Suite life

A suite is a big view and not very common in jazz, but Stu Hunter does them. The migration is the third that he's composed and recorded and the first that I've heard on tour. We were lucky enough to catch the final night here in Canberra, after performances as far afield as Perth and as illustrious as the MIJF. The final night mostly has the best awareness of the music and the most delirious pleasure in playing and that's what it seemed to me this night. Not least aided by the Canberra connections, through frequent gigs or teaching or studying at our School of Music in its illustrious past. I assume there's also family here for some of them. I could only admire and wallow in the deep, often minimalist grooves, the sometimes raucous horn parts, the heavy rhythms or detailed drums or essential, busy, feathery e-bass, or Stu's directorial piano segments or Tina's blues-infested voice that stepped through lyrics in three component songs of nine tune/movements. I couldn't catch all the words and these would be essential for the theme; reading them after from the CD cover I'm still not hugely more confident in my interpretation. The migration seems a broad story of life, a "celebration, conversation, a comment and a wish ... my own life process put to music ... questions instead of answers ... movement of ideas and beliefs ... and growth and sharing of culture and ideas". That's a broad palette for the theme. The music was broad too, as well as virtuosic (although no surprise on the virtuosity given the lineup). Bass was core to the work. It started with a wah bass solo then a driving dirty bass with overlying yearning horn themes. Then a heavy groove with Afrobeat horns; a short pensive section; the theme laid out with voice on Twelve stages of freedom. Requiem for belief was a written four part horn tune (including tuba) with drums accompaniment (think Nino Rota). There was a piece outlining flowing water then a piano-heavy ballad speaking of love; an ecstatic blues/funk song with words of moonshine but themed of the joys of life lived. Finally a klezmer-like ending called Land of Gypsies, instrumental and outgoing and open to the world. Nice to see the migration was ultimately well-received by the composer. It was certainly well-received by the audience. I hugely enjoyed the grooves, head-nodding for long passages (there's a lot of music here to dance to), the horns were great, the rhythm section was wondrous, especially Cameron Undy (local origin, now Sydney), very busy on a uniquely lithe bass (short scale Fender Musicmaster with split pickup?), and Simon's insistent drumming, Tina's voice was intimately bluesy and powerful with heavy vibrato. And Julien's bass clarinet, amusingly sometimes sounding of didj, Matt's much restrained solo lines breaking into flurries, James' playful virtuosity on tuba and everything else he touches, Phil's calmly explosive precision, Carl's occasional guitar (I remember just one larger solo this night, mostly lost in the mix to my ears) that can plumb real musical depths, Declan's insistent rhythms that established more than one tune, and Stu's guidance and oversight from the piano stool and sharp solos and penetrating comping. 80 minutes that entranced and involved and passed with ease. In the wake of the like of Mingus and Carla Bley, Stu Hanter has produced his third large format compostion and it was a wonderful, engaging success.

Stu Hunter (piano, composer) led the band in performing his suite, The migration, at the Street Theatre. The band was Stu with Phil Slater (trumpet), Matt Keegan (saxes, clarinet), Julien Wilson (saxes, clarinet), James Greening (trombone, pocket trumpet, tuba), Carl Dewhurst (guitar), Cameron Undy (bass), Simon Barker (drums, percussion), Declan Kelly (percussion, drums), Tina Harrod (vocals).

Top 5 of 2010

This is a piece I wrote for extempore. It's a great site, and has been a great (printed) journal, published by Miriam Zolin. I'm not the only one to present their top 5 - see others online from Mike Nock, John Shand, Roger Mitchell, John McBeath and others including a few Canberra locals, Keith Penhallow and Brian Stewart. Mine are pretty local and intimate and perhaps plebian, but the choices spell variety and richness to me. Fascinating!

My Top 5 of 2010

It’s an interesting task to collect my five most significant jazz experiences of 2010. I can revisit my memories easily enough through my blog (CanberraJazz.net), which is as much a record for me as reports for others, but the selection is the hard part. These are my most intense memories as I scan through my blog, but there’s an inevitable subjectivity. They may not be the most renowned players (viz. Shorter, Patitucci, Jamal, Marsalis aren’t included) but they are significant and they all said something special to me on the night.

Steve Newcomb & Hannah Macklin Steve and Hannah visited Canberra from hometown Brisbane, which seems to be undergoing a cultural renaissance. Just a bar gig in a noisy environment, but I loved the intriguing lyrics and complex electronics that made a duo into a looped orchestra and harmonised choir. All confirmed on the CD which they were promoting. This is jazz training applied to electronica-cum-pop with considerable profundity.
http://canberrajazz.blogspot.com/2010/01/delightfully-different.html

Tina Harrod Spellbinding and touching singing with a fabulously capable and understated backing band of Matt McMahon, Jonathon Zwartz and Hamish Stewart. Somewhere in the area of R&B/soul but again with great jazz playing, including one of my favourite bassists (I have to admit that I play bass).
http://canberrajazz.blogspot.com/2010/02/underneath-your-spell.html

Roil An eye-opening visit to free playing. Chris Abrahams, Mike Majkowski and James Waples introduced one tune each and the developments were detailed and responsive and deeply communicated between musos and to the audience. I can struggle with minimalism and free, but this was clear and purposeful and deeply satisfying.
http://canberrajazz.blogspot.com/2010/03/roil-not-my-ales.html

