Reviews

WANGARATTA JAZZ FESTIVAL

28 October - 31 October 2011

By Des Cowley

Photography by Marc Bongers

When American bassist Barre Phillips stepped to the microphone during his Saturday solo performance in Wangaratta's Holy Trinity Cathedral, he remarked that, in the course of 50 years playing jazz, he'd come 'a long way from home'.

While Phillips was making obvious reference to the distances he's travelled - he was born in San Francisco, and has lived in France since the early seventies; and now found himself playing in a Cathedral in Wangaratta - he was also making reference to how far he's travelled musically. As he plucked, bowed, and banged every surface of his instrument, producing rhythmic percussive sounds one moment and intricate abstract patterns the next, he seemed to be showing us how far jazz has come since its birth in the city of New Orleans some hundred years ago. In the 21st century, Phillips seemed to be saying, the future of jazz lies in its capacity to take any musical form - blues, rock n' roll, classical, world, electronic - and adapt it to its own improvisatory ends. 

If this year's Festival program appeared, at first glance, to lack some of the big overseas names we've become used to in recent years, then the quality of the music on offer quickly put paid to any such doubts. For me, this turned out to be one of the strongest Festivals in recent years, with both overseas and local performers, often in tandem, laying down music that was exciting and adventurous at every turn.

New York trombonist Josh Roseman delivered three stunning performances over the Festival weekend, each one entirely different. On opening night, his quartet was featured with the Australian Art Orchestra in a program of his compositions for large ensemble. This music was dense, layered and complex, belying the fact that the band barely had more than a few hours rehearsal beforehand. A genuine highlight was the band's tribute to the music of Don Drummond, the late ska trombonist and founding member of the Skatalites.

Roseman's Saturday evening performance highlighted his Unit, a tightly knit quartet that included Barney McAll on piano, electronic keyboards, and laptop. McAll, who took out the inaugural National Jazz Awards at Wangaratta way back in 1990, holds a special place in the hearts of Festival regulars, and his manic and inventive playing, full of whirling electronic sounds and unexpected blips, showed just what an adventuresome and creative musician he's become over the past two decades.

One of the surprise hits of the Festival was French bass clarinet player Denis Colin, a musician I suspect few of us had heard of previously. Teaming up with Australian sax player Adam Simmons, and playing under the name La Societe des Antipodes, the quartet wowed the crowd with sheer energy and infectious grooves. Simmonds, sporting red shirt and matching socks, danced his way through the performance, as if he too was overwhelmed by the energy of the music. With sax and bass clarinet snaking around one another, the music hit peak after peak, resulting in a spontaneous standing ovation from the packed hall.

Perth born bassist Linda Oh, now resident in New York, proved a highlight of the 2009 Wangaratta Festival. Her return performances this year, featuring her new Quartet, drew massive and appreciative crowds, though I have to admit to being personally less enamoured by her music this time around. Her pianist, Cuban-born Fabian Almazan, also performed two concerts of his own music, backed by Oh, proving himself a future talent to watch.

This year's Festival scheduled a number of performances in the Holy Trinity Cathedral, a venue whose sanctity and lofty architecture seems to humble both performer and audience alike. Bassist Barre Phillips delivered several mesmerising solo performances there, as did Peter Apfelbaum, who evoked the spirit of the late Don Cherry via a series of solo sax and piano improvisations. Equally impressive was local clarinet player Christopher Young, whose sonic explorations on bass clarinet beautifully evoked the early sixties recordings of Eric Dolphy.

One of my abiding memories of the 2008 Wangaratta Festival was the tour de force performance by Lost and Found, a trio comprising Paul Grabowsky, Jamie Oehlers and Dave Beck. Again this year, in a rare performance, they delivered their trademark sixty-minute spontaneous improvisation, playing without a net. From the outset, Grabowsky laid down thunderous chords, while Oehlers literally screamed through his tenor sax. Dave Beck sat hunched over his tiny drum kit, moving his upper torso like a boxer - reflecting the visceral nature of the music. It was like watching a dramatic narrative unfold.

