Alex Boneham and an attentive Sarah McKenzie at Stonnington Jazz opening night.

It was a perfect setting for deja vu. It was the opening night of Stonnington Jazz, the venue was Malvern Town Hall, patrons were seated nightclub-style at tables across the dimly, but beautifully lit auditorium, and festival director Adrian Jackson was at the microphone. Sarah McKenzie was soon seated at the piano. It could easily have been a year earlier when the young singer opened Stonnington Jazz for 2011. But somehow the deja vu never arrived. This was different.

Generations in Jazz Big Band

The big difference, of course, was a big band — the Generations in Jazz Big Band composed of talented young musicians nurtured by the esteemed saxophonist Graeme Lyall at Mount Gambier in South Australia. This band made a substantial difference not only because of their excellent musicianship, but because they altered the dynamic. Right from the start McKenzie was not just the performer on piano and vocals with her quartet of Hugh Stuckey on guitar, Alex Boneham on bass and Craig Simon on drums. She was now McKenzie the arranger and composer and musical director of a band, albeit in close collusion with Lyall. And from the start of this gig McKenzie was alert and attentive to what the band was doing — doing very well indeed.

Sarah McKenzie

With quartet and band, McKenzie performed The Wind Cries Mary (Hendrix) and At Last (Gordon/Warren), before giving us two numbers with the quartet and vibes — her take on Big Yellow Taxi (Mitchell) and Don’t Get Around Much Anymore (Ellington). But the highlight of the first set gave us a chance to see McKenzie sans piano and sans vocals in the role of composer and band leader.

Sarah McKenzie conducts the Generations in Jazz Big Band

Two things made this number special for me. First, Song for Maria was McKenzie’s tribute to American arranger, composer and big band leader Maria Schneider, of whom I’m a huge fan. This composition really worked well and really blew away any cobwebs of deja vu — we were seeing and hearing a new dimension to McKenzie as composer. Second, McKenzie handed the piano keys to Shea Martin (I hope that name is correct), who did credit to her work in a considered and compelling performance.

Shea Martin with the Generations in Jazz Big Band

Graeme Lyall appeared to lead the band as the second set opened with Look For the Silver Lining (Kern/DeSylva).

Generations in Jazz Big Band

It was obvious that Lyall has these young players well rehearsed and responsive. But, hey hey, some antics were about to begin.

Generations in Jazz Big Band

There was no sign of an ostrich, but who should suddenly pop up but the inimitable showman Daryl Somers, who is a patron of the Generations in Jazz Program. He put the audience through its paces with some singalong.

No ostrich: Daryl Somers pops in to Stonnington Jazz.

McKenzie returned with the quartet for her version (“I can’t play a standard in a standard way”) of Nat King Cole’s Too Young, followed by Don’t Tempt Me, an original and the title track from her first album. The second album, Close Your Eyes, will be released soon. It should be said that the work of Stuckey, Boneham and Simon was exemplary, and Stuckey’s contribution on guitar in particular was appreciated by the crowd.

Hitting her straps: Sarah McKenzie

It was about now that it seemed McKenzie really started to hit her straps. I had the feeling she was just getting into her stride. Saying that she always tried to “do one dangerous thing every day”, she again handed the piano to young Martin and took the mic to perform only vocals in Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies.

Shea Martin on piano at Stonnington Jazz.

I loved the work of the band, the pianist and Boneham’s bass in this piece, and again it was excellent to see McKenzie being a little dangerous.

One dangerous thing: Sarah McKenzie without piano.

But the singer returned to the piano for her most powerful number all night, an original blues titled Living Room Blues. I think McKenzie really felt relaxed at this point and could have gone on. She seemed to be just warming up. But the night ended with her alone at the piano for the ballad I Should Care.

It was a great festival launch, but more importantly it was a chance for McKenzie — with a huge dollop of help from Graeme Lyall and the big band — to show her potential as an arranger and composer. And there is much hope for the future of Australian jazz with young musicians being given such a great start.

At the opening of Stonnington Jazz 2012, the deja vu that might have happened was never missed.

ROGER MITCHELL

Sarah McKenzie at Stonnington Jazz 2011

Things are looking a bit bleak lately, with news of job cuts and continuing financial woes in Europe to add to any gloom induced by the grubby world of politics, with its inability to inspire. So what do we need? Well, it’s pretty clear — we need a good dose of music to lift our spirits, send our thoughts soaring with entrancing vocals, dancing to some hot Hammond B3, quietly revelling in Mozart or chuckling at the perceptive, wry humour of a drummer poet.

