Moruya 2009, farewells

There’s always a theme that you take from a festival. For me, Moruya 2009 was a farewell for some mates I’ve watched develop over recent years at the jazz school. Now senior and finishing students, they are off to Sydney and will be missed around town. I treat this report with some imprecision, because only some of those below are moving on, but the group plays together and can be discussed together.

Bill Williams (bass), Ed Rodrigues (drums) and Hannah James (bass) are the three leaving for Sydney. We wish them well, and they certainly deserve it. The three of them all played impressively, even stunningly, over the weekend. Perhaps the best I’ve heard them, certainly amongst the most memorable.

H.E.L. is an acronym for Hannah, Ed, Lily. Hannah James (bass) with Ed Rodrigues (drums) and Olivia Henderson (piano) played a wonderfully busy and involving set early in the day. There was an original by Olivia, but also jazz standards: Oleo, Invitation, Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum and Horace Silver’s Nica’s dream. Jo Lloyd (alto) also sat in for some screaming, outlandish playing which always thrills. It was a great start for the day, and a challenge to the bands that were to follow (including mine!) I missed Hannah, Ed and Jo reprising some of these in unplanned set later in the day, but it was also well spoken of.

Luke Sweeting (piano) plays regularly with Bill and Ed, the three being Masters students at the Jazz School this year. Luke’s truly a harmonically rich and intelligent player. A pianist mate was commenting on his voice leading and counterpoint and harmonic alterations. Luke played an unusual duo set with Rachael Thoms (vocals) with a feature tune by Paul Grabowski recorded with Katie Noonan. Contemplatory and sedate, but with vocals flying into the stratosphere and complex interplay between the piano and voice. This tune was especially complex and a challenge but generally so was the rest of the set: unexpected and satisfying.

But the star event of the day for me must be Edmirobilluke. The name says it all: Ed Rodrigues (drums), Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet), Bill Williams (bass) and Luke Sweeting (piano). The last set of the night is always the product of a busy day and a good warmup and some tiredness and is awaited with expectation. This was a stunner. The band was all playing at their most exhilarating level. Solos merging through melody, consonance and dissonance and complexity on call. All merged into a set that little distinguished heads or solos or ensemble playing. Original compositions that were heartfelt, unforced: powerful and stylish vehicles for open playing. Superb dynamics that just flowed between and through and amongst instruments so no-one took prominence yet everyone was essential. Gentle, busy, pushing, moving through feels and emotions with ease and inevitability. A stunning and worthy display of original improvised music. My last report on this band at the Gods did not do this gig justice. An excellent performance by Ed, Miro, Bill and Luke.

To finish off, I have just one little observation of jazz and its adherents. Someone mentioned to me in passing how pleasant are the jazz crew, and it’s true. There’s a confident, snappy air about them. Sometimes there’s a gruff exterior on the guys, but anyone who commits themselves to such a demanding and profound pursuit has to be an admirable type. So I thought as I was looking around the Air Raid on Saturday evening. But jazz isn’t always surrounded by such types and has a colourful history of associations. I’ve experienced several post-gig threats of violence: at Wagga JF, in London, recently in Prague and locally after Hippo. And this time, as I left Moruya, I caught sight of a smashed car windscreen that spoke of small-town anger and frustration. And then another on the drive back, somewhere outside Bungendore. I’ll stick to the jazz, thanks.

Best of luck to Bill, Ed and Hannah in Sydney.

JU Getz

Getz should have been the smooth stage, but some loud and bluesy Mingus snuck its way in. Perhaps the nicest venue for the numbers, with café tables and relaxed surroundings, although with some minor sound interference from the coffee making and the M-Basers next door. Some lovely trios here, but Dave Rodriguez doing James Muller’s Thrum album and the joyous exhuberance of transcribed Mingus from All the Things you would be if Sigmund Freud's wife was your mother (!) did it for me.

Nice little gig

It was no big deal, but it was a nice gig yesterday when I got to play with Joe Taylor, Olivia Henderson and Brenton Holmes at Pangaea. Thanks to all; much enjoyed. And good on Pangaea for booking jazz on Sunday afternoons in this great weather.

Belles on air

They named themselves the Jazzebells, so I’ll borrow the lightly sexist reference for my title. The belles are three women who perform jazz around town. I’ve been wanting to hear them for sometime, given that they’d played regularly at the Casino and elsewhere. Hannah and Olivia are performers I’ve known and watched as students, and Rachael’s name appears commonly in the CJCalendar, but I’d yet to catch her in performance. They played two sets of sometimes beautiful, consistently satisfying and broadly ranging standards, from sweet bossa-novas to strong, renowned modern jazz tunes, and I enjoyed it immensely.

