Being the blues

The Canberra Blues Society jam session is a blast from the past in several ways, not least that I return to an e-bass.  Fretted or fretless was the decision this time.  I was conservative and stuck with my fretted JB.  Someone asked why not double, but it's so enjoyable to race over the neat neck with soft strings and it's a more apt sound anyway to my ears.  Maybe Peter Barta was in two minds as his instrument was an Ibanez with a mixed fretted 4-string/fretless 3 string neck (SRAS-7 Ahula).  It's weird, but proof that Ibanez is adventurous.  I got a chance to play with Gary France for a first time, if only for a standard 3-song jam, and our group was all round a great pleasure: John van Beuren, Ross Buchanan, Gary, Steve Hartnett and singers Dan Litts and Lily (not sure of these names).  But of course it's the one group I don't have a photo of.  The host band this month was Blues Accelerators: a guitar blues band with horn section, here baritone and tenor saxes, but normally also with a alto.  They were playing tight and tonal as I arrived and the bari in Midnight hour just confirmed how nice the horns were in a blues context.  There were 4 or 5 other jamming groups and some younger performers and a few dancers.  And it's a relaxed event with excellent sound and tables and chairs and German beers so a nice, dark, sun-free way to spend a Sunday arvo.  I had a great time.  And for those who don't know of it, that's a genuine piece of the Berlin Wall outside club.

The Canberra Blues Society jam session is held monthly at Harmonie German Club.

Night off

It was my Wednesday night off so off to OCI for a beer and chat and jam. Wayne, Ben and Mark S have been running this now for several years and it's quite a scene. On a cold winter's night, it's cosy in the genuine old slab hut pub, the beers are good and the gastropub food is on. But most interesting is the playing. Hugh sat in for Wayne this night. Either way, this is a hot and supremely capable and swinging band. The tunes are standards and jazz tunes, but there's no tiresome commonness here. They are great musos and play with invention and communication. A huge pleasure. Hugh and Wayne are different styles, but equally capable. Ben was just a master last night, soloing on German bow or pizz, all the time interesting, melodic, phrased rather than scaled. And Mark is always sparkling. And it's a welcoming gig with Ben knowing everyone on the scene and always inviting anyone to play. Peter played with Mark L and Hugh, then Tim; I played with Tim and Hugh then Brendan (using Peter's 5-string NS with high-C, then Ben's bass); Tim played with Alec and Hugh. Maybe others? All manner of tunes from various fake books, mostly memorised. I particularly noticed some fine jazz tunes from the house band, not least Moment's notice. The beers was good and the scene busy and the room warm. It's a great night out for musos and mates. If you're free on a Wednesday, 6.30-9.30pm.

Hugh Barrett (piano), Ben O'Loghlin (bass) and Mark Sutton (drums) were the host band at the OCI jam session. Siti-ins included Mark Levers and Tim Butler (drums), Brendan O'Loghlin (piano), Peter Barta, Alec Coulson and Eric Pozza (bass).

Raining jam

Or at least raining jam sessions. This was a new one, in its first incarnation, at Harmonie German Club, with guest band Dr Jawbone and the Restless Souls. Organised like the monthly blues jam with a tabulated chart for names each sets. This was somewhat less daunting than running with the masters, Wayne Kelly's trio at OCI on Wednesdays. Early this year, there was also a pre-tertiary jazz jam session, at Smiths, fortnightly on Thursdays prior to the jazz sessions. Haven't seen that mentioned recently. Nice to see some activity around the traps. Harmonie was a swing-latin affair. Dr Jawbone played several tunes, including some originals. Peter with his chordal 6-string bass and Ross very busy and bluesy, with Ken and an unknown tenor. Then various jammers, including Claude, Andrew, others. I enjoyed playing George Benson Broadway, but then I like a firm bass groove, and perhaps Footprints was the most conceptually modern take. Good fun for just a first incarnation and good luck for future iterations.

PS. One bit of history. The pic is of a piece of genuine Berlin Wall. Reinforced concrete sections like this (measuring 3.6x1.2m) have become relatively rare as the original was broken up and sold in bits or just broken up in anger when the Wall was demolished in 1990-92. This one features original West Berlin graffiti. Congrats to Gunter and the Harmonie German Club for appreciating the historical value of this early enough to buy a piece for Canberra.

The Harmonie German Club Jazz jam featured host band Dr Jawbone and the Restless Souls, with Ross Buchanan (piano), Peter Barta (bass) and Ken Nosworthy (drums).