So Stonnington Jazz, now in its seventh year, is the go. Program details are on the website, but this is a cook’s tour of some anticipated highlights at what must be one of the friendliest of jazz festivals. Believe me, once this festival is in your blood, you’ll never overcome the addiction.

It’s a big year for vocalists, beginning with singer and pianist Sarah McKenzie, who not so long ago was landing by helicopter atop a waterfall in the Australian outback, taking a dip in the pristine waters (yes, they’re always pristine) before returning to take the microphone for another performance aboard a small, but luxurious cruise ship. For the second year running Sarah will launch this festival — this time playing her own arrangements for the 17-piece Generations in Jazz big band based in Mt Gambier and composed of students who study under the tutelage of saxophonist Graeme Lyall. With McKenzie at Stonnington will be Hugh Stuckey on guitar, Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year Alex Boneham on bass and Craig Simon on drums.

McKenzie, 24, was hoping to release her second album in time for the festival, but a recent Melbourne Weekly article mentioned it would be out in August, so maybe there has been a delay. If so that’s a pity because albums usually sell like those proverbial hot cakes at Stonnington Jazz performances.

Sri Lankan-born vocalist Nilusha Dassenaike will join percussionist-composer Alex Pertout, originally from Chile, for a Chapel Off Chapel concert. Their contemporary world sound draws on their roots and many other global influences. Their album Moments in Time is a recent release.

One of the great successes of last year’s Wangaratta Festival of Jazz was a performance by frontman and primary songwriter for Aussie rock band Thirsty Merc, Rai Thistlethwayte. He wowed the audience at St Patrick’s Hall. At Malvern Town Hall Thistlethwayte will feature with another young vocalist, Josh Kyle, who went to Britain in 2009 and had great success after a chance meeting with bassist and producer Geoff Gascoyne. Kyle released his debut album Possibilities at the London International jazz Festival in 2011.

For fans of Nina Simone, singer/songwriter Ruth Rogers-Wright will pay tribute in Fabulous Diva: The Music of Dr Nina Simone at Chapel Off Chapel. Rogers-Wright is from the London suburb of Brixton, but has lived in Melbourne for 15 years.

But Stonnington is not all about vocalists. Drummer and passionate lover of poetry Allan Browne, who is also festival patron, will dedicate an afternoon gig at Chapel Off Chapel to classic New Orleans jazz and poetry, assisted by Geoff Bull on trumpet, Dave Hetherington on clarinet, Margie Lou Dyer on piano and vocals, and Mark Elton on bass. The concert will provide a preview of Browne’s poetry collection Conjuror, published by extempore.

Another highlight will be a Chapel Off Chapel evening featuring the McAll brothers Barney, now living in New York, and John. The elder brother — pianist, composer, arranger and producer John — released the album Black Money in 2009 to great acclaim. His set will include some material from his forthcoming album Alter Ego. The younger McAll, Barney, is known for venturing into new territory. For his set, he will explore his passion for Cuban rhythms in Chaos Lento: A Guajira Project, with Ben Hauptmann on guitar, Phillip Rex on bass, Craig Simon on drums and Javier Fredes on percussion.

McAll the younger in reflective mood before the performance of Graft at Wangaratta.

And, for something completely different, Barney McAll will bring his suite Graft, which he presented at Wangaratta last year, to Malvern Town Hall.

Gian Slater and the Invenio singers at Wangaratta in 2011.

The work explores “the ever increasing ambiguity between virtual and real” with the help of 16-voice choir Invenio, led by Gian Slater, as well as vocalist Sia Furler and drummer Dan Weiss. I found this suite a challenge at Wangaratta but possibly that is what McAll the younger had in mind.

Other gigs in the big space at Malvern Town Hall include Bob Sedergreen’s Milestones in Australian Jazz History performed by the octet Bob’s Southern Jazz Coalition, and Joe Chindamo Trio (Phillip Rex on bass, Danny Farrugia on drums) with violinist Zoe Black and a string quartet.

In my favourite festival venue, Chapel Off Chapel, there are delights in store. Guitarist Ben Hauptmann will feature two incarnations of his dream band BOB, opening with an unplugged set and ending the festival on a high note with a plugged-in set. On the previous night, James Annesley Quartet will bring us a taste of Dylan, Davis and John Sangster before (I have to check the order) Paul Williamson’s Hammond Jazz Party kicks off Tim Neal on the B3 to make me swoon.

