April 2000

Notes from
Down Under
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By Shane Nichols

Where would jazz be without its festivals? Over the years they’ve had a spotty record in Australia, mainly due to the nagging hassle of finding and keeping adequate corporate sponsorship. That sort of money, often with government subsidies as well, is vital for festival organisers in this country who have to look at flying international acts an awful long way, usually from the Northern Hemisphere, and back again. It kills you. And that’s without all the other pitfalls of plying your offerings to the public . . .

All the same, the Wangaratta Festival , which later this year will hold its 11th gathering, is roaring along from year to year now and is a major economic fillip for the small rural town which annually plays host to the bevy of international acts and scores of local players.

Joining that festival in the major league is the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, which is heading into its fourth year as a prominent fixture on the summer calendar in Victoria. It’s organiser is Adrian Jackson, the self same Victorian who organises the Wangaratta event. I asked him a few weeks ago how the Melbourne festival went, presuming that by now all the figures and bookkeeping would be complete.

“In essence, the Melbourne International Jazz Festival was a great success this year,” he said. “Estimated attendances over the 10 days were 25,000, which represented an increase on the last 2 years (in terms of average daily attendance). The Festival marked the launch of The 9th Ward, a city music venue (not exclusively jazz, and a bigger room at Bennetts Lane [Australia’s premier jazz venue, situated in Melbourne city]. Each room holds 250 or so, and both were packed for virtually every show (4 nights at the 9th Ward, 10 nights at Bennetts).

Feedback from fans & media has been very enthusiastic. Highlights included: Sun Ra tribute, 'Space Is The Place' ; Corea-Burton concert at the Melbourne Concert Hall ; Danny Moss-Bob Barnard concert at Assembly Hall; Blue Note tribute shows at Bennetts Lane and The 9th Ward) ; outdoor shows at the Botanic Gardens by pianist Barney McAll and [singer] Renee Geyer, and [singer/brass player] Vince Jones (the latter pulling about 1000).”

Interesting Dutch saxophonist Yuri Honing and American Ricky Ford were also among the headline acts at the festival.

Gary Burton and Chick Corea became the undisputed headline act, though, when Diana Krall suddenly cancelled her Melbourne Festival shows. It might be that the hint of Grammy nominations made the US a more attractive place to be around that time. It was a bitter blow for the organisers and many of her fans here, like myself, who couldn’t believe their luck at the possibility of catching this fast-rising diva in person (She was also scheduled for two nights at the Basement, a leading Sydney jazz venue which would have showcased her in intimate surroundings).

Another disappointment was the cancellation of a hot young bunch of Cubans led by “El Indio”, a trumpeter of true fire and sizzling creativity who hearkens back to prime period Lee Morgan. He headed a unit labelled the Nuevos Maestros Cubanos (New Cuban Masters) which is an aggregation of hot young players assembled by Tamarindo Records (see www.tamarindorecords.com/) based in Costa Rica.

I saw the first of the two Burton and Corea dates at the Sydney Opera House, before they travelled south for the Melbourne festival gigs. They garnered a story in the Sydney Morning Herald (a preview by a writer who went to their afternoon rehearsal in order to make his deadlines that night) and a concert review by myself in the Australian Financial Review Weekend Edition. The house was pretty full and it was a rather partisan crowd that spanned a broad age group, including lots of young people. Though hot off the plane from the US (a soul sapping trek across the Pacific that seems to take an eternity) they were in full swing from the start and easily won a crowd that was ready to be conquered.

It was their first tour here for so long that they claimed not to be able to remember the last time. Like Krall, they had Grammys in their lives not long after their Antipodean experience.

Speaking of tours, Jan Garbarek, in company with Eberhard Weber and Marilyn Mazur, filed into the Sydney Opera House (talk about jazz going respectable – the Opera House is now one of our leading jazz venues, which says something about the lack of strong venues in Sydney) in early March. It was a high profile gig, much anticipated - one diehard drove from the Australian outback to catch the Melbourne gig and promptly drove home again the next day - and not surprisingly, according to an ECM distributor in Sydney, paid immediate rewards in CD sales – they sold hundreds at the gig too - in what is a consistently strong, perennial selling catalog. As in other world markets, Garbarek’s early 1990s collaboration with the Hilliard Ensemble, Officium, has done very healthy business, along with newer efforts such as the Rites album. As it happens, the Hilliards were headlining at the same venue a couple of weeks later . . .

