Canb Jazz Fest 4

I arrived back at Smiths while The Vampires were playing and can I say I was dumbfounded.  A deep groove, tons of effects, one tune with background samples, seemingly improvised little passages from each of the front liners, sax and trumpet, then unexpectedly paired, unison or rather octave lines in synch, all against a moving or repeated bass part, I'm assuming improvised but now not so sure, and sparse but expressive drums.  Bevan asked me later if I noticed the delay on snare.  I hadn't but delays were obvious on the front liners often, and an octaver playing down on the bass, but not the only effect there and not the only effect on all but drums, but maybe there were more on drums.  Dunno.  But entrancing.  They mentioned recording with Lionel Loueke.  It's a path to international awareness and they deserve it.  Well travelled, plenty of festivals in Europe and Americas.  And regular tours in Australia.  We were lucky enough to get one. Dub was mentioned.  Was this that?  Certainly the PB tone was very soft thuddy.  That fits?  Whatever, I was enamoured and enlivened.  Great stuff and refreshingly different.  Joss or other?  There's jazz training, of course, but this is not swing, but so what.  Refreshing the artz.  So in he end, a great few days.  Thanks to Nigel, Beth, Bevan.  A local gathering of great worth and I believe we can look forward to another next year.

The Vampires appeared at the inaugural Canberra Jazz Festival at Smiths.  They comprise Jeremy Rose (tenor), Nick Garbett (trumpet), Noel Mason (bass) and Alex Masso (drums).

Being there

Mike Nock’s Quintet, his trio with two friends, was an interesting gig. Right from the top it felt like comfortable old times. The lines and melodies and grooves were old family: jazz rock, Miles, Herbie and the like. I could hear the same piano accompaniment. I could feel the mildly mutating rhythm section as it settled behind the front line with a choppy ocean busy-ness. The chords flowed by slowly, perhaps 4 bars to one chord, regularly changing and gently paced, leaving the soloist plenty of time to feel the changes. These were post-hippy times, still gentle and emotionally committed. This feels good to my ears. I think of Buster Williams and some favourite albums. Nick Garbett’s new to the band, smiling, enjoying the outing and playing wonderfully structured solos, a cry, a pause, a volley of falling notes. Miles again, space and notes that crawl against the backing. Karl fills the space more, but does a similar take with falling lines although somewhat more blues infected. Mike is adventurous, taking an idea and extending it over long ranges, or stopping and finding some unexpected and obtuse take on the chords before reimagining lines into contrary scalar movements. There was a blues starting with a bass solo that could have started a Mingus tune and leading into a slow, deep Southern langour. Here, Karl’s solos are all bends and blues and Nick’s are wakeup calls of sudden high staccato and some florid, some languid fills. Then TBA, a bouncy contemporary feel with concurrent solos from the horns and clavinet from Mike. Somewhere, James had taken a solo against a piano/bass phrase. This was all punchy with neat rudiment-induced divisions of the beat and triplets that delay the feel and rolls tat explode into cymbals. Explosive for a jazz solo; Nick smiled some more. The second set started with the band settling into a D minor bass groove and settling into a slow funk for the solos. Slow news day was more story telling, with a floating intro and pensive melody: portraying a lazy news room or perhaps some personal relief at a benign nightly news. Not surprisingly, the first solo was from bass then sax, the softer horn. Last tune of the night was Colours, long with feverish walks and rabid collective improv and slips into free jazz. Nice gig. Mike Nock (piano) led a quintet with Nick Garbett (trumpet), Karl Laskowski (tenor), Brett Hirst (bass) and James Waples (drums).

Cyberhalides Jazz Photos by Brian Stewart

Bringing the world together

There were many representatives of the Australian world jazz community at the Loft when the Vampires came to play. Normal Vamp bassist, Alex Boneham, was not available so the catholics were represented by Lloyd Swanton and Wanderlust by Fabian Hevia (who happened to be in town). So we could expect reggae and Latin American pulses. I hadn’t expected Stanwell Park. I love the eclectic crosses of styles that we call world jazz - this blend of jazz sensibility with rhythms and grooves and melodies from beyond the Euro traditions. The visitors did a great job. I was floored by Lloyd, lightly played and fed by profound reading and easy playing chops. These were not easy charts to sit in on. Fabian mentioned 13 and 7 and perhaps 9 and I heard some very complex and unexpected syncopations and contorted ostinatos. Lloyd pulled them off with relaxed glances at the charts; stunning. Drummer Alex is all eyes, watching with a blank face and spelling out understated but nicely contorted rhythmic responses to the front line. Fabian was restrained. He’s never too overstated, and a few passages on cajon were richly defining of the tunes and enhancing of the grooves, but he seemed pretty unobtrusive this night.

