan Slater (guitars), Llewellyn Osborne (violin), Chris Pound (bass) and Gus Henderson (drums).  EM played at Smiths.

In search of lost time

Maybe it's the quiet and close surroundings, or the U3A jazz appreciators as audience, or the infrequency of seeing these guys (and El) for some time. But maybe it was just the truly excellent and authentic playing. Lachlan and El and James. A drummerless trio playing an originals and a few standards. From the first notes I just indulged in it and I wasn't alone. Lachlan setting lovely rhythms, steady and relaxed. El coming in with lovely sustained tones on violin, spelling melodies with little twists and soloing with the most exquisite phrasing, lots of sequences, notes changing over time as they can with the bow, varied lines and interpretations. Then the solos passed, to Lachlan, more sustained lines, perhaps chordal, maintaining eighth or sixteenth notes, always purposeful, as I've been so impressed by on recent YouTube outings. Then to James, superbly flexible, freely moving through scale degrees and up the neck, always spelling the chords with joy and clarity. El had penned the one original, Stevie's song. First up was by Zappa (!), Blessed relief (El commented that it wasn't rude like many others, but there were no lyrics anyway). And some faves: Out of nowhere, I'll remember April, All blues, A ghost of a chance. And one from left field: Bach, JS, the first prelude from Well Tempered Clavier. Wonderful melody, nice solos based on the chordal movements. An interesting venture, but then Bach is God for all musicians. I'll remember Lachlan's courteous precision, James' easy melodicism, El's overwhelming sense of intriguing phrases and quick sequences. A fabulous, intimate concert and, given how infrequently I've seen these deeply satisfying musicians recently, a remembrance of things passed.

Lachlan Coventry (guitar), El Osborne (violin) and James Luke (bass) played for the U3A Jazz Appreciation Society at the Raiders Club Weston.

Thanks to music regular Bob Howe for the main pic above

Without you

God only knows what I’d be without you. It’s a haunting theme and a perfect melody and maybe a song that Jocie Jensen’s grandfather sang to his deceased wife in her garden. Jocie performed last night in a septet at the Loft. It may be the name of the unassuming band, or maybe just of this performance, but Jocie and Rhys presented this as Hilda’s garden. I heard the story twice and it had me close to tears both times. Her grandmother, Hilda, developed dementia and her husband, Jocie’s grandfather, built a garden for her to tend. After she died, he would sing to his departed spouse in her garden. Maybe he sang the Beachboys song, God only knows. I can only admire such a touching and life-affirming response to loss.

Jocie told me before the concert that she was seeking to perform something other than just jazz standards. In the end, there was jazz, and these are trained jazz players, so the performance had solos and chops, but this gig ventured far afield: to song and melody (Jocie mentioned good song-writing several times during patter) and to pop (but not pap) and to words (but not intellectualisation). Jazz also has its melodies, of course (I have bop in my head frequently), but these are mostly intellectual and thrilling rather than deep and touching. We got one of those intellectual thrills as the final tune, Monk’s dream, with its rabid atonalism and virtuosic abandon, and one of the few jazz tunes that can touch the soul as an encore, Round midnight, but mostly these songs were from other repertoires. A distillation of Simple Minds’ Don’t you forget about me; Vince Jones’ rich structure in Love comes back; Sigur Rós Góðan Daginn, translated from Icelandic; Chris Thile’s The beekeeper with a bluegrass-styled unison piano-fiddle middle; Pat Metheny’s Midwestern night’s dream (Jocie: Pat Metheny sure can write music); Peter Gabriel’s In your eyes (Jocie: he writes great melodies); A-Ha’s rollicking Take on me; and as a starter, Christian Scott’s The Eraser with unison syncopated comping on piano/bass behind a tasteful melody. And that superbly beautiful God only knows sung with solo guitar backing. These are obviously not jazz charts, but they are impressive and affecting songs.

They were an unassuming band and their concern was with song, so I am wary of mentioning individuals. But what did I notice? Jocie’s voice mostly sang pure and high with a subtle decay into vibrato, but perhaps my favourite was when she got down, dirty and atonal, in Monk’s dream with odd intervals and bluesy growls. El’s violin is infrequent in jazz but a wonderful sound, wet with reverb and very smart and animated and with classically-correct intonation. Tom’s trumpet (muted or not) and flugel dropped a few frenzied lines but were mostly lyrical and nicely structured, often working in harmony with the Jocie’s voice or against El’s counterpoint. Luke is just a master and eminently professional. I laughed with his outlandish solo in Monk’s dream that was far enough out that I wondered if it was just free, but it was littered with the slightest of hints at underlying chords. Rhys had a modest demeanour, eyes down in thought, but then surprised me with what was the nearest thing to shredding during a few later solos. Alec and Luke were supportive rhythm section with rock rhythms, understated percussion, unison written lines and occasional walks.

This was touching stories and refreshing melody from a very unexpected setlist. Hilda’s garden was led by Jocie Jensen (vocals) and Rhys Mottley (guitar) with support from Tom Sly (trumpet, flugelhorn), Llewellyn (El) Osborne (jazz violin), Luke Sweeting (piano, accordion), Alec Coulson (bass) and Luke Keanan-Brown (drums, percussion).

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