The trad constituency had its turn late in March with a joint tour by the UK’s Kenny Ball and Chris Barber. Of course, they’ve been here before and probably will again, given Australia’s long and illustrious affiliation with trad jazz.

Mainstream jazz fans have got another visit by Kurt Elling to look forward to in April. Elling is appearing at the Byron Bay Blues Festival, a whopping, well-established event that annually presents a heavyweight line-up of interesting, renowned acts from abroad and a battalion of noted local acts, mostly in the blues arena rather than jazz. This is Elling’s third trip Downunder, the first being an appearance at the Wangaratta Festival a few years ago and a return tour last year. Blue Note’s local arm is working hard to crack the singer in this market. “It’s a word of mouth thing,” says a label spokesman. “He’s been selling pretty well, and not just one particular album but his whole catalog. I just wish we could get some airplay.”

As part of the push, Blue Note is releasing an Australia-only compilation CD, Senior Blues 2000, consisting of five tracks left over from Elling’s Live at the Green Mill album, plus a studio track which has been mixed by beat scientist Matthew Backer. Anyone interested in a copy should contact Sydney’s leading jazz specialist retailers, Birdland (birdland@birdland.com.au).

Danish singer Katrine Madsen (now in her late 20s) makes her Australian debut in April. Madsen has about four albums under her belt and is highly rated in her homeland and for good reason: she has a voice like an amber cloud, innate swing behind everything she does, and an intimate, breathy delivery that harkens backs to a small army of classic jazz singers, as does much of the material. Firmly mainstream, quietly solid. Ironically for a tour that takes in rarely visited regional centres, including Tasmania, Madsen will not be appearing in Sydney as the promoters couldn’t persuade a particular leading venue to give her the room.

The Australian jazz scene was dealt a harsh blow late last year with the sudden death of composer/pianist/saxophonist Roger Frampton. Barely in his 50s, the hugely respected musician succumbed to a brain tumour which had been diagnosed only about six months before. Frampton was one of this country’s most important jazz musicians, a leading light who several decades ago arrived from England and then quickly established himself in the front ranks and at the cutting edge of Australian jazz. His reputation spread far beyond our shores and his foreign admirers included Steve Lacy, who played gigs in Sydney with Roger only months before the musician’s death.

Sydney-based pianist and Naxos Jazz artist Chris Cody featured on a co-production between Australia’s national broadcaster ABC TV and France 2, in March. Bernard Pivot's "Bouillon de Culture" was followed by a webchat that was very successful (300 hits in one hour, according to Cody), with a lot of viewers finding resonances in the program and eager to contribute to the debate on the problems facing the arts in Australia today, funding, media coverage, sport on television and other issues. The program went to air to all French speaking countries in the first week of the new year (January 7, 2000). Bernard Pivot is the presenter of the popular weekly cultural program on France 2 (which loosely translates as "Cultural Soup"). It has between 1.5 and 2 million viewers per week and looks at visual arts, film, music, and literature and twice a year, Pivot takes his cultural brew to some exotic location, where he films local artists and intellectuals arguing issues and ideas.

Chris finished the program performing one of his compositions (Green's Peace) from his last album "Oasis" (on Naxos Jazz) and his music was used in the opening and closing credits.

The ABC will repeat the program in July just ahead of Bastille Day. Cody, who spent some years in France, will return to live in Paris in August after a tour around Australia. “I would love to see you at the farewell concerts taking place in July and take this opportunity to thank you for your support over the last few years. For die-hard fans, don't worry - I'll be coming back fairly regularly!” he says.

The Cody Coalition will next be performing on: July 16 Bennett's Lane Jazz Club, Bennett's Lane, Melbourne, 8.30 pm. July 18 Winebanc, Martin Place, Sydney, 9pm. July 21, and 22 Side-On Café, 83 Parramatta Rd, Annandale .Tel:9516 3077 8.30 pm.

