Jazz on Lockdown Releases

On a gloomy autumn lockdown day, nothing is more welcome than a fresh and exciting piece of music. It brings sunshine, and if the artist is a gifted up-and-comer, it brings hope. In the days before lockdown, I saw a press release for Vanessa Perica’s ‘Love Is A Temporary Madness’. It could easily have been lost among the hundreds of emails warning me of the impending crises, but happily, it wasn’t. I listened to the sample track and found it instantly compelling.

There is nothing easy about composing and arranging Jazz orchestral charts and few musicians embark on this tortuous path. Thankfully Perica did, and her charts are magnificent. On ‘Love is a Temporary Madness’ she draws on a large palette, a seventeen-piece orchestra. Using contrast, texture, and modulation to great effect; she balances piano, guitar and the various soloists against a fulsome horn section and all to the best advantage. Big orchestras like this can easily maroon soloists, but these charts nurture the individual voices as much as the ensemble.

I know many of these musicians and I can’t help but wonder if she wrote with specific artists in mind; Andrea Keller in particular, as she is always such a distinctive performer? Very few pianists speak with such clarity and few can imply so much with well-crafted understatement. Add in renowned Australian musicians like Julien Wilson, Jamie Oehlers, Ben Vanderwal, and the other first raters and you understand why the ensemble sound is so fine. A sound that breathes in unison and when required urges a soloist to greater heights. 

This is the first time that I have encountered Vanessa Perica’s work and I am slow off the mark there. She’s increasingly coming to attention of the wider Jazz world and no wonder. When you’re compared to Maria Schneider and praised by luminaries like Ted Gioia, you are well on your way.

The world as we knew it has been upended by a virus and the unfamiliar now demands constant attention; but as we reel from a plethora of new realities, we must not resile from re-examining what was under our nose. In isolation, few of us crave a conversation with our banker. Our desires centre around the arts. With our minds free to roam we form tableaus of reimagined paintings, we craft wonders out of found objects, we sculpt gardens, and above all, we immerse ourselves in music. 

Everyone loves music and as consumers, we have greedily accessed it without a second thought for the musicians. Now, they are our lifeline, our passport to sanity, and when we need them most they are there for us, giving us free concerts or releasing albums at the worst possible time. Income streams in the creative sector have been slashed drastically but the composing and performing continues unabated.  Artists must create, and for that to continue we need to support their endeavours. Buying albums like ‘Love is a Temporary Madness’ is the perfect way to do just that.  Purchase from Vanessa Perica Bandcamp

The lockdowns won’t stop jazz! To assist musicians who’ve had performances cancelled, get their music heard around the globe. There Jazz Journalists Association created a Jazz on Lockdown: Hear it Here community blog. for more, click through to https://news.jazzjournalists.org/catagory/jazz-on-lockdown/

JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association