Sandy Evans Trio Sandy started the night with her trio of Brett Hirst and Toby Hall, and these were great tunes and wonderfully played. But it was the performance of her CD-length suite, When the sky cries rainbows, that floored me. It comprises about a dozen pieces or themes that tell of personal tragedy around illness. It was obviously deeply felt and wonderfully played by a very sympathetic group. The trio was joined by Miroslav Bukovsky, James Greening and Luke Sweeting for my most touching musical experience of my year.
http://canberrajazz.blogspot.com/2010/06/when-sky-cries-rainbows.html

Anjali Perrin I visited London during the year and lucked on a great night of jazz. The first duo included a graduate of our own local Jazz School at the ANU, now playing the London theatre scene, pianist Mike Guy. The second band was a quartet led by singer Anjali Perrin with Ross Stanley, Davide Mantovani and Enzo Zirilli. The band was just thrown together but made up of some of the best on the London scene. I remember great grooves and intriguing solos, but especially intelligent rearrangements and reharmonisations of the most common of tunes (Autumn leaves, Love for sale, Never will I marry, etc) that played with the audience’s memories. These were standards performed with great invention and easy skills.
http://canberrajazz.blogspot.com/2010/08/lucking-out-later.html

That’s my five. But there’s so much more: Australian Youth Orchestra performances their summer camp; concerts by Jacam Manricks, Vocal Sampling, Vertical, Marcin Wasiliewski, Pan Francis, Java Quartet, Paavali Jumppanen and many others; Henry IV Pt 1 at the Globe in London under the rain; many gigs by local musos including staff and students at the ANU Jazz School and the performers at our Jazz Uncovered 2010. And thanks to the various players I perform with, because that’s the most fun of all: Brenton, Peter, Mike, Leanne, Richard, Monica.

Eric Pozza is a long time jazz lover, bassist and author/editor for CanberraJazz.net

Underneath your spell

I don’t hear Tina Harrod as a jazz singer. Nina Simone is a major influence, and listening to her first CD, Worksongs, I can hear touches of Billy Holliday and Renée Geyer. I guess it’s called soul, but these labels mutate. It’s clearly rooted in a black American past, and its training is more in southern Baptist churches or blues clubs than in tertiary jazz courses. It’s not the high intellectual art of jazz, informed with complex scalar and harmonic knowledge, but the raw emotions of passion and personal truth. That’s not to say there isn’t wisdom in it. She chooses great songs by a range of singers and reinterprets them in her own way, and when she writes, which she does a little for Worksongs and comprehensively for her second CD, Imaginary people, the stories speak sparsely but tellingly of love and need and pain and the images are vivid. They cut to the heart, as they should. It might not work so well on a blog, but lines like these are incisive on stage and in context when poured out with Tina’s plaintive voice: “And I was beautiful underneath your spell”, “You’re so unsafe, just like my high healed shoes”, “What becomes of people / What becomes of people who meet and fall in love”. She has an ardent but doleful voice that makes you melt. There’s no pretence, just the words and their stories and their melodies, often flattened slightly in bluesy presentation, and perhaps with a falling figure at the end of a line. I loved it and was touched by it.

The band was just exquisite, too, as a sparse and distilled accompaniment. Matt McMahon seems to excel in this role. His piano is judicious and unassertive. He introduces lovely harmonic movement under the singing then solos in consonant styles that clearly follow the tunes. That’s appropriate, but I like a bit of dissonance, so I enjoyed his solo on Stevie Wonder’s Big brother, where he lets go some rapid runs through descending keys, and was floored by a solo late in the second set where piano descended into cacophony while drums exploded against a bass pedal. I thought it would end the set, but they pulled it back and returned to song. That was a stunner. Jonathan Zwartz was concentrated and contained, but there were spots of release where a quick line slipped in, or a rhythmic jog. He’s a big man, with hands to match. Big hands lend a comfort with the double bass that smaller hands can’t. I could feel his ease of playing, the way he could drop notes or lightly tease the strings with barely a touch: harmonics, sweet spots, the lightest of tones on call. He played a few solos but a particularly lovely one on the blues later in the night was very well received. I don’t know why, but bass solos tend to be well received. This one richly deserved it. I also enjoyed Hamish Stewart. His performance was the heart of discretion, underplayed and precise, so his release with an explosive fill, or his solos accompanied by a big smile and flailing sticks, or that cacophony I mentioned above seemed out of character and appealing. The band was like that. Restrained has to be the word, but there was tension and precision and an ability to fill spaces so aptly and subtly that was wonderful. The tonal palette expanded when Miro unexpectedly sat in on trumpet for two tunes. As I remember, the first was Comes love, but I particularly enjoyed the blues solo with mute which was soft and fluent and fitted the mood so well.

The repertoire was taken mostly from Tina’s two CDs. The originals were penned by Tina with a fellow composer, usually a bassist: Jackie Orszaczky and Jonathan Zwartz. Jackie Orszaczky is sadly missed, especially by Tina, but it’s interesting to see that Tina has developed an approach to writing with bass players. I noticed a comfort with funky, rocky rhythms and changing time signatures, and my guess is that it’s a product of writing with bassists. Other tunes were by Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan and Nick Drake and others.

It was a disappointingly small crowd for Tina but the positive side was a supremely intimate performance for us. I loved it and was touched by it. She’s a wonderfully affecting singer and the band fitted like leggings. A memorable outing: very close to the CDs but so much more involving as a live performance.

Tina Harrod (vocals) performed with Matt McMahon (piano), Jonathan Zwartz (bass) and Hamish Stuart (drums). Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet) sat in for two songs.