Twists

It's another jazz jam, really, but it's a modern twist with groove and minimalism in place of standards and changes.  I love them both, of course, but the newer form sounds more '70s Miles-cum-rap 1-3 minimalism and embraces electronic sounds and it's playful and at very non-bop tempos.  It reminds me of a comment by Rich Beato about his time in a "jazz coma".  I can understand that and I've been there.  Jazz is such a complex and intellectual form that it can be its own world to be lost in, perhaps missing the ebb and flow of musics.  A once popular form established, perhaps like opera or the classics.  But I digress.  Last night was Victor Rufus Möbius at Sideway.  Five players on stage, improvising to instructions jotted on a board by Victor, occasionally responding to his conducting.  I spoke with keyboardist Hayden and he said it's a favourite outing.  I could imagine it. The sounds are electric, synths and e-bass; the rhythms are syncopated, jumpy, modern, perhaps on- rather than off-beat.  No swing that I remember.  Mostly all in together, layered and insisten, although there was one notable, sharp passage with just Victor and drummer Micah.  Inventive, exploratory, playful and skilled music with some knowing audience to imbibe.  Victor does this with various invited players.  I've seen another outing at Transit Bar with others and still that whiteboard.  Perhaps with invitations to rappers.  I did one stint of spoken word to the amusement of the audience and the band was a fabulous backing, steady then challenging and quickening.  It's not jazz coma but it's still jazz or a product thereof and I love it all.  Nice.  Synths are cool, too.

Victor Rufus (guitar) led another incarnation of Mobius at Subway with Mark Wilson (guitar), Olivia Faletoese (e-bass), Hayden Kinsman (keyboards) and Micah Heathwood (drums).

A surface with only one side

The closest I know is electric Miles, all strong grooves, changes guided by leader Viktor, some solos, effects, edgy chopping guitar.  Plenty of 4-bar 4-beat passages, powered, driving, then a collapse, all spacey, effects and percussion, then back to driving grooves.  I must say mostly driving grooves and that choppy guitar or wah, that match of telling synth and piano passages, accents throughout.  And that bass/drum combo.  Always that insistent, powerful, unrelenting bass/drums combo.  All manner of fingered chops, wah and octaver and drive effects underlying inevitable but surprisingly infrequent guitar solos.  This was more groove than solos or features.  The band was a bubbly, effervescent whole more than a backline and features.  No vocals, yet; this is still set 1. The bass/drum defining the vista and in control.  All telling.  Viktor leading, conducting, imposing with notes on a white board that we didn't see.  He'd offered his guitar as a prize if we could guess the instructions... all the instructions.  Virtually impossible of course, although it turned out to be chords passages, perhaps individually indicated by Victor and occasional stop and starts conducted by him.  Mostly very, very sharp. These players are classy.  Perhaps a 4-feel to 2, then a chord relocation, after hits, a return to drive, whatever, exhilarating.  The music was the Mobius improv jam at Transit Bar and described as improvised experimental hip-hop and progressive/neo soul.  Mobius; nicely named to fit the music: a surface with only one side.  That was set 1.  Then a break and set 2.  Starting much the same, but this was open for improv hiphop vocals and the like.  Performers would check in with Viktor in the break, the band would settle a little and Victor would invite performers up.  I didn't get names, but first up some evident rap, then some singing, then an old fart with spoken word, me, with they said poetry (I guess it was but I call it "spoken word") then a final birthday rave then the band led it out to an end.  Just two sets, two pieces of improv, with those vocals over.  I was impressed with the rapper and singer although couldn't hear much of either.  I asked a few people afterwards if my words were heard: both mentioned Double down, the theme and a repeated line, but not sure they got the politics of it all or followed the words.  Probably not.  Earlier I had tried two locations in the room and both were loud and mushy deep.  So it is in walled spaces, I guess.  As for the musical support, I enjoyed that the band grew in intensity and I went with it, and the repeats of "Double down, double double down" worked to lead a nice diminuendo.  Great night.  These Mobius jams run for the next two Fridays in Feb; free entry, 9-11pm, recommended.