The Vampires front line comprises the two composing horn players. Jeremy, on alto, had written most tunes; Nick, on trumpet, several others. They played 12 tunes in two sets. The tunes were short and purposeful but also richly embroidered and worldly attractive. Life in the fast lane could have been written by Ornette, and thinking back, Ornette’s influence was clear elsewhere, in rabid free, unison calls and a bluesy perception. The first tunes were warm-ups: few chords, easy changes, lovely simple and attractive melodies. I’d been surprised by the first tune starting with solo bass, given Lloyd was sitting in, but he is a master. The third tune was all Dave Holland to my ears: slower, less bouncy, thoughtful and opening up with rich solos and a counterpoint melody. Chellowdene was a bouncy uptempo 2-feel. Chellowdene is a street in Stanwell Park. I don’t know the reference but the patter suggested it’s shared, at least by Fabian. Euro schmarp was a take on adopting Norwegian fashion. Heston was rich with collective improvisation in the front line over a call-response bass line. On through the second set to the Ornette references. Jeremy’s alto was embroidered, frequently running solos with chords that moved chromatically, sidestepping the harmony, so plenty of dissonance. Nick was less dissonant but fast, clearly spoken and passionate. Trumpet and sax each lend themselves to their own statements and melodic inventions.

The Vampires were on tour for their third CD. I’m on tour as I write this, the day after the gig and on the XPT to Melbourne. The Vampires seem a long way away, but the world is all around us and the melodies and sympathy of this music, and the sheer skills and musicianship are still in my ears. This was wonderfully attractive music, wonderfully played, but also with skills to dream of, to luxuriate in the grooves and dream with the melodies. How deceptively easy it all is.

On this occasion, at the Loft and on this tour date, the Vampires comprised Jeremy Rose (alto), Nick Garbett (trumpet), Alex Masso (drums) with Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Fabian Hevia (percussion).

Vamp

I thought I had the Vampires sorted. Dub and reggae rhythms with highly syncopated melodies and some fairly short but very sweet and capable jazz solos. Despite their name and a relaxed readiness to settle on a groove and several clear vamps against drums solos, I didn’t particularly feel the Vamp-ires’ vamps defined the band. This was more a broad contemporary crossover. An all-ages band (tongue-in-cheek alert) appealing to jazz aficionados along with a pub set. There’s a lot of this around, partly to earn cash and partly to merge catholic interests of creative musicians into their more esoteric jazz studies. Nothing new, really: Diz crossed to latin; Miles crossed to rock; Herbie crossed to funk; Bad Plus crossed to grunge. Contemporary jazz is a melange and all the better for it. So I’d set them in the reggae camp, but there were the delicious trad-style collective solos, a fairly free outing during the second set and to top it off, a clear rock feel to finish. I’m chastened and promising not to put bands in boxes in future, but I’m elated. Great stuff and eminently entertaining and intellectually satisfying to boot.

The Vampires are a quartet of alto and trumpet fronting bass and drums but this outing added a Melbourne mate, Shannon Barnett, on trombone. So the front line was that much richer in harmonies and solos and tonal and conceptual contrasts. Trumpeter Nick Garbett was a wonder, playing with embrochure and squeels and squeaks, or blaring with rapid-fire lines that flared easily over changing chords. He was a finalist in the recent Australian Jazz Award at Wangaratta for brass, so I’m not the only one to recognise these skills. I’d caught Shannon Barnett at Wang but not in so intimate a setting, and was looking forward to this gig. She didn’t disappoint. Her solos were authoritative and nicely developed, with clearly-imagined melodic lines, often as calls-and-responses, and displaying intervallic and rhythmic intelligence and rich with dynamics. Jeremy was on alto for the night, less proud and bell-like than the brass, but equally inventive and humanising the harmonies with the more carnal reed tone. This was modern jazz dissonance meets pop sensibility: medium tempo, mobile, constant, often atonal. Alex 1, Masso, was all eyes and ears, quiet and admirably controlled for a drummer, but constantly aware of his surroundings and playful with those out-of-synch reggae beats. Some deliciously odd little fills caught my attention as did several solos played against front line vamps. But as bassist, it’s no surprise that Alex 2, Boneham, was the vamp master of the night, holding some very demanding bass ostinatos. I was surprised that his bass was so present given it was not amplified. It was miked through the PA, but that had little effect where I was sitting and the bass was easily heard for solos and accompaniment. Some nice solos, too, reaching right up high then easily moving the length of the fingerboard with pleasant and talkative ideas. All this over original compositions from Nick and Jeremy. Lots of syncopation in the heads; some extra bars thrown in here or there; some vamps or easy chord changes; some fairly short spaces for solos. There was a love song, and a doleful tune for Haiti, and a playful song for a dancing mother, and a few that were just clever and attractive, with their mostly off-beat reggae grooves.

Sydney met Melbourne via Jamaica with a touch of US and it was great entertainment and much satisfaction. A very promising start to another season of jazz at the Gods. The Vampires are Jeremy Rose (alto sax), Nick Garbett (trumpet), Alex Boneham (bass) and Alex Masso (drums) and good mate Shannon Barnett (trombone) sat in for the night.

Cyberhalides Jazz Photos by Brian Stewart