Various frim fram

They are all (I guess) from the RMC band and I've heard them mostly doing more fusion-styled music before, but this was standards. Melody said it almost apologetically, but that's never necessary. This is the Great American Songbook (capitalised for a reason) and some of the best and cleverest popular music ever written and a great pleasure. And this done with a trio (vocals, guitar, bass) expanded to a 7-piece band with drums and a horn section. And with some clever arrangements and varied formats. The trio is Dial M and so was the septet. They were playing with a sound man and considerable reverb on vocals and a heavily effected sound on guitar (reverb and echo and drive, I guess) and mixed with the background of harmonised horns and varied solo sounds and Melody's very nicely controlled, experienced voice, perhaps somewhere in alto but comfortably managing some higher notes too, this was a great pleasure. Too bad there weren't more to enjoy it at Smiths, but so be it. The songs were a wide range, from Days of wine and rose as and Comes love and Alone together and Yesterdays and Love for sale through to some less common ones like Sinatra's Small hotel and If I only had a brain from Wizard of Oz and a strange one from Nat King Cole about what he eats, Frim Fram sauce (something local and remembered from childhood, I guess) and a few '90s swingers from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (jokey 12-bar dance throwbacks to '50s swing dancing). And two unexpected choices: a nice take on Jimi Hendrix Wind cries Mary and a love-struck ballad from Barney called All I am. Now I didn't know he could sing, but he did a very decent job with a touch of Elvis and others (see YouTube for Al Jarreau and George Benson doing this). And to top it off, some interesting arrangements, especially on the stock standards: Alone together was a syncopated 8-feel; Yesterdays had starts and stops and various time changes; Love for sale was just vocals and bass; Small hotel was not much bigger with just vocals, guitar and bass. So nicely trained players with some interesting, sometimes challenging arrangements playing a string of great songs. Well done.

Dial M are Melody Neilsen (vocals), Luke Greenhalgh (guitar) and Barnaby Briggs (bass). For this gig at Smiths, they added Julian Fung (alto, tenor), Ben Bonney (trumpet), Steve Davison (trombone) and Blair Fairbairn (drums).

Driven

Shorty and Chow were back at Smiths. I hear them snot so much as jazz but as fusion. It takes me back. Those changes, those driving feels and sometimes contorted melodies and solos, that power that's not-too-subtly emanating. Luke feels very much like this and it's not surprising because he wrote a good deal of the original compositions (I think Barney wrote all the others). Barney mentioned the difficult changes in On point. I could feel the intervallic contortions in Luke's soloing on the early tunes. He had plenty of gear on stage, three guitars and an array of pedals. He was playing Gibson semi-acoustic on the first tunes (ES335 or thereabouts) and the style was fusion, distorted, driving, sustained from the Fender Twin. There's some real tradition here. A later tune on a Strat was more Beck-ish with wang bar and then to finish a fatter a Les Paul with more bluesy, scalar soloing. A nice touch of history and a chance to compare classic tones and to revisit my fusion past. I was loving this! Julian was far more smooth and scalar throughout in solos, if sometimes choppy in accompaniment. Nicely phrased over barlines and through changes, smooth, not jarring but deceptively adventurous with its rhythmic note placements. Lovely. He was mostly alto, but touched on soprano. Barney was mostly on double bass, very occasionally with French bow and mid-punchy presence from a Mark bass amp. It's not a traditional sound, but it is one that cuts through. I was overjoyed by a few monstrous unison lines, one on acoustic, then another on the Warwick e-bass that he used later in the night. There was lots of reading here: everyone had charts and there were obviously plenty of dots written. I really enjoyed new drummer, Blair, too. I noticed on the Net that he's played musicals and he had that awareness of form and purpose that fits that style and some very well-formed but driving and interesting swapped fours and a solo or two. Very neat; very professional. But these guys are that: they all play the Duntroon Band. Their tunes were all originals, other than a short funky take on Coltrane's Naima. This is an outing before a recording. The tunes were often merged into medleys with interludes, I would guess mostly through-written leaving some generous spaces for solos. The tunes had names like The Seer or Pat's coming to town or Small story or Sunflower or On point. Nothing in these names, but this was some interesting and competent fusion with jazz chops and a touch of looping and driving guitars and contemporary jazz sax. Interesting writing and foot tapping and a chance for some screaming guitar. Much enjoyed.

