catholics @ hippos 12 Feb 2006

It's not strictly Canberra Jazz, but it happened here. The catholics came to Canberra to perform for the Multicultural Festival, and also for a more intimate performance at Hippos.

I had seen them years ago, mid-90s or thereabouts. At one stage during the night, Lloyd Swanton said they’d been together for 14 years, so they were already well established. They all have other projects. They have just recorded their 5th CD (or 4th and a compilation?). Some players were still there from the concerts I saw 10 years ago – Lloyd Swanton (bass), Sandy Evans (tenor & soprano sax), James Greening (trombone, and a very little trumpet) and Fabian Hevia (percussion). The guitar, drums and slide players are changed.

I was most blown out by James Greening. Stunning, clear, articulated trombone solos – it’s rare that you hear postbop-style lines like this on a trom. And Sandy Evans was superb. She’s little, and the tenor practically reaches her knees, but her lines are big and complex. Plenty of lyrical playing, but with detours into sheets of notes at varying levels of dissonance. And together, Sandy and James create these hauntingly beautiful and precise harmonies which define several of their tunes.

The rhythms were fairly standard: reliable latin throughout by Hamish Stuart on drums and Lloyd Swanton. I hadn’t taken note, but my drummer friend observed there wasn’t a swing throughout the night. Jonathan Pease on guitar was lyrical (at times, with a bell-like strat tone to die for) as was the Bruce Reid on slide guitar. I’m not up on these instruments, but I think they were a lap steel and a resonator of some kind. Nice solos too on bass, and a lovely one by Fabian Hevia on percussion early in the night. (How can you not love the dissection of rhythm that is a percussion solo?)

The whole was put through a JBL rig with sub-bins and mid/high boxes. Rare for a jazz-related gig, but more balanced, compressed and powerful. I enjoyed it, but I did hear negative comments about it being overpowering. It was not rock-loud, but still pretty solid.

The overall effect was rich and accurate, with stunning competence in solos, and beautiful, lyrical melodies against the rhythmic complexity that you can only get with a large rhythm section.

The catholics are: Lloyd Swanton (bass), Sandy Evans (saxes), James Greening (trombone), Jonathan Pease (guitar), Bruce Reid (lap steel guitar, dobro), Hamish Stuart (drums), Fabian Hevia (percussion).

They are running an email list if you wish to find out more, but I coudn't find a URL. Good luck.

A great pic, but not the current catholics line-up

The local Trad jazz people

Here's a glance into our history. The Canberra Jazz Club represents the trad end of the jazz spectrum. They get together at regular performances of the Black Mountain Jazz Band at the Dickson Tradies, and meet with other trad jazz clubs around NSW. See their website.

http://www.actco.org.au/canberrajazzclub/

Music under the Elm @ Lanyon

Jazz is returning to Lanyon Homestead for a summer season: Friday evenings, 3 Feb - 10 Mar, 5.30-8.30pm. Gold coin donation. The series features several bands out of the CSM, starting on 3 Feb with Eric Ajaye's excellent trio called Straight Up! See my review of an earlier concert at Lanyon below.

Friday 3 February STRAIGHT UP! Eric Ajaye, lecturer in Jazz Studies at the Canberra School of Music, joins with drummer Chris Thwaites and pianist Michael Azzopardi to play modern jazz originals.

Friday 10 February 5.30pm-8.30pm FIRE ON THE HILL. Jazz guitarist Lachlan Coventry, joins with bass, drums and slide to play his original material.

Friday 17 February, 5.30pm-8.30pm MALONE. Singer/songwriter Gareth Malone plays original soul, R & B and contemporary jazz material with Charlie Meadows and Nick Hoorweg.

Friday 24 February, 5.30pm-8.30pm SWING GUITAR. Three prominent guitarists and double bass players come together to perform the swinging Gypsy Jazz of Django Reinhardt and the ‘The Quintet du Hot Club de France’.

http://www.museumsandgalleries.act.gov.au/lanyon/index.asp

Trinity Jazz

Trinity Jazz
Originally uploaded by petelawley.

Thanks to Pete Lawley for this pic from the Trinity Bar Tuesday evening sessions. Found on Flickr.

Zip

I must put in a rave about the band, Zip. Zip are Linda Tinney (piano/vocals), Graeme Tinney (bass), and Amanda Waite (drums). They all have backgrounds at the School of Music. They play a careful, considered, soulful, gospel influenced, R&B repertoire. And they do it with love and precision. Great music. Here's a pic from a performance at Red Gecko on Sunday afternoon. Recommended. Sadly, I hear we are about to lose them from the Canberra music scene.

