Offer extended – We are so proud [let me say that again] SO PROUD of our three issues of extempore that we’d like to share them around. Buy a pack of the first three issues of extempore at an incredibly discounted rate: $70 (normally $90) including postage for posting to Australian addresses. $90 (normally $120)including postage for postage outside Australia.

Australia / Overseas

Mailed Within Australia $70.00 Mailed Outside Australia $90.00

Baz is the band led by Aaron Flower (aka Baz) This track, ‘No Name’ also appears on their new CD Lady From Toulouse on the Jazzgroove label (JGR054). Our bonus CD for Issue 5 is from Jazzgroove, and it will have this track or another one from the CD on it. See, everything’s connected!

Baz is Aaron Flower – guitar,  Zoe Hauptmann – bass, Karl Laskowski – sax, James Hauptmann – drums

Aaron was interviewed in Issue 1 of extempore >
Support the journal that celebrates music and the people who make it by subscribing!

Check out the CD Lady From Toulouse on the Jazzgroove website >

The Seed Habit - Rufus Records RF079

The Seed Habit- Keijzer McGuiness Quintet
Review by Charles Lidgard (http://unchartedjazz.wordpress.com/)
Rufus Records, RF079, 2009.

The Keijzer McGuiness Quintet takes its name from a combination of Dutchman Remco Keijzer (tenor saxophone) and Australian Lucian McGuiness (trombone). In addition to Keijzer and McGuiness, the quintet consists of Matt McMahon (rhodes/piano), Mike Majkowski (bass) and James Hauptmann (drums). The Seed Habit is the quintet’s first release. The tracks, all originals, were composed by Keijzer and McGuiness, who collaborated over three years and two countries to write the songs.

There is something very special about transatlantic collaboration – it brings with it all the trials of composing and working in isolation and all the joys that come when all parties meet to bring life to those compositions. Knowing that the connection is fleeting brings a certain poignancy to the way in which the songs are interpreted; the compositions have at their core, a certain wistfulness or nostalgia.

The title of the album takes its name from a biological process concerning the life-cycle of seeds and plant reproduction. It is within that context that the album came to be. Remco Keijzer and Lucian McGuiness planted the seed of an idea in a little café, the Vlinder, in the middle of Amsterdam. That seed unfolded and grew to become The Seed Habit.

As co-leaders of the quintet, McGuiness and Keijzer work incredibly well together, playing the compelling, often insistent heads of each song in tight unison. McGuiness’ trombone provides a breathless texture to the supporting saxophone which weaves about over and under the melody.

‘Pigis’ is an immediate hit. Penned by McGuiness, it has a memorable melody and the makings of a classic theme, reminiscent even of the great standards. Its dynamics are explored to great effect by Keijzer‘s bursts of saxophone, which takes the theme and bends it, each run increasing in intensity, bringing the song to a dramatic crescendo. He never wavers from the intent of the melody and it’s a joy to hear him let go and soar above the rigorous structure. McMahon’s luscious tone comps on Hauptmann’s solid downbeat before giving way to Majkowski’s deft fretboard work. Majkowski is a phenomenal double bassist who understands the importance of delivering what is right for the song.

McMahon’s understated rhodes is a delight – his solo break on ‘Apple S’ for example. At times the rhodes takes on the role of guitar, a slightly distorted sound behind the moving themes of McGuiness and Keijzer. He uses space to explore the melodic possibilities before ceding way to Keijzer’s saxophone. ‘Apple S’ is a good example of the balance the quintet has – musically there are no definite leaders, each musician working together, enjoying the fleeting moment.

‘Get Out’ is a complicated workout in the modern bop tradition, with rapid call and response between sax and trombone.

‘GC for CP’ is toe-tapping fun with both feet firmly in the groove camp. Rhodes, drums and bass never sounded so hip.
Strangely, ‘Natte Worteltjes’ begins with a solid reggae feel, interspersed with sax and trombone, before moving into a busy, rhythmical maelstrom.

