For the faint-of-heart, Not

I was chatting with trumpet Tom after the gig and I commented on how complex and difficult was this music and he suggested it had taken them 3 years to master it.  That floored me.  The recording makes it seem demanding but fairly relaxed.  The tour and this gig just opened the complexity and difficulty for all to see.  So it was not music for the faint-hearted in the audience let alone in the band but the skills and chops and cleverness and commitment were skyhigh and that was evident.  I think the compositions are by pianist and leader Wilbur, presumably with input over those years from the others.  Certainly, he talked on the ABCRN Music Show of tunes that had welcomed a floating intro and that would have been in the development stage.  I sat in awe at every one of the players as they performed this complex, busy or airy, ever intellectual and demanding music.  This was not an easy outing for band or audience.  Early on, I tried to follow, count, investigate, understand but it was best and most satisfying when I just closed eyes and took it in.  It was all complex in a musical sense, but evident enough in an emotional sense.  Every instrument was virtuosic, often surprisingly generous and responsive to others, perhaps the alto and trumpets in synch or in competition or the piano defining the changes with that phat Moog bass or that immense sharpness from the kit or those lovely talkative interactions again between horns.  And always the odd times, the dissonant and jumpy melodies.  But also always the sharp and correct playing on something not at all easy.   Not for the faint-hearted.    Listen to the album and go to the gig and try to dissect it first up, perhaps, or just close your eyes and partake.  Just don't expect an easy ride!

Wildfire played Smiths on their self-titled album-launch tour.  Wildfire are Wilbur Whitta (piano, synth bass), Tom Avgenicos (trumpet), Jack Stoneham (alto), Alex Inman-Hislop (drums).

Live or listened

I've got into recording over the years and most recently into multitrack mixing and mastering, mainly of gigs at Smiths.  I find it fascinating and even, in some ways, better or more revealing than being in attendance.  Less fun, perhaps, and less personal, but revealing.  So I can solo the bass or sax of other and follow the thinking, the improvs, in detail and with repeats.  Fascinating.  Those gigs don't get written up here but here is one.  Alex asked me for a few words on a particularly intriguing and adventurous outing, his Fauna & Flora.  The band is Fauna and the guest was Flora (Carbo).  I was entranced.  Here are my considered and touched words on this concert that I know only from my spare room home studio.

Hearing Fauna and Flora for the first time was a revelation direct from Miles and memory.  Jazz lovers have heard these mutating, intriguing, explorative instrumentations but probably not in the flesh.  Realising that is a stunner.  The emotive melodies, the searching harmonies, the richly fluid accompaniment, the floats and grooves and improvisations melt into the consciousness.  The tunes merge, originals or known standards, to one, whole; one generous, exploratory set, then another.  Tunes with time to live in, explored and imbibed as your mind wanders with wonder.  How am I so surprised? So intrigued?  How is this so fresh, because it is so fresh.  And as for the band's name, I'm still chuckling over that one.  I didn't see Fauna and Flora but I did hear them, intrigued and deeply touched as I mixed and mastered after the event.  If at all possible, see them!

Fauna was joined by guest Flora Carbo (alto) at Smiths.  Fauna are Alex Raupach (trumpet), Wilbur Whitta (piano), Max Alduca (bass) and Jack Rosenzweig (drums).  And thanks to Alex for the pic.

End of eight

It's the end of a series.  A series of eight concerts with invited players from interstate, run by Alex Raupach Verity Lane.  I've got to the last three only, but enjoyed them immensely.  Let's hope the series reappears.  It reminds me a days a decade back when musicians and bands toured though Canberra, Syd>Melb or vice versa, with workshops at the ANUSOM.  Good days.  These were great concerts.  This last night was pianist Wilbur Whitta, again one with Canberra connections but also a Masters from the Royal School of Music, just beside the Royal Albert Hall, that Albert Hall in London.  Impressive as was his playing.  He teamed with Chris Pound and Micah Heathwood for the night, and a few tunes to finish with Alex and Tom Fell.  We caught the second set only, with a bopper then a few possible originals, then a longing trumpet tune, and possibly a Miles of late'70s vintage and a finish on a rarer standard, You stepped out of a dream.  I found Wilbur as expansive, lightly phrased but complex, rich in substitutions and dissonances.  Lovely.  Chris again solid and richly toned but exploratory.  Micah busy and driving and forceful.  A worthy end to a challenging series.

Wilbur Whitta (piano) led a trio with Chris Pound (bass) and Micah Heathwood (drums) at Verity Lane.  Alex Raupach (trumpet) and Tom Fell (tenor) sat in for a few tunes. 

Tenor of our times

Murray Jackson plays alto but had time during Covid to explore the tenor sax and we saw the outcome the other night at a Geoff's jazz night at Smiths.  It was a very satisfying night of playing.  Mostly post-bop-sum-hard-bop field, so tunes by Murray and Aussies Bernie McGann and Dale Barlow, but also the internationals Jackie McLean, Donald Bird, Joe Henderson, Horace Silver and Stardust by Hoagy Carmichael as somewhat an outlier.  I was particularly taken by Nica's dream by Horace Silver with Murray playing Hank Mobley (or Junior Cook?) on harmony with the melody on piano (the original has trumpet playing the melody).  That was a particularly fascinating line and a pleasure to hear so clearly live.  Murray has studied well.  There's a clarity and purposefulness in all his playing, clearly from a good listener and plenty of transcriptions.  The whole band was pretty much that way, too, clear and expressive.  I enjoyed Wilbur Whitta's plain-talking lines and Tim Geldens spelling the rhythmic bass and especially Brendan Clarke's sometimes deliriously fluid solos, but then I'm a bassist and I admire Brendan's playing.  There was directness in this integrity and restraint, not to suggest it was easy to play because lots wasn't, but you didn't feel the richness and history and admiration that underlaid this presentation.  Murray mentioned the good sound of the room, too, both acoustics and Bevan's sound and that only helped this sense of clarity.  And it was Murray's first outing on tenor, I think.  One other thing to note: Wilbur Murray and Brendan are all products of our local jazz school, presumably from its early days at Manuka, so nice returns.  Very much enjoyed.

Murray Jackson (tenor) led a quartet with Wilbur Whitta (piano), Brendan Clarke (bass) and Tim Geldens (drums) at Smiths.