Earlier, I’m keen to hear new soul jazz band Mad Men, with Ross Irwin on trumpet, Nick Mulder on trombone, Ash Gaudion on alto sax, Paul Williamson on tenor sax, Kim Kelaart on organ, James Sherlock on guitar and Andrew Swann on drums. What a great line-up. They will share the gig with Alex Pertout and Nilusha Dassenaike.

Tim Firth on drums during the National Jazz Awards final at Wangaratta 2011

Big band lovers will want to hear the 19-piece Tim Davies Big Band — drummer/composer Davies is in LA these days — and on the night before there’ll be award winners on tap, with 2012 Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year Alex Boneham featuring in the James Muller Quartet (let’s hope Muller on guitar lets fly for the folks) and 2011 Wangaratta National Jazz Awards winner Tim Firth on drums leading his band, which includes that Boneham fellow again.

One big bonus is a free daytime workshop on May 24 on “How to construct a meaningful jazz solo”, but you have to book.

That’s it for the Ausjazz highlights and of course the preview has ended up covering just about all the gigs. But the ones I’m really hanging out for, if pushed, are Allan Browne’s Poetry of Classic Jazz, the Muller/Firth combo, the brothers McAll displaying their sibling rivalry, Mad Men, the Hammond Jazz Party gig and hearing BOB go from unplugged to plugged in.

ROGER MITCHELL

Stonnington Jazz program and booking details are on its website.

It was as close to attending the Oscars as any in the Melbourne jazz glitterati would ever come, I suppose. There was even a red carpet, I think , though somehow word did not seem to have reached the paparazzi.

The “Bells”, named in honour of Australian pianist, composer and band leader Graeme Bell, does not exactly attract Oscars-style hype. On the day when $40,000 would be handed out to the winners of eight award categories in the sumptuous surroundings of the Plaza Ballroom at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre, the Bells website gave no hint of the time and place of proceedings. It merely listed the musicians in the running for what must be considered big money for our many improperly rewarded and hard working musicians.

Welcome to country opens the Australian Jazz Bell Awards 2012

Jazz Bell Awards Chairman Albert Dadon, who it must be acknowledged was responsible for securing the money and sponsors for the event and the awards, kept a low profile,  but was it significant that the presiding politicians on the night were Victorian Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews and Labor Senator Stephen Conroy? There seemed to be a message in that.

Almost everything about the event went smoothly. It was a venue fit for a gathering of musicians, industry representatives, media and sponsors who do not often have a chance to frock up and imagine for a few hours that jazz is glamorous as well as damned hard work. And even food blogger Kenny Weir would have judged the cuisine as excellent.

Many faces at the tables were as mystifying to me as a mass of movie stars, or a gaggle of football WAGS at a Brownlow count, but it was great to see a musician of the future, young Melvin, having a night out with his mum and some Bennetts Lane staff who enjoyed  for once not being the ones pouring drinks.

The only disreputable behaviour, at least during the event, was attributable to a record label mogul — he shall remain nameless — who seemed to gather a head of steam every time there was an opportunity to climb on the bandwagon of a musician even remotely connected with his releases. Well done, Andrew.

Jazz great Graeme Bell addresses the “Bells” crowd via video.

Sadly Graeme Bell could not attend the Bells, but his pre-recorded message was warmly received.

Kristin Berardi performs with James Sherlock at the Bells.

The awards were announced between courses, beginning with the TarraWarra Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album, won by Kristin Berardi Meets The Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra. Fittingly, Berardi performed her Ode to Oli, with James Sherlock on guitar, soon after receiving the award.

Eugene Ball receives the Bell Award on behalf of Andrea Keller Quartet.

Next up was Monash University Best Australian Jazz Ensemble,
won by the Andrea Keller Quartet. Eugene Ball received the award, Ian Whitehurst kept a low profile, and Joe Talia and Andrea Keller were not able to make it on the night.

Peter Knight responds to his Bell Award for Fish Boast of Fishing.

Fish was not on the menu on the night, but some proud fish did feature when Peter Knight was awarded the Palace Cinemas Most Original Australian Jazz Album award for Fish Boast of Fishing. Knight thanked Allan Browne for introducing him to the poetry of E.E. Cummings, which inspired the album.

Nick Hayward accepts the Bell Award for his quartet.

