The Coffee Bar Kid spends
the weekend at Wellington’s Jazz Festival and files his report.
Ghost Note – Friday 7 June / Code Quartet and Alicia
Olatuja – Saturday 8 June / Simon O’Neil and Roger Fox – Sunday 9
June
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| Photo: Vanessa Rushton |
Friday night
kicked of the weekend with super-gusto. USA
outfit Ghost Note, founded by Snarky Puppy’s multi Grammy Award winning
percussionists Robert ‘Sput’ Searight and Nate Werth, exploded onto the MFC
stage supported by 5 of the most dynamic players I’ve seen. Channelling Sly and the Family Stone, James
Brown and Hip Hop kings like Run DMC and Public Enemy they blasted away at a
fully danceable set of grooves and funk, notched up to ‘11’.
The loud and
rambunctious crowd lapped it up and threatened many times to burst out of their
seats, getting up to get down. And the band
fed off this energy this energy, returning it in kind with a lively, groovy,
and super tight jams.
They began with
two distinct pieces from debut Fortified, Jungle Boogie
and Joshua Johnson. Jungle Boogie
gives Searight and Werth the opportunity to show off their percussion
skills. Searight, in particular, shows
himself to be a clear and deft bandleader.
With his kit set up at the front of the stage, he calls, shouts and
commands, hosts and converses with the audience, From his drum stool he’s conducting his band and
bringing various soloists with a challenge “Show Us whatcha got!”
Most of the set
is dedicated to the new album, Swagism, starting with the title
cut. Their interpretations of the vinyl
versions are pretty true, minus the spoken word portion, but live they have so
much more power.
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| Photo - Vanessa Rushton |
Throughout the gig
they show a good balance between lyrics and freestyle. Their notes and runs
were clear and articulate; the drum hits defined. There were show stopping
riffs, catchy hooks, and head turning Latin beats got many people to start
dancing again. They expertly executed use of free form solos which enhanced the
performance rather than taking away from it, which can be a risk with jazz
music.
Holding every
groove together, the man himself, Dwayne “MonoNeon” Thomas, Prince’s former
bassist, pounds out endlessly funky, deft, extra tight riffs, that are well
deep. This man oozes cool, even dressed
in an orange jump suit and matching hat.
He doesn’t take himself too seriously, having a dangling stripped sock
draped over his bass head, for further effect.
The mighty and
tall Sylvester Onyejiaka, who’s also jammed with Prince and my personal favourites,
Quantic, shows off his baritone sax and flutes teaming up with “the little man
with the big horn”, Johnathan Mones (horns and flute). They totally shine on the Swagism and
ballsy, brassy Smack ‘em.
I loved the
energy and antics of Dominique Xavier Taplin (Toto, Prince) and Vaughn Henry
who flashed about behind their bunker of keyboards, synths and other
techno-toys. Both had huge grins
throughout the gig as they broke in and out of numbers like Dry Rub and Funk
You Muthafunka , with space age twiddles, Herbie Hancock styled 80’s syntho-riffs
and mega piano vibrancies.
In complete
contrast was the guitar work of the tall, and svelte Peter Knudsen. Dressed all in denim, he looked like a member
of Calexico, not an urban funk band, but his playing was pure JB. His riffs could definitely rival Jimmy
Nolan’s. Especially on Milkshake,
one of Swagism’s biggest hits.
Instrumentally,
this band was very interesting. Having
two drummers, Searight holds the groove and steers the wheel, while Werth does
his best to colour every beat with toms, cymbals, tambourines and other counter
beats. They sounded almost as if there
was only one drummer, but fuller. A
testament to how tight their sound was.
By the last
quarter the audience are up on their feet and clapping along like there’s no
tomorrow. The encore Funk You Mother
Funker includes a swathe of James Brown soundbites which juxtapose the
riffs, and there are intended pauses for effect, stop-started the grooves and hightenting each drop until the funk
can’t wait any longer. The party was
just getting started when the 90 minute call comes, so my only disappointment
was that this show was just too short.
