Belated farewell

I know it's a week after the festival finished... everyone else has long ago said their goodbyes. We're so hooked on immediacy in this fast paced world we live in that a week can seem like too damn long in blogger-land!

April and May in Melbourne were enormous for jazz and improvised music. With Melbourne International Jazz Festival followed by Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival and then Stonnington Jazz, the weeks went by in a colourful blur. At the end of it, there's a chance to take stock and look back. It's been a good one. We've been incredibly fortunate this year.

It's been lovely to have a fellow blogger at the festival(s). Roger Mitchell was a little more energetic than I, and definitely showed me up on the photos department! If you're not already, I'd recommend you follow his blog...

And if you want to keep up with what's happening with this little black duck, you can do so here, at www.miriamzolin.com or at the extempore website, where you can also subscribe to the free newsletter.

Sculthorpe Songbook Project

Difficult to categorise, but you know when you're introducing a group of musicians of this calibre that something beautiful could happen. It's a trust thing.

Calibre? Phil Slater (trumpet), Matt McMahon (piano), Carl Dewhurst (guitar), Simon Barker (drums), Steve Elphick (bass) and the Silo String Quartet. Guest vocalists Katie Noonan and Tim Friedman. That should do it.

And if you also know that the music they are working with is filled with space and textures, complexity and a wide range of influences, another dimension of expectation kicks in. Somewhere I read that this is 'a unique contemporary cross-genre collaboration that re-imagines the music of Peter Sculthorpe'. Looking back over the two evenings I heard this concert, I could agree with that!

The music started with Carl's guitar, a slow building hum to a vibration, then a gong from Simon... the piano starts quietly and then Steve bows the bass. Phil's trumpet sounds out. We're off. There's a wild look in Simon's eye.

This first piece was 'Singing Sun'. The music chosen for this project comes from a wide range of Sculthorpe pieces. We were walked through it by Phil, Matt and Tim... I'd heard two of the songs before... the Calmo movement from Sculthorpe's piano concerto is on Matt's CD Paths and Streams and Bone Epilogue is on Strobe Coma Virgo Phil Slater's 2003 CD. I'm blogging this a week after it happened and it's been bugging me all week 'Where had I heard that track before?' It was only my favourite, on replay replay replay when I first heard Strobe Coma Virgo.

There are other writers who will do a better blow-by-blow description of what they heard. For me, subjective as usual, I was excited by the opportunity to hear / see Phil, Matt and Simon play together. They have a special something that comes from a deeply shared sensibility or approach. Carl's playing with all of them, separately and together, taps into that. Steve Elphick is a bass player I've always admired deeply. Also from Sydney, he has played with these musicians before, too. He is a great listener but mostly I think what I love about his playing is that along with his willingness to have an adventure, he has a combined lightness and sureness of touch.

Let's go to Katie. I was a big fan of George, which is where we first heard her I guess. This was all before I started to listen to this other music. And I haven't always enjoyed Katie's voice in the jazz context, though I've been an admirer of hers for years. Tonight changed what I feel about her voice; I liked what I heard.

Then the Tim Friedman. The connection(s) with Sculthorpe gave him one reason to be there and I loved the additional texture that his voice and singing added.

The string quartet added yet another type of texture. And while other punters told me that they wish the strings had been used more, I'm not that brave. I had what felt like the perfect amounts of everything going into my ears.

As for the music. Such a tapestry, such a landscape... The first night (Friday) I took hardly any notes. I guess I was just open to whatever was being offered. The second night I (barely) pulled myself together and put pen to paper.

Highlights:

• Eyes and ears wide open in happy surprise at Katie's singing on 'Maranoa Lullaby'
• Phil's acknowledgement of Peter Sculthorpe and of Sculthorpe's sources and his gratitude at Sculthorpe's letting them 'mess around' with his music.
• Simon's solo with chains in 'Pemunkah' and the way that Carl's guitar sounded like a choir in the background
• The dark, hollow sounds in this song, and the way Phil's trumpet wove like golden light through the darkness
• The story behind 'It'll Rise Again' and Tim's singing of it. He had more fun on the second night. I guess it takes a night or two to know a room.
• Phil's trumpet again on 'Music from Kakadu'
• Katie (again) on 'The Stars Turn'. The palpable longing. Matt and Caerwen (cello).
• The way Tim's and Katie's voices complemented each other in 'Love' (from Sculthorpes' Love: 200)
• The lyrics of 'Out the Back' and the string movement in it.
  
• On 'Bone Epilogue' Steve Elphick sounding like 3 instruments at once with his playing and bowing and plinking below the bridge

Thanks to Roger for the pic and check him out for more detail on this concert.

The Streets of Stonnington (Stephen Magnusson)

Thursday 21 May (2nd set) Chapel Off Chapel

Stephen Magnusson (guitar) was joined by Eugene Ball (trumpet & flugelhorn), Frank di Sario (bass) and Dave Beck (drums).

Highlights were:

• 'TM' was the starting song - Stephen being lyrical, gorgeous.
• Then the Ornette Coleman tune 'Roundtrip'. "Oh, oh, oh" say my notes. "Eugene on the trumpet and Stephen on guitar at the same time."
• 'Goggles' [no notes taken]
• Then all was forgotten as the band launched into 'The Streets of Forbes'. As noted in the Gian Slater blog entry, this has some significance, for me. I found myself singing the words inside my head... what a treat this was! Eugene's gorgeous trumpet playing with deep, low sounds. Of course there is no mystical connection with Stephen's choice to play this and the existence of the song in my own personal life. But I got a thrill anyway. And can't help wondering if there's an opportunity or some interest to do a CD of Australian Bush Ballads. Stephen? You listening?
• Two final songs - 'Gabrielle' and 'Hey Guess What', during which Stephen and Eugene had some fun, and so did we! Did i hear the Simpsons theme (among other things)?