It was a case of one rather than one, two, three, four when the Bakini Restaurant Best Australian Contemporary Jazz Album went to the Nick Haywood Quartet for the album 1234.

Luke Howard was in Norway re-recording the track for which he and Janos Bruneel shared the Bell Award, but Which Way Music was there to celebrate.

The APRA/AMCOS Best Australian Jazz Song of the Year went to Luke Howard and Janos Bruneel for “Spir”, on the album Open Road. Neither could make it, but Bruneel will be in Melbourne for the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.

Tony Gould plays an improvisation of Sangster’s Rivera Mountain.

It is always moving on awards nights when there is a chance to reflect on the contribution made by those who have died during the year. That was true again at this year’s Bells, though there was a lesson for us all in one unfortunate error. While the names of Ken James, Peter Boothman and Peter Jones appeared on two large screens, Tony Gould performed an improvisation on John Sangster’s Rivera Mountain from his Last will and testament album. It was heartfelt and appropriate.

Later it became apparent that reports of Peter Jones’s death “posted on social media” that day were incorrect and that he was in intensive care. Social media are useful tools, but there is not always appropriate scrutiny to ensure accuracy. This mistake did not lessen the intent of the tribute.

Recalling Bessie Smith: Margie Lou Dyer, Al Browne and Jo Stevenson at the Bells.

The perfect segue brought a lively change, when Allan Browne won the Brand Partners Best Australian Traditional Jazz Album for his Collected Works Volume II: Fifty Years Of New Orleans Jazz, then forsook the podium for the stage to perform Gimme A Pigfoot by Bessie Smith on the Bell Awards stage, with his wife Margie Lou Dyer on vocals and Jo Stevenson on clarinet.

Young Alex Boneham accepts his award.

It was another tough ask for the judges — Albert Dadon, Aaron Searle, Adrian Jackson, Gerry Koster, Laurence Donohue-Greene, Martin Jackson, Michael Tortoni and Mike Nock — to pick between three finalists for the Fender Katsalidis Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year award. They chose Alex Boneham over Ken Allars and Sarah McKenzie.

Finally, it was time to induct a new member to the Gibson Guitars Graeme Bell Hall of Fame. It was Brian Brown, who has released 10 LPs, 18 CDs and in 1993 was awarded the Order of Australia for services to the performing arts as a jazz performer, educator and composer. Unfortunately Brown was not able to be at the Bells to play, but his wife Ros McMillan accepted the honour on his behalf. Tony Gould played Brown’s 1976 composition Song for Billy Hyde.

Winners of the 2012 Australian Jazz Bell Awards.

The bonus of this Bell Awards, for all of us who get to enjoy what Australia’s hardworking and underpaid musicians create, is that the dollars that go with the awards will make a lot more music possible.

And a final mention of those that missed out: It may be small comfort, but, knowing some of the contenders, it probably was not by much.

As I climbed the red carpet back to reality, and the fact that my myki card was at home and the final train for the night was about to leave the station, I decided to improvise. Hurrying to the appropriate window, I bought one of those old cardboard things called tickets.

ROGER MITCHELL

Anzac Day seems a good opportunity for reflection. A week or so back I was gearing up to post about the coming season of jazz festivals in Melbourne and the need for us to get off our couches and venture into the wintry nights to hear live music, prodded or encouraged perhaps by a surge in publicity about the delights of improvised music. I reckoned that the first cab off the rank — before Stonnington Jazz (May 17 to 27) and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival (June 1 to 11) — would be the Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival.

Fond memories of Fringe: A man called Miles makes pancakes on an electric frypan while a patron of the Captain's Bar requests a libation.

Fond thoughts came to mind about favourite Fringe moments … the sausage sizzle at Fitzroy Bowling Club where your snag is handed over by one of your favourite musicians; the ache in the bum that you notice only at the end of Big Arse Sunday when you’ve listened to eight hours or so of music; the challenge of staying in the room long enough to appreciate the subtleties of what seems like noise; the growing sense of anticipation and excitement as the APRA Commission work by Fran Swinn, Gian Slater, Erik Griswold or Ren Walters is about to unfold; the fun of following fellow patrons through city streets from a performance in an art gallery to another in which a violinist appears on a balcony and an orchestra of laptops plays below; the adventure of heading along a dark light industrial street to a dimly lit warehouse where a man called Miles makes pancakes on an electric frypan, the tiny Captain’s Bar serves enticing libations and there’s an iPhone mash-up making “music” at night’s end; the thrill of discovering Sandy Evans playing in a band that sets the pulse racing … Need I go on? Anyone who has been at these gigs will identify with the vibe.