The funk never ends.
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| Photo: Vanessa Rushton |
On Saturday
afternoon I caught a one-off performance by CODE Quartet (Journeys
in Sound: New music from Aotearoa and the world). Former Wellingtonian and Tui award winner Lex
French, now a Montreal resident, had brought back a group of friends to play a
selection of their work and two new compositions. The latter, Moorings (Titahi Bay) and Transience,
were written by Jasmine Lovell-Smith and Lex French as special commissions from
the Jazz Festival.
CODE Quartet,
which includes French, is a powerhouse collective, strongly rooted in the jazz
tradition, the chord-less quartet who also feature saxophonist Christine
Jensen, , bassist Adrian Vedady and drummer Jim Doxas.
Together, they
create a soundscape that is diverse and refined, providing an exciting and
engaging listening experience.
Their set began
with one of French’s pieces, heavily influenced by artist Gordon Walters and
Coleman’s obsession with anthropology. Called Genealogy, the work sounded
like an extrapolation of the standard Dancing Cheek to Cheek, although
it veered off course into dangerously ‘arty’ waters several times and became confusing
to listen to.
The first
commission, Moorings, is a celebration of the rough Wellington
foreshore, with metaphors about coming home from travelling, safe harbours and
the concept of ‘home’. You can hear
sounds of the breaking waves in the deeper alto sax notes Jensen plays, and the
squeaks from French’s trumpet perfectly mimic seagulls soaring high across the windy,
turbulent skies created by drummer Jim Doxas and bassist Adrian Vedady.
Doxas contributes
his own beach themed piece called Rosemark Beach, a location in
Scotland, with hints of bagpipes and windswept dunes, created by his brush work
on the snares.
Vedady gives us Watching
it All Slip Away, informed by his Canadian home location near an airport. It’s a cool and brooding ensemble track, with
an open end for his bass fret work, which his attacks with a slow deep slapping
sensation.
The second
commission is Transience, a response to Moorings, and
opposite. While the first was about
finding a place to stay, this one is lively and searching. It’s opens with toots like car horns in heavy
New York traffic. Perhaps the traveler
is late to the airport. Perhaps the
rolling bass is a jet plane taking off.
Perhaps the sax is the confusion of a new city. It’s all open to translation, and you can
easily get lost in it.
French, who
hosted the show, told us about his own dark and further brooding dedication to
a James K Baxter poem (On The Death Of Her Body). He’d stolen the first line for his own title
– My love, in the world's first summer stood. With a dirge of horns and constricting
trumpets, it felt claustrophobic and very dark.
The closing number
from this lively and varied set came from sax play Christine Jensen. Wind Up drew its references from
sailing but could just as easily be a nod to Wellington’s harbour as well,
being breezy and quick paced, with plenty of room for Jensen to blow some
fabulous scales and arpeggios.
Sometimes modern
jazz can be confronting, other times just boring. I was grateful for the variety, and certainly
appreciated the skill of these players.
In small doses this was enjoyable and educational. Like a delicacy, it
whetted the appetite for more but you always know when you’ve had enough.
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| Photo: Alicia Rushton |
Alicia Olatuja
played on Saturday night. What an absolute star this lady is! A magnificent voice, that ranges through several
octaves. a full-bodied tone, precise
pitch and personal engagement at the lowest whisper or highest wail.
Praised by
the New York Times as ‘a singer with a strong and luscious tone and an
amiably regal presence on stage’, she totally blew us away tonight. Her exquisite vocals, artistic versatility
and humble, yet captivating demeanor.
A grad of the Manhattan
school of Music, she first gained international attention as the featured
soloist with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir at President Barack Obama’s second
inauguration.
The majority of
her repertoire came from her critically-acclaimed album Intuition: Songs
from the Minds of Women, which, in her words “celebrates the
achievements of esteemed female composers”. She opens with the almost Broadway-ish
So Good, So Right (to be with you tonight) by Brenda Russell. After a couple of tunes from her previous
album, Timeless, she did Joni Mitchell’s Cherokee Louise,
about a girl running away from sexual abuse by her step dad. It’s an unusual choice for a mainstream
styled jazz singer. Normally you’d
expect stuff like My Funny Valentine to be in her set. But, as she told us, you have to confront
uncomfortable themes and feelings sometimes.