Victor Rufus (guitar, musical director) led the music and event at the Mobius improv jam at Transit Bar. The musicians were Victor with Jamie Rea (keys), Mark Wilson (guitar), Phil Dick (bass) and Rhys Lintern (drums).  And there was a rapper and a singer and Eric Pozza (spoken word) and another party goer.

PS for those who were there, here are the words I recited for my spoken word premiere > Double down / The Pots (video)

NYC

NYC or other, these guys play that way and have all travelled to hear those modern styles.  We are lucky to have such a trio as this, here, in Canberra, down the track from studies here and abroad, playing with a hugely satisfying modern complexity.  It was Brendan's trio, so his part first: the bassist leads.  This is fast, fluent, expressive playing through solos and accompaniment.  Playing with time, busy across the fingerboard, machine gun lines at times, but also melodic, sometimes spelling out the melody plainly enough, perhaps with altered notes, or exploring both melody and harmonic substitutions with sequences that move through various keys but talk back to the initiating phrase.  Rich and busy playing and absolutely convincing.  Solid and fat.  And with this, Victor on guitar, again rich with chordal accompaniment, often enough chordal solos, twisting the harmony for new paths and new visions of a tune.  That contemporary tone: a batch of effects at his feet, of course, but not too obvious, perhaps middy, but clear and bell-like, strongly present but strangely unintrusive and always guiding to new directions.  I hear NYC clubs in his playing.  And Rhys on drums, quieter in this context of firmly amplified strings, filling often unobtrusively, perhaps taking solos, cymbals clear and present, toms filling and bouncing amongst it all, kick underlying this all.  This was the most complex and satisfying set -  sometimes standards, sometimes jazz tunes - flamboyant or complex or extravagant (the bass solos were, often enough!).  Always purposeful and telling modern stories in modern idioms.  Their time overseas was actually Indiana, NYC and Canada.  There are echoes here, strong and imbibed.  We are lucky to hear this, here, live, in the flesh.  Get it while you can.  A blast.

Brendan Keller-Tuberg (bass) led a trio with Victor Rufus (guitar) and Rhys Lintern (drums) at Molly.

Honouring Aaron

Concert 2 for the day was Victor Rufus' band playing at Smiths. Victor has recently returned from several (5?) months in NYC. Does it show that he (and the others in the band) chose to play the music of Aaron Parks, along with some originals, mostly by Victor. Victor writes some very decent tunes. The band was Tate Sheridan, Brendan Keller-Tuberg and Jamal Salem and it was sharp as. Tight as. Clinically sharp. Jamal may be the primary source for this as he's restrained but tack sharp. Tate sounded more laid back to my ears this evening with influences of pop and blues amongst some jazz harmonies and more complex chords. He has a lyrical presence that shines through. I hadn't heard Brendan for a year-or-so and I was stunned with his current virtuosity, and not just fleeting playing but also interesting concepts, fills, structures, counterpoints. He fairly recently finished his degree and I can feel some extensive woodshedding in his playing these days. As I've seen in one or two other serious players over the years. Stunning. And Victor, professional and affable as a leader and melodically clear as a guitarist and soloist, nicely toned and avoiding the too-common guitar excesses. I like his compositions, too: he excels here. I listened to the channelled Aaron Parks album after and was surprised by the effectiveness of the performance I'd heard. Sharp, clear, with intent and sympathy for the original. Interestingly, they also played a tune by Harry Rasmussen, another drummer of recent years at the ANU. Victor's tunes were perfectly in synch with the evening: Truth be told, Intermittent schmitz, Song of sonnenblumen. All telling his own stories. This was a tack sharp evening of art but also of comfortable professionalism.