Returning to Roots

I follow jazz and even fine music these days, but I still have a soft spot for blues-rock so a visit to the Pro Blues & Roots jam today was lots of fun. The Cherrypickers were hosting and what a great little band they are. No surprise there: they are made up of some of the cream of the local blues-rock scene and the songs were wide ranging and entertaining, the feels were solid and capable, Monica’s voice was in full flight - loud and powerful and often growling - and John’s guitar solos were busy and chordally full and often screaming. Just as this music should be. They had the dancers up, the feet tapping and a few heads nodding, and they were having as good a time as we were. John’s bass sounded great, too: hard and unyielding with playing that’s tight, rock-powerful and distilled. They didn’t strictly play the blues, although JVB sang on the classic, You don’t love me. The rest of the repertoire included Michael Jackson’s I want you back (this was commented on!), as well as Aerosmith(!)’s Walk this way, JoJo Zep’s The shape I’m in and Martha and the Muffin’s Echo beach. Not really the blues: more entertaining than impassioned.

The room was the same. This is not a young crowd – I don’t feel out of place – but all are welcome. The blues does have some young followers but I’m sure many of these people lived through the years of rock guitar. Cream’s Sunshine of your life was played and my guess is that the performer heard it when it released. But it’s a friendly, easy-going scene, beery but certainly more restrained than I expect these guys (mostly guys) remember from their youth. There were several other make-up bands, people having a jam, maybe friends who’ve played together here or elsewhere before. One was more a country blues style, playing JJ Cale and the like. One was led by the richly bearded ex-Canadian singer-guitarist Danny Mack aka the Cement City Cowboy. Chris Harland led another band with his hot blues guitar. I got to play a few tunes with JVB and Jon from the Cherrypickers and a few others.

It was an entertaining and sociable outing that I plan to revisit. The blues scene around Canberra revolves around the Canberra Blues Society with frequent events and Bucky’s monthly Pro Blues & Roots Jam sessions. There’s plenty of opportunity to hear the blues and it’s great fun. The Cherrypickers are Monica Moore (vocals) and the Jon/Johnnies: John Van Buuren (also known as JVB; guitar), John Coates (bass) and Jon Jones (drums). The Pro Blues & Roots Jam is held monthly at Holy Grail, Kingston and the MC is the garrulous and entertaining bassist Dave (Bucky) Buckmaster. Other players included Chris Harland, Peter Barta, Steve Hartnett, Mitch Preston and Danny Mack.

Danny Mack

Support Jazz @ Folkus

It was a poor showing at the Folkus jam session this month, despite having James LeFevre’s interesting and involving band as host. Folkus will need more interest and support if it’s not to go the way of the sadly missed White Eagle. So, form your jamming groups and come along. Perhaps try to organise a jam band for an upcoming session using CJ on Facebook. Whatever, get along and support this initiative.

I arrived late, so missed most of James’ set. What I heard was worldly, relaxed and inventive. Kane was missing on bass, so Ben had a doubly demanding job having to cover the bass lines on piano, but even so it was comfortable and capable. The band will be playing for JazzGroove in the next few months, and they’ve described themselves thus: “original material drawing upon a smorgasbord of influences encompassing Jazz, Dance, Blues, Funk, Latin, Hip Hop and gypsy music of the Balkans … characterised by its contrast of intricate, extended arrangements with open, loose blowing sections”. Nicely put. No wonder I like it.

Kooky Fandango also did a short set. They impress me as having a pure, light, precise tonality. Their music is a mix of jazz and latin, and even some blues at times, and is precise and flowing and open. Peter plays a hugely clear tone on his 6-string Alembic (Series 1, no less!), and even takes on a guitar-like accompaniment role at times, and I think that’s part of the open sound. They play a sweet and pleasant, but grooving and interesting music; just perfect with white wines on a warm Sunday afternoon.

I got to play a few tunes, initially with James’ band, then with the addition of the horns from Kooky Fandango and a nice bongo player for a solo and some additional rhythmic complexity. It’s easy to play with such trained players; it all just falls together. I especially enjoyed Evan Dorrian on drums. He offered smiles of encouragement along with some very smooth drum solos that were very clear expressions of the underlying tunes. I also noticed how James worked as a leader. Having a leader can really pull things together. He’d just casually lean over and say a few words like “sit on that”, and the form of the piece just fell into place. Nice one.

I think the next session will have original music from Dan MacLean and I’m hoping for my Toucani to be there for a short set. Looking forward to it already. Get out and support Jazz @ Folkus.

Jazz at Folkus jams are held the third Saturday every month, 2-5pm. Entry free for players; otherwise $12/$10. Folkus Room, Serbian Club, Mawson. Queries contact Cameron Smith 0422 842 605

Jam jar

I got to the second Jazz at the Folkus jam session on Saturday. It was not quite what I had expected. The music was fairly mainstream, rather than out-there modern, but jazz has a history, and it’s made up of a rich tapestry of historical styles. These were some that I love, but don’t always indulge in.