Fond memories of Fringe: Zani Kolac plays violin from city gallery balcony.

With these thoughts in my head I was gently salivating as I looked up my calendar and saw the listing, gleaned from a useful jazz gig guide, showing that MJFF would run from April 23 to May 2, 2012. Then it dawned on my feeble brain that there had been no mention of the program for this year’s Fringe.

A word with drummer and festival administrator Sonja Horbelt revealed there was reason for concern. Sonja said Fringe is “re-evaluating and quite sponsorless this year”.

“Over the past year in particular we’ve felt the impact of Melbourne being “festival-ed out” and of the Melbourne Jazz festival drifting closer to what we believe to be the intrinsic identity of the Jazz Fringe Festival. It is flattering to think the main festival is drifting closer to what the Fringe is, but on the other hand it has left us searching for a definition of Fringe and a more focused purpose for the festival,” Sonja said.

“The Board has decided to use 2012 to take stock of the essential fabric of what is happening on the Melbourne scene and to re-evaluate the true purpose of the Jazz Fringe and its meaning for our community. We don’t have any major funding sponsors this year, aside from APRA for the composer award, so the Commission event will be the only event we stage.”

The news that the Commission concert would go ahead was good. The rest was a disappointment, not only because there would be less of the adventurous music for which this festival is known, but because there would be, essentially, no MJFF this year. I lament the loss of sponsorship and I lament the loss of a much-loved and vital part of Melbourne’s jazz and improvised music scene.

The irony is that Sophie Brous, who expanded Melbourne’s international festival into areas that had been Fringe territory, is no longer at the helm of MIJF, so in a year that could have seen Fringe filling in where the popular multi-stage experimental extravaganzas at Melbourne Town Hall left off — albeit on a necessarily smaller scale due to budget constraints — there is just one event rather than a full-on festival.

I am not saying the Fringe organising committee had any choice. Nor do I think it is a bad thing for the MJFF to re-evaluate its purpose. But I am hoping that this vital and valuable festival emerges phoenix-like from the ashes in 2013, because it is worth far more than just a collection of gigs on a calendar. MJFF can provide the special, quirky experiences mentioned above, which more formal festivals may not find so easy. It is surely also the ideal place for emerging exponents of new approaches to music to try them on audiences willing to be shocked, even horrified, but often exhilarated. And established artists can try new line-ups or alternative approaches.

That’s about it for the rant. The message: Keep the fringe in Melbourne jazz in the years ahead. May sponsors everywhere — apart from APRA, extempore, Melbourne Jazz Cooperative and Northcote Town Hall — hear and heed that message.

PREVIEW

APRA Commission winner: Tilman Robinson

Sunday, May 13 from 5pm at Northcote Town Hall

Network of Lines premieres ‘If On A Winter’s Night a Traveller’

Tilman Robinson, composition/trombone/processing; Peter Knight, trumpet/processing; Callum G’Froerer, trumpet; Xani Kolac, violin; Melanie Robinson, cello; Brett Thompson, guitar/banjo; Berish Bilander, piano/accordion; Samuel Pankhurst, double bass; and Hugh Harvey, drums.

Robinson’s new work is inspired by Italo Calvino’s 1979 postmodern novel of that name. Robinson is a composer, arranger, trombonist and sound artist whose works are not easily categorised. He graduated from West Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2009. He has received commissions from such jazz and classical ensembles as the Australian Brass Quintet, the WA Youth Jazz Orchestra, Fused and the Arundo Reed Quintet. He has been an arranger for Sinead O’Connor and was commissioned to write for Orchestra Victoria’s Seven Songs to Leave Behind. His music has been performed by the Bennetts Lane Big Band, Canada’s Frontier Justice Big Band and EMO (Enthusiastic Musicians Orchestra).

Ren Walters plays Cafe 303, Northcote

Close Conversation

David Tolley bass violin, Ren Walters acoustic guitar

Tolley and Walters have a long, close musical connection. As Tolley puts it in his High 5 for Jazz and Beyond, “Hardly a month has passed in 18 years without some creative interaction [from Walters] which translates into a permanent place at my ‘table’ as my adopted son.”