Victor Rufus (guitar) led a band comprising Tate Sheridan (piano), Brendan Keller-Tuberg (bass) and Jamal Salem (drums) at Smiths playing the music of Aaron Parks, Victor Rufus and others.

Farewells

It was pot luck to catch up with Daniel Hunter and Victor Rufus playing at the Fyshwick market when I dropped in to shop on Easter Saturday. Especially good luck as they are both about to go overseas. In a stroke of happenstance, they both leave on Tuesday. Daniel's going back to Paris where he's resided for a decade; Victor's off to NYC for a several months. I joked I'd see him on the SmallsLive video feed sometime. (It happens: I recently saw a bassist I met in New Orleans on the Smalls feed). Their playing was a huge pleasure. I sat to listen to a few standards and a Daniel original. Such interesting guitar playing, sharing lead or comping or sometimes soloing together. Daniel the quicker and less distorted; Victor the dirtier and bluesier-edged; both finger picking for comps. Different but a pleasure together. I quipped we were losing all our guitarists on one day. Not quite (there are a few others...). It's a background gig and most just go about their shopping, but a cappuccio on such a nice day with such capable music is a great pleasure.

Daniel Hunter and Victor Rufus (guitars) played at the Fyshwick Market.

Family affairs

This was great fun, like a family get-together. Elise Walsh out front, releasing her new Bella Groove album. With her regular band of Victor, John and Steve. With various guests invited for her CD and to play at the release, John, Miro, Eric, Hugh and backing singers Francine and Juanita and Sharon who doubled on vocals and keys. A big performance of a series of tunes from Elise's CD including some originals. Should we (dance) was a love song; City of yes was an ode to politcal involvement; Open your mind was an affirmation; City lights celebrated city life. Also original lyrics to modern jazz tunes and some borrowings from Mike Murphy and even some funky Motown originally from the Messengers. Eric apparently grew up listening to that one on the radio. Nice to hear an old favourite that's not too common, Coltrane's Naima. But this was like family. Everyone knew someone or many others, so some good cheer. So much so, the red wine expired and the local pub was mentioned for afters. And a lovely twist: included with entry was a copy of the CD. What a great idea to get your work out. There was some seriously good playing, too, from some seriously good players. There was good sound and a video recording, but mostly the good cheer of Elise and her wide jazz family having a good time. I'm looking forward to sitting down with the CD. Until then, good cheers and some very nice music.

Elise Walsh (vocals, flute) released an album under her band name, Bella Groove, at Ainslie Arts Centre. With here were her normal band, Victor Rufus (guitar), John Burgess (bass) and Steve Fitzgerald (drums) and guests John Mackey (tenor), Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet, flugelhorn), Eric Ajaye (bass), Hugh Barrett (piano), Francine Minjoy and Juanita Cucinotta (vocals) and Sharon Robinson (vocals, keyboard).

Relief from drought

This is a quiet time in Canberra. The locals are down the coast or off to visit rellies. The North side is lively with the Summernats. There's not much music around. So I was happy to see there's jazz at the Old Parliament House cafe on Sunday afternoon. This day it was Victor Rufus and Calum Builder. Just standards but nicely adventurous as they moved easily between styles, swing or rubato or minimal or balladic. Calum took things slowly and even contemplatively, navigating with varying and unexpected intervals. I've been reading recently of the value of intervals for melody and this was a sampler. Light on the scalar runs; ready for occasional flourishes; enlivening the drama with varied feels. Victor played chords and bass lines and took solos, although his solos were unaccompanied so more sparse, despite a quicker take on the changes. The tunes were standard songbook - Black Orpheus, Someday my prince will come, Tuneup, Darn that dream, All the things you are, Recordame and the like - but how nice that there's some music around town in this tine of cultural drought. And they are standards for good reason.

Calum Builder (alto) played standards with Victor Rufus (guitar) at the Old Parliament House cafe.