Her treatment of Mitchell’s lesser known work was exceptionally delicate
and careful, portraying the mind of a friend who supports buddy, who’s hiding
under a bridge. Her phrasing is
immaculate, yet not the sterile perfection you usually get from a trained
singer. She herself is a singing teacher
but she displays more than just skill, there’s also some emotion that hints
that she may just know more than a little about her subject matter.
Her sexy, sultry No
Ordinary Love (a Sade song), is so delicious it eclipses the original. How she holds control of those notes and
shapes them in to velvety, aural fibres is so impressive.
She does a very Latin,
sexy take on Mercedes Sosa’s Gracias a la Vida, in perfect Portuguese,
with some magical scatterings. Joan Baez also does a wonderful version, but
with a more folky feel. There’s a number
unaccredited, except to a student of hers, that’s slow, measured and so perfectly
balanced. Hide and Seek is about
that little girl that’s always told that you are not enough. Too black, too fat, to this too that. Just wait… All those conflicting
messages. It’s sung from the girls perspective
and is another strong message in a bottle of lush, rich jazz yet thought
provoking and cool. Done as the encore,
with just a guitar accompaniment it’s the perfect closer.
For Hide and
Seek she gets everyone snapping their fingers like the sound of falling
rain. Later she’ll have us clapping and
singing back. That’s her tabernacle
upbringing coming through.
In her set she
also gives us lesser known writers like Brenda Russell, and R’N’B artist Angela
Bofill (Under The Moon), and Linda Creed (People Make The World Go Round
– one of my favorites from the album).
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| Photo: Alicia Rushton |
Her band – which
includes the sublime Robert Mitchell piano, – were tight and clever but never
overcrowded her, they gave plenty of room for her voice and style to
shine. Only at the enduring the wind up
did they take full force – on an extended and rocking blues version of Tracy
Chapman’s Give Me One Reason. A
very vulnerable take on Transform, about how the artist pours out their
heart on stage, was just wonderful.
Olatuja’s voice
went from high to low tones with such ease, I found myself smiling and humming
along, it was one of those performances where it proved so difficult to sit
still!
Simon O’Neill
with Roger Fox Big Band - Fox
continues to defy musical boundaries.
He’s worked with Michael Houston and Midge Marsden. This year he takes on Opera. The story goes that he was in a bar with Tenor
Simon O’Neill when he had one too many whiskeys and ended up playing O’Neil’s
wedding with his whole touring band!
That led to a bit of a favour. So
O’Neil jumped ‘7 Planes from Berlin’ to be on stage today. His voice is stunning. No matter what you think of opera, it blows
you away. The collaboration premiered new arrangements of
Wagner’s Die Walküre and Notung! Notung! and Puccini’s Nessun
Dorma, ground-breaking stuff and a really interesting concept. I’m not sure jazz and Wagner always works Wintersong, Sigmund’s Love Song,
didn’t exactly work with the slowly delivered vocals not quiet merging in time and
beat of the band. But overall, an
interesting idea. No doubt this concert kept
the greyer haired audience members happy.
And to see O’Neill back in Wellington was a joy in itself. Simon O’Neill’s illustrious career spans the
great operas and opera houses of Europe and the United States as well as
Australia and New Zealand, so that was some feat!
The Rodger Fox
Big Band also premiered some wonderful new material including the very Mancini-like
Stretchin’
with Gretchen (by sax player Oscar Lavern) and a piece by
departing drummer Lauren Ellis who is off to study at the acclaimed Lauren
Ellis (Weather Report) School of Music in the USA.
The Wellington Jazz Festival goes way beyond the performances I
saw. On Saturday and Sunday there were
90 gigs alone around the city. It’s a
place where everything buzzes, even if Jazz isn’t your bag.