Tolley gave up the bass violin in 2005 because of Parkinson’s Disease, but his recovery was “fed by intensive studio work with computer-generated electronic sounding and sporadic painting and drawing”. Late last year he organised RRaPP — a Reunion Retreat and Performance Project concerned with the “discovery through the process of composing and performing simultaneously, in real-time, interactively, without preconception but drawing upon the vast collective creativity, skill and experience of the protagonists.” This project facilitated Tolley’s return to bass violin.

Ren Walters is known to Fringe patrons for, among many other outings, his APRA Commission work performed at Iwaki Auditorium in 2009.

Steve Magnusson in a MJFF festival gig at the Melbourne Recital Centre.

MAGNET Trio: Stephen Magnusson guitar, Eugene Ball trumpet, Carl Pannuzzo voice

MAGNET is a new project for guitarist/composer Stephen Magnusson as a creative collaboration with Ball, Pannuzzo and Argentinian drummer, Sergio Beresovsky, who is in Argentina. Beresovsky’s absence offers the trio version of the group a way to re-interpret their repertoire, as they do every time they perform, starting with simple melodies and building it “from their ears up”.

We can expect interaction and harmony at the deepest level of collective improvisation, with “the moments made as pure as if they had been composed over crystal”.

ROGER MITCHELL

Tilman Robinson’s ensemble Network of Lines will perform the the premiere of his commissioned work If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller on Sunday, May 13 at Northcote Town Hall.

Robinson’s work attempts to replicate its the structure of Italo Calvino’s 1979 postmodern novel. Employing elements of through-composition and free improvisation, the work aims to present a cohesive musical narrative while allowing the musicians to speak directly to the audience.

The line-up for the concert will be Tilman Robinson, composition/trombone/processing; Peter Knight, trumpet/processing; Callum G’Froerer, trumpet; Xani Kolac, violin; Melanie Robinson, cello; Brett Thompson, guitar/banjo; Berish Bilander, piano/accordion; Samuel Pankhurst, double bass; and Hugh Harvey, drums.

Opening the gig at 5pm will be David Tolley with Ren Walters, followed by Carl Panuzzo Trio featuring Stephen Magnusson and Eugene Ball.

More details to come.

ROGER MITCHELL

4 stars

Self-released (AK001)
Genevieve Lacey (recorders), Joe Talia (Revox B77, electronics & percussion) and Andrea Keller (piano)

A sizeable dollop of gratitude is due to the two-year Australia Council Fellowship program that has allowed composer Keller to create what she describes as “new music” with two “broad-minded” musical colleagues. It’s not surprising that this foray out of Keller’s comfort zone works so well — after all, her work is always lit brightly by the spark of originality, and that must be said also of Lacey and Talia.

All 14 pieces show cohesion and a sense of progression that reflect the musicians’ awareness of each other’s voices as well as a commitment to the journey and destination. Acoustic, electronic, prepared, improvised and composed elements are interwoven with subtlety, so that there is no feel of artificiality or domination by devices.

In the most compelling compositions — Far Away Here, Between Six & Six, Interlude, Collage IV and Stay — piano remains a powerful presence. Talia’s work on Revox B77 and electronics is discreet and evocative throughout. Lacey — in Nine Variations, Stay and Diddy Ditty for example — shows the versatility of her instrument in mood and affect.

This is experimental music, but the experiment works so well that any tentative hypotheses are subsumed by the successful outcome.

A standalone work, Boy, is available exclusively by digital download.

File between: Gest8, Origami

Favourites: Stay, Far Away Here

ROGER MITCHELL

4 stars
FWM Records
Mike Nock piano, James Waples drums, Ben Waples double bass, Karl Laskowski tenor saxophone, Ken Allars trumpet

This trio’s first album, An Accumulation of Subtleties, was a triumph, demonstrating on two discs how well the Waples brothers work with Nock’s presence and mastery. Hear and Know is altered radically by the addition of horns — it is fascinating to hear how the “plus” of sax and trumpet influence the character of this album, often expanding the sound to wide vistas of cinematic proportions.

The result is a richly expressive foray into varied moods and styles, making this outing full of interest. The opening title track demonstrates this, moving through intimate piano and bass to sweeping ruminations of brass, with an intricate overlay of bass, before a lively jaunt. The diversity continues with slow, soaring horn interplay in The Sibylline Fragrance, a whole forming from fragments in the melee of Colours, and a minimalist opening stretched in scope by soaring horns in After Satie.