Thanks Roger, for pics again! Good ones!

Tony Gould's Trio

Thursday 21 May

Chapel Off Chapel, with Tony Gould (piano) Imogen Manins (cello) and Gianni Marinucci (trumpet and flugelhorn)

If one of our jobs on this planet is to create beauty (I find it hard to disagree with the concept) then nobody's going to argue that this trio did their job very very well this evening. It really was beautiful - not just because that's the closest adjective to hand.

Oh, and Tony was wearing very cool shoes!

Songs by a number of composers. Tony made a point of mentioning that they were playing some pieces from non-locals!

• 21.4 - look it up in the Bible. Apparently it has some significance. Note to self. A tune by Bob Magnusson (assuming no relation to Stephen)
• Gianni's Flugelugelhorn on this was typically beautiful. A round, golden, mellow sound.
• Lullaby by Gianni followed, bringing a tear to the eye for some reason. Or maybe it was a reaction to the smoke machine.
• It's all in the game by Charles Dawes, later Vice President of the United States under Calvin Coolidge.
• Bill Dobbins' Spring Song and I can almost hear the birdies tweeting
• Lullaby by Tamara Murphy. I heard a sniffing noise. There's a punter in the audience having a bit of a cry.

I hear it was 'a bit too beautiful' for a punter or two. Well, it takes all kinds

Thanks to Roger Mitchell for his pic of the trio.

Paul Williamson Quartet

Wednesday 20 May

Scary stuff this announcement and introduction job! Some musicians introduce their songs and their personnel. Some don't. Paul Williamson (trumpet) is one of the latter. Ah well, I guess that's way things go.

Paul has been in Ireland and the pieces this quartet played tonight were written there, from an outsider's perspective (so says the media information).

Playing with Paul tonight were Geoff Hughes (guitar), Des White (bass) and James McLean (drums). Is James as young as he looks? He looks about 17. I really enjoyed his playing. He was paying attention, watching, adjusting... and engaged. Geoff and Des are that sort of player too so it was an interesting set.

With no announcements, I asked Paul for the set list afterwards. There were four songs:

• Aftermath
• You're only a Muppet.
• Green land, grey skies
• Knuckles and chuckles (whose name puts me in mind of Ireland simply from the stories my brother told me from when he lived there for a while)
  

Picture of James McLean thanks to Roger Mitchell.

Jex Saarelaht Quartet

Wednesday 20 May

Chapel Off Chapel again. Jex on piano, Julien Wilson on tenor sax, Johnathon Zwartz on bass, Niko Schauble on drums.

Such a pleasure to hear Jonathon. Last time I heard him was at a gig with Tina Harrod singing and Hamish Stuart on drums and Matt McMahon on keyboard at a pub in Sydney. His CD The Sea is a beautiful thing.

Jex has a smiling way about him. I asked him if there was anything he wanted me to say during the introduction. "Whatever you want" was his reply. So that's what I did. It's easier tonight than it was last night. I aksed the lighting guy to adjust the light so that I could see something other than glare and the front half of the microphone... and I guess that announcements get easier with practicse.

And then the music. This was music that made you want to look up to the sky.

I think that's why the song titles are all mashed on my page, except the third one, 5 19 (it's harder to mash numbers)

Things I noticed, while looking skywards:

• Niko's extraordinarly large and floppy cymbal. It's spectacular to watch - like a big jelly fish.
• The softening interplay between Jex on piano and Julien's sax on the first song.
• The solo by Julien in the second song
• Jonathon's introduction (wow!) to 5 19
• The joke that Jonathon and Jex were sharing in the fourth song (what was it!?)
• Julien's whistling saxophone in the last song.
  

Set break and raspberry tea...

DID YOU KNOW That if you take a cup of raspberry tea half way through a glass of 'okay' shiraz and then go back to the shiraz, it's suddenly better. A strange but effective way to improve a glass of wine. Highly recommended!

Thanks to Roger Mitchell for pictures again.

BLBB with Gian Slater

Interesting to feel the different texture in composition between Andrea's pieces in the first set and Gian's in this set. Highlights from this set include 'Don't close the door' - the band was loving it and that meant we were loving it too!

'When...', which featured Andrea Keller and then the really interesting depth of texture with the combination of Gian's high voice over Adrian's bass trombone.

You could feel the warmth between Gian and the band... they all know each other well and it's palpable. And it seeped through in 'The Warming Kiss of Kindness' which rather yummily featured Ian Whitehurst and Adrian Sherriff.

A latin feel to 'Logical Guesses', arranged by Tim Wilson and featuring Eugene Ball. The set finished with Our Galaxy.

On the way home, I found myself singing. For the last 30 (eek!) years or so I've either had old cars or motorbikes so I have a number of 'car songs'... (or 'bike songs'). Something about the Gian Slater and Bennetts Lane Big Band gig made me want to sing. The four main ones are 'If I loved you' from the musical Carousel, and three little traditional Australian folk songs... 'One Sunday Morning', 'The Ballad of '91' and 'The Streets of Forbes' Convicts, striking shearers and bushrangers... I don't hear these songs alot; they feel like a private stash of music that nobody knows about... I sang all these songs on the way home in my little old car (and no I don't sound anything like Gian Slater) and I only mention this because of what happened two nights later, on Thursday... Read on!