Featuring beautiful cover art by Robèrt Guérain and memorable compositions, The Seed Habit is an outstanding debut from a band destined for great things, providing they can manage the tyranny of distance. The compositions have a maturity to them that belie the musician’s years and the tonal qualities and the band’s sound is contemporary and refreshing.

–o0o–

fit - Rufus Recores RF085

fit – The Alister Spence Trio
Rufus Records, RF085, 2009
Review by Charles Lidgard (http://unchartedjazz.wordpress.com/)

*’five hundred suns’ from fit is featured on the bonus CD in Issue 4 of extempore!

The Alister Spence Trio comprises Alister Spence (piano), Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Toby Hall (drums, glockenspiel). The trio released their first album Three is a Circle in 2000 and received ARIA nominations for subsequent albums Flux (2003) and Mercury (2007). fit is the band’s fourth album.

Alister Spence is an outstanding pianist and composer in contemporary jazz in Australia. His playing is featured on more than 30 CDs, several of which have won ARIA Awards. Spence has played with many of the finest musicians in Australia including Bernie McGann, Sandy Evans, Don Burrows, Dale Barlow, Tony Buck and Phil Slater. In addition to writing and performing with The Alister Spence Trio, Spence lectures in Jazz Performance and Arranging at UNSW University.

Spence’s talents as a writer have been well recognised with several compositions featuring on Bernie McGann’s 2001 ARIA-winning CD Bundeena. Spence has also composed music for film, often collaborating with film director Ivan Sen. The soundtrack to Sen’s first feature film Beneath Clouds was nominated for the Best Score at the Australian Film Industry Awards 2002.

Bassist Lloyd Swanton needs no introduction. Perhaps best known for his work with experimental jazz trio The Necks, Swanton is also the leader, composer and bassist of seven-piece jazz ensemble The catholics. He has performed with many of the cornerstones of modern Australian music including The Bernie McGann Trio, Vince Jones, Stephen Cummings and Wendy Matthews. He is a three-time winner of Best Bassist in the Australian Jazz and Blues Awards.

Drummer Toby Hall is highly regarded in contemporary Australian jazz. He has been a member of The catholics and Peter Dasent’s The Umbrellas among others, and has performed with many of Australia’s finest jazz musicians including Bernie McGann, Andrew Robson, Paul Grabowsky, Mike Nock and Don Burrows. For over a decade Toby has been a member of trombonist James Greening’s outfit The World According to James, whose latest album Lingua Franca won Best Independent Jazz Album at the 2009 Jagermeister AIR Awards.

The Alister Spence Trio’s fit explores the concept of ‘fitting’, or blending, textures, free improvisation, soundscapes and editing together to form an album that is both an artistic statement and an exploration of the possibilities of a highly attuned and experienced jazz trio.

While The Alister Spence Trio incorporates similar instrumentation as The Necks, fit represents such a diverse sound palette that similarities quickly make way to striking differences. Swanton, known for his contribution of mesmerising repeating bass pedals to The Necks’ music, plays a different role in this setting. The pieces are much shorter for a start (fit has a total of 17 tracks, the longest being 7’:29”) and Spence’s different tonal personality behind the piano encourages a different approach more suited to the abstract compositions.

The album conjures an abstract tableau of images in the listener’s mind. The use of space, and the gentle decay of Spence’s piano chords expanding that space, creates an unusual, meditative world. It makes for compelling listening; less of a distinct set of instruments vying for solos and working over a traditional jazz head-solo-head arrangement and more of three musicians working as one to create abstract textures and unique tonal arrangements. The second track ‘interior system’ is a good example of this, with Hall using his drums to create a percussive noise effect as opposed to a defined rhythm.

‘five hundred suns’ features a beautiful repeating piano figure, underpinned by Swanton’s moving melodic bass figure. Hall’s drums gradually build, introducing the possibilities of multiple rhythms before choosing one which the band locks onto, propelling the song forwards. It’s a beautiful example of a band in tune with each other—responding to each other to culminate in something that is a sum of its individual parts. I call this song out here as it represents the other side on offer on this album – a melodic composition, perfectly placed between the more abstract textural pieces interspersed throughout the album. It is this juxtaposition that makes the album so diverse and reveals the depth of talent Spence and company have at their disposal. ‘five hundred suns’ is a standout track.