Komodo Dragon is a feast of melodies and conversations with an entree of staccato trumpet and breathy sax, while If Truth Be Known is big, powerful and eventually swinging, underpinned by Nock’s deep, grumblings and topped by strident horns. Gathering intensity is also evident in the closing Slow News Day, suggestive perhaps that some late wire taps eventually produced a front page.

Laskowski and the exciting Allars add a great deal to this collection of Nock originals, though for me it’s not quite enough to top the trio’s earlier Subtleties.

Hear and Know illustrates again that Mike Nock is always on the move and never stuck in the here and now.

File between: Paul Grabowsky, Tomasz Stanko

Download: Colours, If Truth Be Known

ROGER MITCHELL

This album includes a booklet of photographs taken by Gerard Anderson.

Assaf Kehati guitar, Alon Farber saxophone, Daniel Sapir bass, Udi Shlomo drums

3 + stars

This is the second album — after A View from My Window — for Israeli-born guitarist Kehati, who has lived in Boston, US, since moving there in 2007 to study at the New England Conservatory. In all seven of his compositions he plays with dexterity, restraint and subtlety in a well balanced quartet with a relaxed, ruminative and at times dreamy disposition.

Kehati’s musings call to mind Bill Frisell and Pat Metheny, combining well with Farber’s drifting notes in the opening Calling Me Home and engaging in some pleasing interplay in Mr Mario, which also features nimble guitar over agile drum work. The slow ballad Tali features Farber’s sax floating and dancing on high.

The longest piece, The Most Beautiful Flower, has unhurried bass and drums working well with guitar before a gradual build in tempo, focus and intensity in which a Farber solo then gives way to sparse guitar before a segue into the dreamy, expansive horizon music of The Snow and the Sun.

Don’t Attack seems to be warding off an onslaught that never arises, this track showing some gain and wane in intensity, but mainly confirming the ensemble’s complimentarity. The album closes with subdued guitar in Invisible Green.

Rather than the devil being in the detail of this album, its intricacy and minutiae are its strengths. If there is a devil, it is in a lack of contrast between the compositions. Kehati’s quartet delivers his material well, communicating with care a mood of gentle introspection that seems to suit contemplation, daydreaming or reverie.

But it is tempting to wish that the ensemble would break out via different compositions or that the guitar and sax would let forth an occasional storm to tell disparate stories or blow some flowers off their stalks.

ROGER MITCHELL

File between: Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny

Download: Don’t Attack

Assaf Kehati’s website

Kehati’s albums on cdbaby

4 stars

Marc Hannaford piano, Sam Pankhurst bass, James McLean drums

There’s meat in this music as well as in the PDF file that serves as liner notes to this digital only release. But, despite the title’s reference to a carnivorous animal, especially the Tasmanian devil, there is no hint of frenzied tearing at raw flesh.

Rather these eight tracks are evidence of pianist Hannaford’s intelligently analytical, deliberate and sharply focused approach to compositions influenced by his immersion in the atonal and rhythmically complex music of American composer Elliott Carter.

Pankhurst and McLean are perfectly attuned to Hannaford’s intent, delivering the intensity and strength called for at times, while at others exhibiting the reserve and subtlety necessary to provide relief.

This is not music for the faint hearted, yet is far from inaccessible if the listener can give in and let the currents and eddies have full control.

Go with it as you would on a carnival ride that is totally unexpected in its changes of direction and pace, builds expectation through developing patterns of movement, thrills with the robust drive of the chase and slows to periods almost of quiescence and this album will sustain and delight. But struggle against the momentum in a vain search for more easeful and traditional melodies or harmonies and this music will be difficult.

A sense of wry humour is always present. It’s easy to imagine an unfamiliar audience requesting “something we know” and getting track three, Something We Know, or calling for “something we can dance to” and getting the final track, Something We Can Dance To.

One person’s meat is another person’s poison (to use the PC version of the saying), but even musical vegetarians should get their teeth into Sarcophile, provided they are prepared to get a taste for it.

ROGER MITCHELL

Sarcophile is available through iTunes, Bandcamp and cdbaby

An image from the downloadable PDF of this album.

Hiromi is among artists who will fly Qatar Airways to Melbourne. (All About Jazz image)

Ausjazz blog previews the Melbourne International Jazz Festival 2012, which was launched on March 13:

The hubbub on level 24 of The Langham in Melbourne gave way to attentive silence yesterday evening as Murphy’s Law treated the assembled multitude to about four minutes of Big Creatures & Little Creatures: The Modular Suite.