Shorty & Chow are Luke Greenhalgh (guitars), Barnaby Briggs (double and e-bass), Julian Fung (alto, soprano saxes) and Blair Fairbairn (drums) and they played at Smiths.

Boys' own

Shorty & Chow recorded a live broadcast for ArtSound the other day and I was there. It's a while since I've caught Chris Deacon and his Friday Night Live broadcasts. Secret: they are sometimes recorded in the afternoon and broadcast days later. But the playing, the chatter, are live and the effect is live. That's what matters. I caught the first set and Shorty & Chow dropped in to balladry with Luke's dedication to a venue in Newcastle, The Terrace, but it was mostly funky and driving with rock drums and effected, echoed Abercrombie guitar and syncopated bass. Nice. Chris was showing his headbanger side and we were both rocking away in the control room. This was fun, tight, with sharp drums and searing guitars and solid grooves and that alto playfully over the top. Scranky was the name of one tune, and Pignose and Dancing with Gertrude were names of two others. It fits. Dirty, driving, guys' music, a bit impolite, but fun and involving. Takes me back. Shorty and Chow. Enjoy a touch of misbehaviour. Great stuff.

Shorty and Chow are Luke Greenhalgh (guitar), Barnaby Briggs (bass), Julian Fung (sax) and Jonathan Harding-Clark (drums) and they recorded two sets for ArtSound's Friday Night Live with Chris Deacon engineering and producing.

Hey Shorty

Ah, that was fun. It was just a bit of jazz-funk-fusion. Locals Shorty and Chow were playing. But those 16th notes can enliven things and the funky beat on the one makes for so much energy that this playing was pretty relentless. They played originals, too. There were just a few standards (Alone together, Cissy strut, Softly as funk, Ladybird as swing for an unexpected encore) but these were mostly originals, by guitarist Luke or by bassist Barnaby. Barney was a monster with some solos, playing lightly with two finger pizz, plenty of chromatics and some impressive fast ascending picked slides and some massive descending lines that I guessed mixed chromaticism with seconds. Great fun. Luke was comfortable somewhere in Scofield with distortion and echo and often dropped into this sound, but just sometimes played straighter. I thought he was nicely contained and structured his solos well, changing tones, maintaining long eighth-note passages, perhaps going heavy with chords, often against drums. Jonathan plays pretty straight and swinging and driving drums and can build up a head of steam. He did this tonight for several solos, but also building very strongly behind guitar solos. Julian was more the individualist soloist, often restrained, slower, thoughtful as sax is, sometimes with a deep water bubbling tone, other times with a thinner, straighter alto voice, often venturing into interesting dissonances. Nice again. The final tune, Barnaby's Dancing with Gertrude was my favourite for the night and obviously a feature, laying out the melody in nice unison against odd timing, then strangely dropping tempo and speeding up again then playing a 16-th note funky feel in four for the solos. Luke's Suspension was quirky and busy unison lines for all parts, again 16-th notes and bass ostinato. Barney's From both sides was another ballad, this time with bass playing melody against swelling guitar chords. The other ballad was Luke's Terrace with guitar strumming that reminded me of 50s Hawaiian guitar. His Subtonic counted as a steady 7/4 with an angular melody, then into solos in three. So, local fusion with decent chops and some original themes. Good to see, and well enjoyed.

Shorty & Chow are Luke Greenhalgh (guitar), Barnaby Briggs (bass), Julian Fung (sax) and Jonathan Harding-Clark (drums).