The host band for the event was the In Full Swing big band. It’s a community band based in Belconnen. It’s made up of about 20 players and is led by Nathan Sciberras. This is swing, the popular music of the 40s or thereabouts: think Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and the crooners, but with some popular modern classics. I love this stuff, and it’s become very popular again with the emergence of Sinatra-stylists like Michael Buble. The repertoire ranged from Cry me a river and Fever, through Lady is a tramp, Georgia, Night and day and Take 5, to Song of the Volga Boatman. All good stuff and the playing was satisfying. There was a very reliable beat from a capable rhythm section, and some good swing and interplay from the horns. The intonation was a bit sus at times, but the charts were professional, the dynamics were strong and the enjoyment was obvious. I took note of Samantha Seckold on bass and several solos, Lauren Black on vocals and Nathan himself as leader. It was a nice one all round and much enjoyed. Congrats to the band. I’ve grown to admire such community activities in recent years. Oh brave new town that has such things in it!

Next came my band, Toucani. We were Trio Toucan, but we recently added a sax so the small name change. We chose to do an originals set, but did sneak in our theme-tune standard, the lovely and slightly kitsch Out of nowhere. Most of our originals are penned by Daniel, who writes harmonically rich tunes as only pianists can. I wrote two others, and these are typical bassist tunes: latin and rhythm-based but with reasonably complex call and response melodies. I like to think we introduced a harder post-Coltrane edge to the proceedings, and hopefully our mistakes just appeared as early-60s explorations. Toucani are Daniel Wild (piano), John Baczynski (tenor), Brenton Homes (drums) and Eric Pozza (bass).

Kooky Fandango followed with a very different set. KF seem to me a bridge to more popular and bluesy styles, which makes them a sellable proposition, only enforced with the female vocals up front. The players are good, the style is clean and precise, the levels are restrained. This is quite a professional outfit and was popular with the audience. Peter is a well-known local player on his 6-string Alembic bass. I especially noticed one massively fast, flamenco style solo. Cameron is classically trained so his intonation is always good and Nathan Sciberras (leader of In Full Swing) reappeared on baritone sax giving some interesting counterpoint. Courtney has a strong and deep female voice, which suited the blues-influenced style. Kooky Fandango are Courtney Stark (vocals), Cameron Smith (trumpet), Nathan Sciberras (baritone sax), Peter Barta (bass), George Cora (drums).

A jam session ended the day with players from the In Full Swing small jazz ensemble. The tunes were obvious ones of the period: Summertime (hate it!), Caravan (love it!), Don’t bug me, hug me (more 12 bar jump blues than jazz), and Don’t get around much anymore. It was a bit too subdued for me, but I warmed to the head of Caravan, which seems to be impossible to play without passion.

I hope to see a wider mix of players at future jams, including a smattering from the Jazz School. James LeFevre might bring a few along when he provides the host band in a few months time. The venue is roomy; the beers are club prices; the entry is free for musos; there’s a very impressive PA and a big car park just out the door.

Jazz at Folkus jams are held the third Saturday every month, 2-5pm. Entry free for players; otherwise $12/$10. Folkus Room, Serbian Club, Mawson. Queries contact Cameron Smith 0422 842 605

More from ArtSound (AS2)

Continued from…

After hearing the hot players from the school, Kooky Fandango are a more staid outfit, but entertaining and capable none the less. This is a bigger band, or at least slightly bigger and with the feeling and arrangements of a swing big band. There were harmony horns on heads and discrete solos from various band members. I liked the background horn lines and echoed melodies, and they were tight. The style mostly reminded me of 60s detective shows on TV with a heavy blues influence, but there was a latin in there too. They also had a singer, but she sang on only a few tunes in this short performance. Good to see that busy people with day jobs are prepared to invest the time required to maintain their chops and play in bands like this. Kooky Fandango also play around. They were at Moruya and performed coastal winery gig that weekend. My wife also heard them at Kingston markets the day after the Open Day. KF are Courtney Stark (vocals), Cameron Smith (trumpet), Tom Fell (alto sax), Nathan Sciberras (baritone sax), Peter Barta (bass), Donovan Gall (drums).

Quantum Theory are a vehicle for original music composed by another batch of senior students from the Jazz School. This is a very different style from the earlier outfit: more cool and tempered, and the players are more restrained. These were stately melodies and gentle and subdued soloing. Dave plays lyrically on his solid-sounding (I’d guess heavily-strung) semi-acoustic guitar. Sebastian was new to me in a small group format. He played some tasteful melodies and solos, dissolving into some cascading tenor flourishes which were apt and expressive. Nice. The rhythm section is the local stalwart of Bill and Ed. As always, they swung with solid grooves and walks or played tenderly in a more free style with close responsiveness. They are a wonderfully satisfying pairing. Quantum Theory are Dave Rodriguez (guitar), Sebastian McIntosh (tenor sax), Bill Williams (bass) and Ed Rodrigues (drums).