This concept of visual arrays created by musical interplay is further emphasised by the inclusion of three tonal projections on the DVD that accompanies the album. Film artist Louise Curham is renowned in experimental film circles for her work using hand-worked Super 8 film, seeking to reinvent the home movie medium through colour, texture and abstracted image. She has contributed work to three songs from the album—‘caught in light’, ‘hover’ and ‘calcium’. With its rumbling, intermittent percussion, grating metallic sounds interspersed with repeating solitary bass notes broken only by a shrill bell-like key, ‘calcium’ is a haunting, brooding piece. Curham’s black and white images of old shop frontages, chain-linked fences and earthen grasses with splashes of colour and erratic typewriter fonts are reminiscent of New Zealand experimental film artist Len Lye, and are perfectly suited to the trio’s textural sound explorations.

fit is at times eminently listenable and moving (‘five hundred suns’,‘another october’) and at others, confronting and dark (‘calcium’, ‘two halves of the moon’, ‘fathom’). Overall, the edgy balance leans more towards the experimental textural aspects that are the focus of the album. From time to time, these musical abstractions are leavened by Spence’s more formed compositions underpinned by solid interplay and melody. fit can be a challenging listen; it takes the listener on an unusual but richly rewarding spatial journey.

–o0o–

Jamie Oehlers Quintet
Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne
January 2010
Review by Ed Piston

Coming back to Bennetts Lane after the break that is the festive season is always enjoyable, especially knowing that your first gig of the year is going to be a cracker…

Jamie Oehlers has been residing in Perth for the last few years, where he has taken up the position of head of jazz at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Far from sounding like someone who has been chained to a desk, Jamie displayed his continual exploration of both the contemporary jazz idiom and the tenor saxophone.

The night’s program moved smoothly between odd-metered vamps, medium waltzes, angular free-improv pieces and hard-swinging 4/4. In all cases it was clear that Jamie felt completely at ease, giving the impression he was riding the wave that was the composition, rather than fighting against it, as is often the case when less-qualified musicians tackle structures such as these. Rajiv Jayaweera (drums) and Sam Anning (bass) pushed and pulled with him, indeed with every soloist, to help shape each composition into a unified whole, rather than have the repeated-bell-shape curve of intensity that sometimes happens with 3 or 4 solos per composition.

One of the things I was most looking forward to was hearing how pianist Andrea Keller and guitarist Steve Magnusson worked with Jamie. Both of them utilised very individual approaches to Jamie’s pieces. Keller played some solo piano sections, concentrating on voice-leading and melody, and also exhibited some quasi-stride playing in a duo rendition of “Some Jazz Standard”. Her love of composition and structure is obvious in her solos: her choices are always well considered, without excess, and effective. It seems as if she can play so little, yet do so much with a band.

Special mention has to go to Steve Magnusson, whose intensity, articulation and phrasing was the highlight of the night for me. Whenever he soloed it was as if he was re-discovering improvisation for the first time. His playing was a demonstration of complete mastery of his instrument: wailing, grumbling, screaming guitar that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Hopefully Jamie returns to Melbourne often in 2010, and continues his relentless development as one of Australia’s most accomplished musicians.

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extempore is now online, with groovy technology that allows you to turn pages on screen, zoom in and see all previous issues! There are many different ways a  journal can go ‘online’ – we’ve chosen this one because it allows us to show off our unique design (thanks to Ian Robertson) and also protects the copyright of our contributors.  You can’t download from the site, but you can zoom in, email links to friends, and print pages.

If you subscribe to the print edition of extempore, the online edition is available to you for free… or if you want to subscribe just to extempore Online, you pay just $30 for 2 issues or $60 for 4 issues; around half the price of a print subscription. You can upgrade to print at any time if you crave the printed page.

If you are a print subscriber and haven’t received your online edition login details, you can request them by contacting us at info [at] extempore [dot] com [dot] au

It’s been an exciting process getting the journal online, and we welcome feedback. Please let us know if you enjoy using extempore Online, or even if you don’t!