Grabowsky was a strong presence at this year's Festival. On Saturday evening, he performed a stunning duet with Sydney saxophonist Sandy Evans. Adrian Jackson, introducing the set, commented that both musicians had expressed a desire to play their first ever duet at Wangaratta, a testament to the high regard musicians hold for the Festival. Needless to say, their performance was utterly compelling, a conversation captured between old friends, exploring the past, present and future of jazz.

Sandy Evans performed with her own Sextet the following day, playing music from her recent album When the Sky Cries Rainbows. The extended one-hour suite musically recounts the personal struggle she and partner Tony Gorman have endured since he was diagnosed with MS some years back. It's a difficult and emotionally draining work, filled with darkness and pain, humour and hope. As always, Sandy soloed brilliantly, reminding us, if we needed it, that she is one of our finest tenor players bar none.

Another outstanding performer throughout the Festival was trombonist James Greening. He played off brilliantly against Josh Roseman as part of the Australian Art Orchestra; added colour and texture to Sandy Evans Sextet's performance; and produced one of the most memorable solos of the weekend, when he guested with the Walter Lampe Trio.

The featured instrument at this year's National Jazz Awards was drums. In a field packed with talent, the first prize went to Sydney drummer Tim Firth, with Ben Falle from Perth and Dave Goodman from Sydney runners-up.

Perhaps the Festival's most bizarre and dramatic performance came with the premiere of Barney McAll's commissioned piece Graft, scored for two pianos, vibraphone, drums, and a sixteen piece choir, led by Gian Slater. While the coupling of percussive rhythms, electronic funk and white-clad ethereal singers seemed, at times, frankly weird, there was no doubting McAll's ambition, or the drama inherent in the music.

My own personal highlight came with the pairing of pianist Mike Nock with Barre Phillips. Having first played together in New York back in the late sixties, they seemed to take up their conversation where they'd left off, exploring their mutual free jazz and avant-garde roots. Their long improvisations were daring, experimental, dissonant, and uncompromising, the work of two masters refusing to age gracefully.

By late Sunday night, the inevitable exhaustion was starting to set in for many of us. But I was in for one last surprise - the duo performance by Elliott Dalgleish and Allan Browne. It seemed an odd pairing, but Browne was more than up for the challenge, channelling free jazz drummers like Sunny Murray and Rashid Ali, while Dalgleish, having switched from his usual alto to tenor sax, blazed away, conjuring echoes of great tenor players from Coleman Hawkins to Sonny Rollins to Albert Ayler; all the while remaining very much his own man. There was a sense of pure anarchy on stage, as Browne interspersed his playing with fragments of spoken poetry. At one point, jazz writer John Clare was driven to leap up from the audience and recite a poem by Eliot from the floor;  it was that sort of 'in the moment' performance: madcap, inspired and revelatory.

There was talk this year that the Festival was in financial trouble, and only saved by a last minute cash injection by the Wangaratta Council. In that climate, Artistic Director Adrian Jackson pulled off something of a small miracle by putting together one of the strongest festivals in recent years on a cost-effective footing. Needless to say, it would be a disaster for Australian jazz if this long-running Festival closed up shop; and one can only hope governments will have the foresight to increase funding in future years to ensure its viability. Early reports, however, confirmed that this year's Festival, the 22nd, was more successful than the past few. Hopefully this will see the difficult days over.

Let's face it: even amongst the crowded festival scene, there is something very special about the Wangaratta Festival - the high quality of the music, its contribution to the development of Australian jazz, the goodwill of the city and its hundreds of volunteers, who annually play host to thousands of music fans. But what makes this Festival truly unique is the special place it holds for Australian jazz musicians, who seem compelled to come up with their very best work when playing there, turning in performances that become, in a sense, classic and talked-about moments of Australian jazz. Ask any regular Festival-goer, and they'll reel them off. Hopefully, with renewed support, there'll be plenty more such moments in the years to come.