Good for the gander

... Tate was running off to play with Victor Rufus Reverberation at Smiths. It's a common run these Thursdays: Thursday is performance day School of Music and jazz night at Smiths. I came in to a decent crowd and a band playing Dave Holland Conference of the birds. I enjoyed hearing that. It's well know but not too often played. This was a medley that ran into Nirvana Teen Spirit then Kurt Rosenwinkel's Next step. Difficult electric jazz. Then Brian Blade Fellowship Evinrude-fifty and Donny McCaslin Casting for gravity. Nothing like the preceding ballads. This was outright boys' blowing and skilled reading adn chops on hot stuff heads with no thought of love and life. Boys and girls: long last the difference. I enjoyed this hot flashy stuff, especially the contorted heads, some considered and structured and very controlled solos, including one that let go of diatonism and the planet, from Tate, a fluent and fast bass solo form Barnaby, an impressive drum solo from Rhys that was based on a very jumpy, stop-start groove, intelligent tenor and Victor's generous presence and guitar. It was only a few tunes (they had started before I arrived and Tate moved faster than I did, having to farewell some friends on the way) and it seemed short. An encore that was unplanned, on a Bb blues (Victor chose Bird's Relaxing at Camarillo) and the end. I was recording, and I had almost one hour. I was surprised. It didn't feel so long. Lively and choppy; the other side of Tate's interests. Nice one.

Victor Rufus Reverberation comprised Victor Rufus (guitar), Doug Hall (tenor), Tate Sheridan (piano), Barnaby Briggs (bass) and Rhys Lintern (drums).

Manuka again

It's our local and we'd walked down for pizza to start the long weekend and there was jazz in the distance as we left. Victor Rufus was out with Barney Briggs and Sean Connaughton playing standards for the diners. We just caught a few including Beatrice and Alone together. Some tasteful melody from Victor and some fleet bass solos and a very latin take on Alone together. On the lawns at Manuka, under the pollarded plane trees. Just ships passing in the night but nice. Victor Rufus (guitar) played with Barney Briggs (bass) and Sean Connaughton (drums).

Apologies

It was a busy time and that’s my reason but not an excuse. I missed writing up the CD launch for RasRufus. RasRufus are graduates of the Jazz School. They’ve been lucky in grants, and this is one outcome: their CD launch. The Ainslie Arts Centre was full with family and friends. This was virtually all original material, other than a visit to Radiohead. It was varied: studiously cool with minimal grooves, latin dotted crotchets, jazz rockers in 9/8, a Lonnie Smith tribute, the unpredictable floating odd times of Radiohead, a ballad and the major work, Tanzverbot. Tanzverbot is the name of the CD and the tune is long and complex. It means “dance is forbidden” in German, and refers to dance being banned before religious and public festivities from the 1930s. It’s written as an undanceable piece, although there’s at least one segment of danceable 4/4 mixed with the freeish or minimal styles and punctuated melodies and 7/4. Careful and prescribed msuic and sometimes excitable, especially with solos from Luke and Tom. My apologies to RasRufus for being so late with this one. RR are Victor Rufus (guitar), Henry Rasmussen (drums), Luke Sweeting (piano), Tom Sly (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Jared Plane (bass). Victor and Henry are the composers.

Eatin'

It’s been a quiet week, but I caught Victor Rufus, Alec Coulson and Sam McNair at Manuka as I walked by. Nice to see some jazz on the streets. Standards done with restaurant gentleness but a few solos all round. We talked of sousaphones. Obviously the coming thing. Victor Rufus (guitar), Alec Coulson (bass) and Sam McNair (drums).

Pilgrimages (Moruya 2010)

It must have been a weekend for pilgrimages. Obviously, the big one was for Mary McKillop at the Vatican, but for me it was my annual jaunt to the Moruya Jazz Festival. It’s usually a bright, sunny, warm outing, but this one started with unseasonably wet and cold weather. By the end, it was pleasant despite a gentle but cool breeze in the Monarch Beer Garden. The usual contingent from the ANU Jazz School was there, as well as lots of names that appear most years. (It’s not just a pilgrimage for me, it seems).