Watching and listening...

It’s becoming a tradition: extempore launches are thinly disguised excuses for a celebration, and celebration is exactly what they are about!

Issue 3 of extempore was launched in style on Friday 30 October, at Wangaratta Jazz.

A big thank you to Mike Nock who launched the journal again, and to John Clare and Geoff Page who read from their contributions to Issue 3. Baddaginnie Run supplied delicious wines and Milawa Cheese was enjoyed by all.

Thanks also to Steve Doig, the hallmaster at St Patrick’s Hall for his help in setting up!

I was fortunate enough to win tickets, courtesy of extempore, to Crossing Roper Bar and have to admit that I had some reservations as to whether the project of interspersing jazz with traditional Australian music and dance would work. However any such doubts were very quickly dispelled. The stunning, frenzied opening violin of Erkki Veltheim set the pattern with, for me, a frightening depiction of desolate, rugged Aussie landscape found in our remotest outback.

From then on every member of the Australian Art Orchestra stamped the programme with his particular talent. Tony Hicks – surely this country’s pre-eminent reeds player – stunned the audience with his virtuosity whilst never debasing the concept of the project.

Stephen Magnusson (guitar) and Philip Rex (double bass) supplied background sensitivity along with great solos. As for drummer Niko Schauble what can one say? The word I use to sum up Niko’s talent is Finesse. His drumming keeps the AAO focused and he never falls into that trap of drummer domination.

The four Wagilak musician/dancers – Benjamin, Daniel, Evan and Wesley Wilfred – gave the whole programme an undeniable sense of tradition, particularly with their singing. One could easily picture camp fires, shadows and a way of life which must never be lost to modernity. I was also struck by the way the traditional music blended so comfortably with modern music forms.

Then there is Paul Grabowsky. Now I must confess to being a long time admirer of Paul’s but, I have never been able to put a label on his work, in fact I doubt if anyone could. His talent, vision and creativeness are quite remarkable and Crossing Roper Bar must surely rank as one of his most stunning achievements.

In summation I found Crossing Roper Bar’ an innovative, thought provoking musical event, superbly performed, that deserves a wide audience and a place in the pantheon of great Australian music.
Brian Ormsby

Editor’s note: Thanks to the Australian Art Orchestra and the Melbourne Recital Centre for the opportunity to offer these free passes to our subscribers! Sign up for our free newsletter to have similar passes, CDs and other opportunities sent straight to your inbox…

A ten minute video of Vince and his band at The Basement in July 2009

You’re listening to: Vince Jones, Matt Mcmahon (piano), Brett Hirst (bass), James Muller (guitar). And edited video that includes bits of  Trustworthy Little Sweethearts, Can’t Afford To Live Can’t Afford To Die, Jettison.

See our little Q&A with Vnce Jones and four other singers (Katie Noonan, Gian Slater, Kristin Berardi and Michelle Nicholle) in Issue 3 of extempore >

Support the journal that celebrates music and the people who make it by subscribing!

Visit Vince on the web: www.vincejoneslive.com

See the video on YouTue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9mKTPGf88Q

The Emma Franz film Intangible Asset Number 82 is a film not to be missed!

This beautiful and inspiring documentary tells the story of Simon Barker’s journey of discovery as he seeks out Korean master musician and shaman Kim Seok-Chul. Along the way he encounters and connects with musicians such as singer Bae Il Dong (who spent years developing his voice in an ancient Korean tradition of singing over the roar of a waterfall) and percussionist Kim Don-Won who “had his musical epiphany while being belted continuously for three months in a jail cell—a punishment meted out to him for having been reckless enough to play music at the funeral of a young man shot to death in a student protest”.

Check out the full review by Bill Leak, from extempore Issue 2

Screening details:
Coulbourne Avenue, Glebe
37-47 St Johns Rd Glebe – on the corner of St Johns Rd and Colbourne Ave
http://colbourneave.cafechurch.org.au

For updates and further information or to sign up to the mailing list go to www.intangibleasset82.com