Keys for all
Canberra Jazz blog - Sun 5 May 2024
The percussion section is so often little considered although they are not just like jazz drums, playing rhythm as important as that is, but they also play pitch with keyboard substitutes on vibes and marimba and pedals on timpani or tubular bells as well as the complexity on seemingly simple ins... ... More...

Some visiting delights of Amsterdam
Canberra Jazz blog - Sat 4 May 2024
It's a little different with mates.  I was recording so nabbed the front of house spot to turn on and off the recorder and get some good pics so I was right under the eyes of the Dudok Quartet.  Marie-Louise viola is staying with us and we are driving the group frequently so I would be ... ... More...

Crisp probabilistics
Canberra Jazz blog - Fri 3 May 2024
This was guitar of a magical beauty.  I did see John Williams once but in a massive hall; being close is something different.  Clear, crisp, deeply felt playing, complex fingered chords, surprising limited obvious right hand finger movements, occasional lightning scalar runs.  Thes... ... More...

Lush gardens
Canberra Jazz blog - Thu 2 May 2024
These were the gardens of Spain, as interpreted by Saralouise Owens and Natalia Tkachenko at Wesley.  The program had that title and interestingly, flowers and pines and various growing greenery appeared frequently in the lyrics, but this was more of love, mostly lost or rejected, amongst fl... ... More...

Something new, borrowed
Canberra Jazz blog - Wed 1 May 2024
It's with considerable awe that I've come away from a few concerts recently.  The latest was the first concert of CIMF2024 at Verity Lane, a solo voice and electrics/electronics outing by Lotte Betts-Dean. She's a mezzo-soprano, but more.  This was a combination of classical singer's ch... ... More...

For the faint-of-heart, Not
Canberra Jazz blog - Mon 29 Apr 2024
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 com... ... More...

Winds of romance
Canberra Jazz blog - Thu 25 Apr 2024
I have great respect for woodwinds.  They don't play so often, unlike the consistent, unrelenting playing of the strings, but when they do, the lines are essential statements of melody or at least of colour and contrast and those lines can be very difficult.  The bass is clumsy and slow... ... More...

Valé Niels
Canberra Jazz blog - Sun 21 Apr 2024
It was with sadness but also a great deal of musical admiration and fond memories that we farewelled Niels Rosenhdahl.   There were many people present, musicians, friends and family, and plenty of the performers were on stage through a string of combinations.  Probably most had pl... ... More...

Small world
Canberra Jazz blog - Fri 19 Apr 2024
  This was M17 ArtSpace for an exhibition by a photographer friend, Brian Jones.  The title was Life in the Old Dog, Yet and the theme was seniors in facial portraits and in activity to display their vibrant and often athletic lives.  I was amused to see relatively unusual athletic... ... More...

Live or listened
Canberra Jazz blog - Thu 18 Apr 2024
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... ... More...