Jazz in Hanoi & Hong Kong

This is not strictly Canberra Jazz, but I have a few (poor) pics, so I’ll include them here. I visited Vietnam and Hong Kong for a short trip last year (Sept-Oct 2005). There’s a lot of interest amongst Australian jazz musicians about performing in Asia, and I’ve heard about several Australians travelling there to perform, or who are based there. I saw a wonderful concert a few years ago with Blaine Whittaker. He’s a supremely competent Australian alto bop player who, at least at the time, was resident in HK. He came over with the HK-based, US-originated, pianist Allen Youngblood and performed a little big-band set with the cream of Sydney players (Dale Barlow et al) for SIMA at the Side-On Cafe.

On my trip, I got to visit 2 jazz clubs. The first was [Quyen Van] Minh’s Jazz Bar, centrally located in Can Luong van Can in Hanoi (see “Jazz Club” on this map). Apparently, Minh is a sax player and teacher in Hanoi. I didn’t even know who I was seeing that night, but I presume Minh was the tenor player and leader. He was accompanied by electric bass, electric piano, sometimes trumpet or alto, and several drummers, who once changed over while performing one tune. The music was mainstream and standards. The playing was competent, entertaining and sometimes frantic, rather than particularly inventive. It’s a big club, with a prominent neon sign out front, so you can’t miss it. Free entry; beer on tap.

The second visit was to Hong Kong’s Fringe Club for jazz. The Fringe Club is interestingly located next to the famous HK Foreign Correspondents Club. It’s an intimate venue. Originally the Richard Malmstein (Swedish bassist; now local) quartet was to play, but RM was not available. He was replaced by a local bassist who is obviously a local hero: Tsang Tak Hong. TTH played fusion on a 5 string (Schecter?) bass. He was a wonderful player, easily of international standard. Strong on setting and maintaining the groove; lots of fast solos flayed across the fingerboard. He didn’t venture from fusion, but he did that fabulously well. The other players were Miles Li (alto sax from US, originally from Korea), Per-Axel Johnson (guitar, friend of Rich Malmstein, and visiting HK) and Robin Harris (Drums, US). P-A J was a much sweeter player, and obviously out of place in this fusion outfit. I spoke to P-A J and, interestingly, at one stage, he volunteered that Australia produces very good jazz players. Australia obvious has a reputation. Cover charge; grog available.

There were other jazz events around HK, but I only got to this one. But in parting, here’s a pic from Tom Lee’s Music Store just off Nathan Street in Kowloon. It’s big store, and relaxed. Lots of basses to pick up and try out, and no-one hanging over your shoulder. They also seem to have plenty of visiting master classes. Nathan East was to give a class just a few days after I left.

Jazz in Melbourne

This is not strictly Canberra jazz, I got down to Melbourne in the last few days, and saw a few concerts. One was an experimental event at the Melbourne Women's International Jazz Festival.

Brigid Burke (clarinet & bass clarinet) played first with Gary Costello (double bass). They played free music to accompany videos projected on the wall behind them. This was challenging music, but played by very capable players, and beautiful in its own way. To me, it sounded more modern classical than jazz. I think this is my response to the rhythmic structure, but I need to think more on that.

The Dur-e Dara Ensemble followed with more challenging free music. Dur-e Dara (percussion), David Tolley (lovely 6-string double bass) and Ren Walters (guitar). David set up each of the tunes by creating a bass loop, to which the band played for an extended time. Again challenging.

I also saw Way Out West at the Famous Spiegeltent by the Melbourne Arts Centre. It's a romantic, old, wood-encrusted, circular tent structure. I'm told there are about 6 of these in the world, and they were orignally constructed about 100 years ago in Austria. I could confirm that, I'm sure, but I don't really need to know more. Obviously it's a much loved venue, especially lending itself to cabaret and burlesque. But jazz gets a look in, too. Way out West are an interesting mix of reasonably light groove/western jazz with Vietnamese instruments and influences. It's all original music with lots of Melbourne references (except ending with Ellington's Caravan). Drums, percussion, bass, sax, trumpet, guitar/Vietnamese instruments. It reminded me of the world jazz of the catholics. I wasn't totally convinced, but I was eventually won over by the lovely Vietnamese tonalities (I was taken with them on a recent visit to Vietnam) and the tribal rhythms of Caravan (is it possible to resist that tune?)

