Smiling

It was a quiet night at the Loft for Miles O’Connell and that was evidence of the University break. I fear we have to get used to it with the brave new venture in music education at ANU. But for now, the small audience was intimate and a pleasure (more for me than the band).

These were Miles’ compositions: post-bop going on modern ‘60s style, busy and jagged melodies and hard wrung tenor solos, some milder balladic compositions with richer chords, some passing solos on bass and drums, some polyrhythms and changing times, 7/4, 6/4, 5/4, fours, threes, triplets, eights. Miles led but he’s open to change and he reported some tunes which had altered with performance. One original tune idea ended up in just the coda. The band was muttering before how they play difficult charts and make mistakes and recover. There were a few grimaces during the gig, but it’s amazing how unnoticed these things can be. On stage, you feel them all, but as long as the metaphorical train-wreck is avoided, most audience members feel the groove and pick up snippets of melody and that’s entertainment. I’m there often enough myself. The band was also muttering before the gig that the charts are hard and they were apprehensive. I certainly noticed band newbies, Tate and especially Rohan, with eyes glued on charts at various times. Given some odd-time hits, I was most impressed by the outcome. Both Rohan and Tate are well experienced classical players, so charts are their friends, but I guess odd times and syncopations are less so. It was great to see Rohan pop up from a chart with big grin when the groove settled or Luke hit a nice fill or just with respect at Tate’s rich and full-handed chordally-infused solos. And I was in awe at Tate’s comping, too, the way he’d mimic lines from sax, or fill spaces, and in a way they didn’t just fill or support but enriched the tune with another individual but parallel part. I was lucky to be seated near the piano; I might have missed it otherwise. And as a bassist, I’m much impressed by Rohan’s feel for phrasing and his great right hand work. Such assertive tone and tight pizz feels: it’s quite a lesson. Miles was leader and out front for most melodies and he was also a generous composer, giving features to the rest of the band. But when he took the front line, it was sturdy melody dissolving into sustained flourishes and nicely structured from little to lots of notes. Luke was in the previous incarnation of this band and he had charts but was obviously less dependent on them. He’s a humble player, but his swing is easy, his kick is surprisingly assertive (perhaps from where I was sitting) and his snare snap, while not loud, is well formed and sweetly toned. The one non-original was Radiohead’s How to disappear completely. It’s relatively simple but involving tune and made for a quieter spell. Otherwise, the tunes were latin (Green sun), blues-ish (Prism city), polyrhythmic (Zen sickness, dedicated to Miguel Zenon), plaintive 3/4 (Unstoppable, dedicated to Gretchen Parlato), swinging in 7,6,5,4 (Radio silence) and more. Miles was smiling. It was a strong concert and so satisfying; a pleasure to hear but a pain to think of what we’re about to lose. To the cities that absorb our loss, CJ’s greetings.

Miles O’Connell (tenor) led a quartet with Tate Sheridan (piano), Rohan Dasika (bass) and Luke Keanan-Brown (drums).

More chalk and cheese, pt.2

Joe’s band went second. I say I was formed by jazz of the ‘70s but perhaps the classic voluble swing of Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown and the like have influenced my playing more. I still love a swinger and I love the standards. Joe started with a piano trio, with Max and Luke – a quintessential jazz format - and the two opening tunes were classic standards of the American songbook that have reached into the lounges of the world: Cheek to cheek and Out of nowhere. Joe’s masterful in this style: fluent, inventive, playful, responsive and with big ears. This was just confirmed later when the larger band was playing and the solos were being passed around. Joe would mimic or paraphrase a player, and they would respond. Joe’s particularly good at it, taking ideas and changing key or underlying scale or intervals within the shape and repeating as a sequence. The later tunes were originals, mostly by Joe: Yesterday street, Yet to be named, Sleepless days about continuous daylight in the Norwegian arctic. The band also played Siberia by saxist Joe, a tune in 7/4 that maintained the temporary frosty theme. I heard the writing as filmic, especially after Bennie’s grooves, and at least one tune was from a film score: more melody, more harmony, more open sounding; less earthy movement, less bump and grind. There were some decent solos here, too, but I particularly noticed one guitar solo from Jack with a scratchy, staccato roughness and hints of Scofield. But I remain intrigued by the title of the session: Freshbace. Fresh is obvious; …bace?

Joe Chindamo led student group comprising Joe McEvilly (alto), Miles O’Connell (tenor), Scott Temby (trumpet), Rachel Cummings (trombone), Jack Palmer (guitar), Max Alduca (bass) and Luke Keanan-Brown (drums).