The music was a welcome relief from the necessary formalities of the official launch of this year’s Melbourne International Jazz Festival, which will run from June 1 to June 10.

If the fragment of this commissioned work by Tamara Murphy was any indication, its full performance at Bennetts Lane as part of the festival’s Club Sessions will be compelling.

And if the question on everybody’s lips as program details emerged was how the festival’s focus under artistic director Michael Tortoni would differ from its direction under Sophie Brous, the real story of the night was about a key sponsorship.

As Melbourne’s music glitterati watched a promotional video about the delights of the Middle East state of Qatar, it was dawning on us all what a coup it was to bag Qatar Airways as a festival sponsor. The benefit is obvious — it will be much cheaper to fly in international artists, thus countering to some extent the isolation of Australia from the jazz hotspots of the United States and Europe.

So who are the big names and what is the flavour of this festival? Tortoni described the focus as “jazz royalty alongside the voice of a rising generation” and said MIJF 2012 was “all about what jazz is when the talking stops and the music starts”. Well, every festival has to have its catchphrases, but to take up his theme with another well-worn phrase, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

An initial glance at the program shows it is not overly adventurous, and represents less of a challenge — or an enticement — to audience groups on the fringes of more straight ahead jazz. The very popular multi-stage day of music madness and mayhem at Melbourne Town Hall will not take place this year, due to an absence of sponsorship and most likely of Sophie Brous. That’s a pity, because that gave the recent festivals a welcome edge that it must now fall to the Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival to fill.

The main international artists include pianist McCoy Tyner revisiting the 1963 John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman album, this time with vocalist Jose James and saxophonist Chris Potter.

Potter will also perform some of his own material with Sydney’s Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra as well as some commissioned Australian material. This should be exciting.

James will also feature in the Robert Glasper Experiment, “an Australian premiere event that smashes stylistic boundaries to reshape the future directions of jazz” by “taking hip-hop, R&B, soul and post-modern jazz to never-before-seen places”.

For lovers of Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan, US vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater will visit Melbourne for the first time, and also from the ‘States’, Patti Austin will perform a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald with one matinee and one evening performance.

The familiar vocal extravaganza at the Palais this year is entitled “The Way You Look Tonight” featuring Katie Noonan, Vince Jones and Kristin Berardi in an opening night gala.

Likely to attract a much younger audience will be keyboardist-composer Hiromi (Japan/USA) who blends jazz with progressive rock and classical styles. Her first concert will open with US bassist Robert Hurst joining locals Jamie Oehlers and Dave Beck.

Hiromi’s second gig will be a double bill with the Israeli Eli Degibri Quartet, featuring 16-year-old prodigy Gadi Lehavi on piano.

A film-themed package will feature five-time Grammy Award winner and cinematic composer Terence Blanchard on trumpet (in a quartet with Brice Winston on tenor, Fabian Almazan on piano and Kendrick Scott on drums), Australia’s Joe Chindamo performing his arrangements of Coen Brothers film music and an ACMI Jazz on Film program.

The Salon at MRC will host three concerts with Monash University under the Jazz Futures banner featuring the Terence Blanchard Quintet, The Fringe (with George Garzone on sax) and Tarbaby (with Oliver Lake on alto sax).

The Fringe and Tarbaby will also perform at a new venue for this festival, the Comedy Theatre. These outings should keep us awake.
From Europe will come bassist Renaud Garcia-Fons, appearing in the Arcoluz Trio at the MRC after a real highlight opener of pianist Luke Howard with Janos Bruneel (Belgium) on bass.

Samuel Yirga Quartet from Ethiopia will feature the piano prodigy at the Comedy Theatre, opened by locals The Black Jesus Experience.
For lovers of the Hammond B3 (and I’m one), Dr Lonnie Smith (USA) will perform at Bennetts Lane.

More about the Club Sessions in a later post, but Motif from Norway will feature along with Robert Hurst and the Luca Ciaria Quartet from Italy.
Allan Browne Sextet will celebrate the launch of Conjuror — a collection of his jazz poetry — in two sets which should be a festival standout. Sandy Evans will join Lloyd Swanton and Toby Hall for a special closing night celebration presented with the Melbourne Jazz Cooperative.

The Melbourne International Jazz Festival opens on June 1.

ROGER MITCHELL