Eric Ajaye noted that this was the tenth straight year that the Commercial Ensemble played at Moruya. They were hot and one of the festival stars for me, but then I like the harmonies of a larger ensemble. It was a different band this year with Liam Budge out front with his youthful vigour and visage (and male voice) and searching approach to singing the melody, and the addition of percussion from Namchoon Kim, (who has studied in Cuba, no less) enlivened the tonality. Percussion is not a common instrument at the Jazz School. Eric Ajaye noted that many bands he’d played with in the US had percussion, and certainly it adds a patina to the sound and complexity to the rhythm that greatly enhances many musical outings, and it sat well with a funky outfit like the Commercials. They do a nice cover of Steely Dan’s Ricky don’t lose that number with constant changes of style, rock, swing in the B section. That was interesting. But my favourite was a deliciously intoned ballad which they played at the first performance only. The horn-line intonation was spot on, so this just sang, and amongst the other lively numbers, it was a big contrast. Beautiful.

The stars of the show (at least for the followers of more modern styles) are always the faculty of the jazz school. This year it was Mike Price, Eric Ajaye and Col Hoorweg performing as the longstanding Mike Price Trio. They performed fabulously smooth and rich treatments of a few standards. How interesting were these renditions: a listening audience in a dedicated but casual venue makes a big difference. They played two sets, and both were well attended and closely followed. I was particularly taken by Eric’s strong and determined fingerboard work and I’m perplexed at the moment by that stroking right hand action, but then I’m a bassist new to double. Miro’s band was in the program, but couldn’t make it one the day, so Luke Sweeting performed Miro’s sets with Eric Ajaye and Aidan Lowe, and with some students occasionally sitting in. I caught just a few tunes, but the uncanny ability of Luke to stray from the straight line was inspirational.

Another band that impressed and entertained was the little big band funk/reggae outfit called Mahooud. Lots of laughter and display and obvious joy on stage, and it was infectious for the audience. Rachel Lole led the band from the mic stand, interestingly with another female singer, Sophia Christoper. Six horns out front, and a strong rhythm section I particularly noticed Caleb Wearne, e-bassist (also appearing in another outfit on acoustic) who set down some eminently funky and solid rhythms on Cissy Strut and the like and guitarist Victor Rufus. There were screams of delight when funk turned to reggae at one stage, but the feature was the final polka-cum-klezma paean to drink, with indulgent lyrics and punctuated playing and starts and stops and Eurofolk changes of tempo. The band was loving it and so was the audience. This was a winner.

Otherwise, there was a font of interesting stuff. DJ Gosper with her entertaining professionalism, great voice and relaxed swing. Jan Preston with hard core boogie-woogie blues. Matt Thompson with his very cool accompaniment. Dirk, Graham and Lachlan presented their normal smooth, mellifluous sax-based performance as As Famous as the Moon. Liam Budge in his own band with emo presence and busily inventive vocals, and always a great collection of fellow travellers around him. Not sure with whom, but I remember guitarist Joe Panucci letting go with some extraverted, screaming, sweeping solos. The Recording Ensemble were more introspective and minimalist this year. The Ax Long Quintet presented some early Miles-cool playing. I was quite fascinated by some developing but intriguing soloing by Tom Fawcett. Peter Henderson’s Turner’s antidote was there as usual, playing Tom Scott and similar '70s funk. They obviously enjoy this outing. Kooky Fandango were playing their lighter funk style, sharp and practised, and with Cam Smith’s classically trained trumpet playing some very nice and authentic jazz solos. There was more, of course, some of which I saw, and some I missed, bands and even venues and they are obviously coloured by my mood and interests. After years of attending Moruya, it feels like a family affair with the assortment and affiliations and changes over the years as the kids grow up and leave home. Maybe family picnic fits better than pilgrimage.

And BTW, I was there with a new band, but I have indulged myself elsewhere about that.