Cyberhalides Jazz Photos by Brian Stewart

Colour against the dark, part 1

It was a double bill at the Loft: Rohan Moore’s Songbird Project followed by the Alex Raupach Dectet. By the end, I was stunned by the invention, creativity and sheer hard work to get together such a complex program. I find every jazz session in Canberra at the moment is tinged with emotion – dread or sadness at loss or even anger. It’s all related to the Music School changes, of course. So it wasn’t surprising that I left feeling it’s downhill from here. Someone mentioned there will be no teachers, at least no specialist teachers of instrumental studies (an hour a week with someone outside the school just doesn’t count in this context) and the joke in witty reply was that this is the perfect teacher/student ratio: infinite, ie, no students, no teachers. Black humour abounds. But black sets off colour, so how was the concert? Intelligent, mostly original, varied and skilled. What we love in jazz. But these were two very different bands.

Songbird Project is a quartet in standard guise: tenor, piano, bass, drums. Rohan Moore leads from drums and composed all but the first tune, Nunu by Avishai Cohen. Given that Rohan’s a drummer, I wasn’t surprised by rhythmic games and oddly timed hits and polyrhythms and varying time signatures but I also found some decently satisfying melody that repeated neatly and arrangements that fit well with the band. This was not head/solo/solo/head. Piano and sax got a number of solos with the band, but pianist Tate also played alone in the middle or to start a tune, playing wide ranging stylistic variations, dropping into stride or diminished substitutions. I am generally taken by piano, but Tate is clearly a name to watch, huddled and beanie-clad and stylistically catholic. Max took a supportive role in this outing, but his one solo was delightfully softly-toned and playing nicely with rising and falling lines. I still think of Miles in terms of his stay in NYC (because of FB updates and some subsequent chats). I enjoyed what I thought were ‘70s influences in his playing: deliberate melody, varying intervals over extended ranges, long flourishes, occasional cut tone. Rohan was outspoken in solos and harsh in one tune dedicated to the ANU (a metal tune called Fury). This is emotionally tender ground. But there was also lyricism in a ballad dedicated to lost love (If we ever meet again), lively rollicking attractiveness (Misconception) and feathery lightness contrasting with syncopated hits (Marion’s rooftop). This was some skilful playing, but what I most took from it was maturity in composition and arrangement in a contemporary style. The band’s name sounds more like girl folk duos to my ears, but this was serious and skilled contemporary jazz. The Songbird Project was led by Rohan Moore (drums) with Tate Sheridan (piano), Miles O’Connell (tenor) and Max Alduca (bass).

New York state of mind

Keith said to me it that Miles O’Connell’s music might have been recorded by Blue Note is it had a trumpet. I located it somewhere in the ‘70s, but maybe that’s just because that’s when I started listening to jazz. But it’s music you might hear today in the clubs in New York. I know that Miles was listening to at least some of this music when he was recently in NYC. He played one track from Kurt Rosenwinkel, who he’d caught several times, and who is a major influence for many current jazz students. Miles had told me that most of what he was playing was original and it was written during or after his NYC sojourn. So this is also where it’s at now; a modern style that’s spanning the decades. I hear it as busy grooves from bass and drums, slower melodies that float over chords that change slowly, perhaps every two or four bars, still the head/solos/head structure, and all players having a solo role, and usually a plangent tenor out front with guitar or piano accompaniment. But I guess that’s modern jazz in its major guise.

Miles did it well, both musically and in presentation. There was some nervousness, and the second set sat more comfortably than the first, even though Miles had told me that was the harder set. They’d settled by then. I appreciated Miles’ tone better, then. It was not so much forceful as sinuous, although hardening when emotions called for it. These were nicely developed solos with sparser starts and developing flourishes presented with an edgy distance that befits jazz seriousness. But there was also a nod to performance. I really liked the professionalism of the band introductions at the outro over an obviously planned, funky riff. Nice one! Also the way tunes merged with intervening solos and the way Miles maintained the flow by only speaking occasionally. Daniel fitted this image to a tee. He’s a performer with considerable presence, but also a developing rabid guitarist. His tone here was distorted but not sustained and it nicely displayed some intriguingly jagged lines. Max stated harmonies and pushed the groove and soloed comfortably. I particularly liked a solo intro in the second set that highlighted the tone of the Velvet strings, but I enjoyed his presence too. He’s an openhearted and involved player and a pleasure to watch and presumably to play with. Luke was steady and calm and slightly distant and that seemed apt when Miles noted he’d returned from a recent outing as a rock god. Andy sat in for just one tune that had him punching heavy quarter note block chords each side of a sweeter solo. Mostly the tunes were originals written during or after Miles’ NYC sojourn, but there was also Rosenwinkel and Radiohead, the intelligent pop choice of this generation. In all, an interesting and convincing concert with and some very decent modern jazz writing. Miles O’Connell (tenor sax) led a quartet with Daniel Kim (guitar), Max Alduca (bass) and Luke Keanan-Brown (drums). Andy Butler (piano) sat in for one tune.