Speaking of Naxos Jazz, the new label’s artistic director Mike Nock is set to premiere a ten piece ensemble at Sydney’s main bastion of improvised music, the Side On Café. On Thursday May 11, 18, 25 Nock presents himself on piano with Carl Dewhurst (guitar) Andrew Robson, Mathew Ottignon, Roger Manins (saxophones), Phil Slater (trumpet), Dave Panichi (trombone), Sam Golding (tuba), Cameron Undy (bass) and Toby Hall (drums).

New Zealand-born Nock started out in Australia in 1960 before moving to the US, where he lived for 25 years and played with such liminaries as Michael Brecker, Art Blakey, Stanley Turrentine, John Scofield, and Yusef Lateef.

He can be heard on the albums Not We But One (the Mike Nock Trio), I Don't Know This World Without Don Cherry with the New York Jazz Collective, and his latest release, Ozboppin' (the Mike Nock Quintet).

Among accolades that point to his international standing, Nock has received three US National Endowment for the Arts fellowships alongside numerous honours at the Australian Critic's Awards. He was also the subject of a 1993 TVNZ documentary.

These days Nock lectures at the NSW Conservatorium's Jazz Studies Program while maintaining work overseas and scouting talent for Naxos Jazz.

Artist profile: guitarist James Muller

One of the rising stars of the Australian jazz world is guitarist James Muller, who last year launched his debut major label recording, All Out, on the ABC Jazz label. Here’s what the ABC Jazz press office has to say about the brilliant guitarist:

“Muller has become something of a wunderkind in jazz circles, a man just 25 who only moved from his native Adelaide to Sydney four years ago with only two goals - to play guitar and to play that guitar with drummer Andrew Gander.

‘When I was in Adelaide I saw him and thought he was the most incredible Australian musician I'd ever seen, and he's obviously again coming from the same sort of thing - jazz and fusion - so I thought I'd try to get to know him and play with him as much as possible, and fit with the kind of thing that he was into.’

Like a lot of 12 year olds, Muller was initially impressed by rock's pantheon of guitar players, and for a while was especially drawn by heavy metal. By 14, James had discovered jazz and jazz fusion, and for him there was no looking back. By the time of his move to Sydney, Muller had already cut an independent album of jazz, No You Don't, and having joined Gander's Trio, was soon sitting in with some of the biggest names in Australian jazz, from Vince Jones to Dale Barlow to Jim Kelly. The next step was setting up his own trio with a couple of like-minded players and bassist Adam Armstrong and drummer Craig Naughton proved the ideal rhythm section.

The thing that stands out about Muller's playing is his unorthodox - for jazz - approach. The guitar's tone, for a start, has a "dirty" edginess to it that's closer to rock, while his improvisations see him stepping out beyond the usual modes and melodics riffs to surprise the listener with the odd "out note".

‘I'm very influenced by John Scofield. It's just a modern thing and I guess very fusionistic too. Actually, out notes, or wrong notes, are used to create a sort of colour, and I like that sound now and then - just to try and make it a bit more interesting or stick out a bit more. I guess my aim is to get the free sound of jazz with some of the harmony used more in fusion, and the intensity as well.’

Along with six James Muller originals, All Out features a cut each from the two guest horn players on the album, Tim Hopkins and Andrew Robson, and an eclectic reading of the Romberg/ Hammerstein classic, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise – ‘Just a bit of fun, to let a bit of anger out!’ James visited New York in November last year for tuition with Mike Stern. Whilst only able to briefly catch up with Stern, James sat in on some live gigs including some with 'ex-pat' Australian Sean Wayland. He also toured Europe in February this year with Chad Wackerman.”

"All Out" is available from the ABC Shop.

Shane Nichols is a senior journalist at the Australian Financial Review in Sydney, Australia. Among other things he reviews jazz CDs each week for the paper's Weekend Edition where he is a section deputy editor. As well as being a journalist, in his past Nichols played saxophone in rock bands and has studied improvisation in Sydney and at Alan De Silva's school, IACP, in Paris. He has written about rock and jazz extensively for Australian newspapers and magazines, including Rolling Stone.