Jazz Fake Books Index

Here's a gift for the musos amongst us: an index of tunes from several well known jazz fake books. The books are -

• Real Books 1,2,3
• New Real Books 1,2,3
• Colorado cookbook
• Bill Evans fake book
• Jazz fakebook
• Jazz LTD
• Library of musician's jazz
• The book [Commercial]

Versions are in Excel (.xls) and tab delimited (.txt) formats. To download in Windows, right click on the link, and select "Save link as...".

http://canberrajazz.net

ArtSound FM Open Day

ArtSound FM 92.7 is Canberra's local arts station, playing lots of good music, passing on info on local arts events, etc. ArtSound is moving its premises in the very near future. The new premises are located next to the entrace to Manuka Pool, and are shared with PhotoAccess, another renowned Canberra arts institution.

The Open Day will be held 11am-4pm, Saturday, 3 December. Apparently there will be performing artists, tours of the new facilities, etc. ArtSound are asking for people to ring so they can cater. Sounds a great opportunity to support this excellent local resource.

http://www.artsoundfm.asn.au/

Canberra Jazz at Yahoo!Groups

I've started up a group at YahooGroups. Everyone interested in Jazz in Canberra is invited to join. So what does a YahooGroup do? It's a mailing list system with archive (you email to the group address, and it bounces to all members). But as well as that, you can chat, share documents and pics and more. I plan to set up a database of local jazz musicians, and possibly use the calendar facility for musos to advertise jazz gigs around Canberra. Thanks to YahooGroups for this excellent free service.

You have to be a member of YahooGroups to join. It's easy and free. Start by sending an subscription email to -

canberrajazz-subscribe AT yahoogroups DOT com

Canberra Jazz @ YahooGroups

Project bis at Cafe Gaudi

Time for a plug for my own band. Project bis play at Cafe Gaudi in Woden, 6-9pm, Fri 18 Nov, and each second Friday therafter. Cafe Gaudi is at the western entrance to the Woden Shopping Centre. Project bis are Mike Mamontov (guitar), Scott Young (drums) and Eric Pozza (bass).

The Coverts

The Coverts were also playing at the CJF. Again James Luke (bass) and Chris Thwaite (drums), but this time with Charlie Meadows (guitar). Standard repertoire, plenty of interesting and capable solos. Entertainment for the wine tasting public, outside Red Gecko. BTW, great name for a band.

Lachlan Coventry Band

Also seen at the CJF. LCB are Lachlan Coventry (guitar), James Luke (bass) and Chris Thwaite (drums). Intelligently played jazz standards in the mainstream tradition. Clean guitar, ringing bass.

Barney McAll's Modas

Barney McAll was one of the two out-of-town stars at the CJF. BMcA is past winner of the Wangaratta Piano performance prize, long-time sideman for Vince Jones, and now resident in New York. He's touring Australia with a local band, performing music from his recent CD. The CD was influenced by Barney's several visits to Cuba, and especially by music he heard there at a ceremony dedicated to the Yoruba goddess Yemaya. He recorded the rhythm tracks in Cuba, then added further tracks in NY. The Australian band was very capable, providing an intense latin experience unlike anything I have heard before. The band is made up of: Barney McAll piano, Jamie Oehlers tenor sax, Shannon Barnett trombone, Nashua Lee guitar, Phillip Rex bass, Craig Simon drums and Javier Fredes percussion. Loud, involving and complex. Good readers only should apply!

Wayne Kelly Trio

The Wayne Kelly Trio played at Tossolini's yesterday for the Canberra Jazz Festival. They tell me they have just finished recording a CD. The performance was all original tunes which were obviously well rehearsed for the recording. I found it excellent modern jazz, played in a quiet and relaxed fashion but with great intensity, and with interesting and well-defined lines. Wayne Kelly piano, Ben O'Loghlin bass and Mark Sutton drums. I also like the historical context, eg, post-bop heads of triplets and flat fifths. Paraphrasing Newton, we stand on the shoulders of giants. Congratulations on a terrific performance. Apparently the CD is out in the new year. They play at Hippo's on 30 Nov.

Addendum. I saw them a second time today. My guess is the richness comes from lots of complex extended chords on piano make for the modern sound. But plenty of post-bop lines still in the solos and heads. Great stuff.