I especially enjoyed the presence of vocals. I’d heard most of the tunes before and sometimes with voice. But it came back to me how the lyrics give meaning and understanding which is missing in the instrumental version. Obvious enough, really, but not always remembered in the frenzied instrumental world of jazz. I’ve commented before that voice is a thing of beauty, but words are ideas and emotions and communication, and even the lyrics of a cheesy love song can provide something otherwise missing. This was doubly so with those tunes which are seldom heard with lyrics, like Stolen moments or Whisper not.

Rachael led the band with a strong, blues-influenced voice, a smooth tremelo and capable scat, and that awareness of songs which only a singer has. But as is my wont, I particularly noticed bass and piano. Hannah showed real taste and strength in her playing. It was the strongest performance I’ve heard from her: good intonation, strong walks and perfect latin rhythms, tasteful soloing. She introduced several of the tunes. I felt a real authority and solidity from the first notes of Stolen moments and Invitation. Olivia is only a new student at the Jazz School, but she stunned me with a maturity and presence that I hadn’t expected. I felt a great sensitivity of style, while ranging over a sweep of genres. There was stride, deceptive balladic simplicity, and an altered-sounding modernism on Invitation which I hadn’t expected from her. She’s got a wonderful sense of style and feel. It’ll be exciting to watch her development over coming years. Aidan was new to me, and also to the band as he was filling in for Ed Rodrigues at the last moment. He did a great job: fairly simple, but always steady and reliable. It’s a mark of professionalism, and I have much time for it.

These are well-trained players and I’m sure no-one would have noticed, but it was interesting to be in the studio as they reminded themselves of arrangements, or changed allocations of solos at will to fit the demands of live radio. No sweat, they are confident players (not that belles would sweat, of course). And the tunes are well known and apt for frequent restaurant and café work around town: a wide range of standards and latins and well known jazz tunes. I mentioned Stolen moments, Whisper not and Invitation above. Other tunes included Foggy day, God bless the child, Waltz for Debbie, Crazy he calls me and Centerpiece, and latins Desafinado, Little boat and Dindi.

So the themes of belles may be apt, and it’s certainly cute and sells the band, but these are no lightweights. They are serious and capable musicians in the challenging (but welcoming) male-dominated domain of jazz. Thanks to the Jazzebells for a wonderful night playing a few of the great tunes of our standards repertoire.

BTW, Dean was streaming the broadcast to ustream.tv. There were bandwidth limitations so it’s certainly not perfect. He chose to optimise audio and relegate the video, so it’s very pixelated, but it’s there and a promise of future possiblities. To see these videos, go to ustream.tv and search ArtSound. He was also chatting with viewers online while streaming: one in Kaleen, another in Denmark. The wonders of this new tech!

The Jazzebells are Rachael Thoms (vocals), Olivia Henderson (piano) and Hannah James (bass), tonight joined by honorary belle, Aidan Lowe (drums).

ArtSound on ustream.tv

And on (Moruya 3)

Moruya 2

I just caught the end of Madeleine Hawke’s set, and it was fabulous. Attitude is the word for this woman, with her powerful, very edgy but hugely expressive voice. I was sorry I missed the whole set. Madeleine Hawke (vocals) was accompanied by Wayne Kelly (piano), Hannah James (bass) and Mark Sutton (drums). I believe this was the line-up for a CD she recorded recently, so presumably it was well rehearsed. These were just standards, but so beautifully done. Maddy’s voice is powerful and sharp, but she’s also got huge presence, beautifully correct and restrained improvised vocal lines, and huge emotional strength in her interpretations. Wow! The accompaniment was equally stunning. Wayne’s clear, understated solos, Mark’s similarly clear statements, and Hannah playing at her best, with a lovely tone and true note choices. I only caught Comes love and I wish you love, but they were stunners. Catch Madeleine Hawke if you can; doubly so with this backing.

Wayne Kelly appeared several times in different band incarnations. Next was the WK Trio: Wayne Kelly (piano), James Luke (bass) and Mark Sutton (drums). What to say? A blowout! There were standards and originals from Wayne’s CD: some beautifully clear, deceptively simple playing by Wayne; strong, straight-ahead bass and solos by James; sharp, crisp drums from Mark. This is a master outfit; my mates were floored with their performance. He played one standard (I’m old fashioned) but mostly originals: Mr Hank Jones, What’s the number, Mt Condor, Dr Kirkland Blues. From this performance, it’s clear why Wayne is one of our local piano stars. It’s also interesting to hear the change from Wayne’s old trio. The trio with Ben O’Loghlin was cerebral; that with James more lively. Not a change in quality, but in style: interesting. Wayne is regularly out and about, although in various formats. His playing is always a pleasure.

No Standing was the next generation of the Jazz school. Less experienced, but the performance bodes well. NS are Rafael Jerjen (bass), Mark Body (drums), Olivia Henderson (piano), Reuben Lewis (trumpet), Max Williams (tenor). Reuben appeared in several bands during the weekend. Max is brother to the excellent bassist, Bill Williams. He played well expressed solos with real expression. Both Reuben and Max will be players to note. Raf also impressed with real rhythmic strength and involvement. Watch out for these players over coming years. Some are only in high school, so have considerable time to develop, although Reuben is already playing with a range of bands. I heard them a second time on Sunday, although with slightly different members. My impression then was of impressive performance of written parts (accurate timing and intonation on Chick Corea’s Spain and the Brecker Brothers’ Skunk Funk, no less) although leaving some room to improve on the improvisation. But that’s from school kids! It bodes well for the future.

Moruya 4

Kevin Hunt records at ArtSound

You may know that Kevin Hunt is the first Musician in Residence at ArtSound. I imagine the relationship is a little ill-defined or at least pretty variable to suit both parties, but it’s an excellent idea, and I saw one hugely productive aspect of it today.

Kevin Hunt has an interest in classical (especially French) music of the era of Ravel and Debussy. Apparently, his masters thesis was a study of this music and its interpretation in a jazz format. For this, he worked with Gary Holgate (bass) and Lawrie Thomson (drums), and he has recently performed this repertoire at the Adelaide Festival of Arts, and is due for a performance in Canberra (Southern Cross Club, Thurs 19 April). So this is a labour of love, as it would need to be for it is complex music. It must have involved plenty of investigation and reinterpretation to the jazz idiom. I saw some bass charts and they were deceptively simple, but the music was complex and rich, and vibrant in classical, jazz and occasionally blues forms.

The session was the second day of an open house recording session. The first day was spent on setting up mics, equipment and a workable mix, as well as refining arrangements. The second and third days are for recording, and there will be mix-down and mastering sometime in the future. This second day saw the trio recording Kevin’s interpretation of movements 1 and 3 of Ravel’s Valse noble et sentimentale, movements 1 and 3 of Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque (no. 3 is “Claire de Lune”) and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in blue. The interpretations were fascinating. Kevin explained that he maintained the structure of the pieces, but he often rephrased famous lines or reharmonised in a jazz format, or broke into solos sections which were influenced by the original but not just imposed on the original piece. Kevin also showed himself as a great teacher in this process. He explained the approach to the students present, and took a real interest in their experiences and development. So it was much more than just a recording session; it was also an effective training workshop. So, we heard that Ravel’s work comprised 7#9 > min > dom/maj7 movements at one stage; how the flourish at the intro to Rhapsody in blue covers the full range of the clarinet, and how Kevin approached its replacement in this reinterpretation; the extent of the “heavy reconstruction”; the application of jazz minds to classical forms, and so on. It was a fascinating discussion to accompany the engaging performances.

I was also interested in the recording processes. Tony Hunter was the engineer for the session. The equipment is excellent, and the result will no doubt be professional. Mics included Neumann, AKG, Shure, Rode. The mixer is a digital Yamaha (DM1000) with Cubase SX and Genelec monitors. All top stuff. It was also quite a stunning change to move from the mixing room, with its precise and clinical sound to the live room with a loud Yamaha 7-foot grand piano in action. But all fascinating and educational.

From left, Liena Lacey (classical piano), Reuben Lewis (jazz trumpet), Olivia Henderson (jazz piano); students at the ANU School of Music.

Congrats to Kevin, Gary and Lawrie for the intriguing, impressionistic music, and to ArtSound for the inauguration of their musician-in-residence program.

The Kevin Hunt Trio plays this music, and JS Bach, Bernstein and Ellington. Thurs 19 Apr, Canberra Southern Cross Club. $22 show only (starts 8.30pm), or $57 incl dinner (starts 7pm). Bookings ph 6283 7288. More info:

CSCC events info