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
Due to the timing of the Chris Cody album ‘Not My Lover’, some jumped to the conclusion that his Jazz love letter to Paris was in response to the recent atrocities. In fact Cody recorded it well before those tragic events and much to the relief of family and friends he was safely in Australia at the time. The City of Light has the strongest of Jazz associations and Cody captures that intimate relationship perfectly. You can feel the ebb and flow of the city’s life running through his fingertips as he plays. The beauty of the architecture, the elegant Seine, the mad driving through the twisted maze of streets. Through his perceptive lens we gain a sense of the city which for hundreds of years has welcomed visiting creative artists to its heart; regardless of creed or colour. We also catch a fleeting glimpse of the harsher realities hidden behind the gorgeous facade.
Mooroolbark is a place, an album and a state of mind. It is an intersection of worlds and a testament to Barney McAll’s writing skills .
#ASIO stands for the Australian Symbiotic Improvisers Orbit, but even in the title the story deepens? Another ASIO comes to mind, as hard-won Australian freedoms vanish in the eternal quest for security. At a pre-release gig in Sydney’s Basement the band donned high-viz vests with #ASIO stencilled on them; high visibility music juxtaposed with secretive worlds. This #ASIO has some answers. The landscape of McAll’s new album ‘Mooroolbark’ is littered with these potent images and if you let your preconceptions go, they will come to you. These musical parables are modern ‘song lines’; age old stories told afresh. ‘Mooroolbark’ completes a circle. A return to familiar physical and spiritual landscapes. A reappraisal of the journey with old musical friends.
This unit performs as if they are one entity. Every note serves the project rather than the individuals. The sum is greater than its considerably impressive parts. I have seen McAll perform a number of times and his sense of dynamics is always impressive He can favour the darkly percussive; using those trademark voicings to reel us in, then just as suddenly turn on a dime and with the lightest of touch occupy a gentle minimalism. On Mooroolbark everyone’s touch is light and airy, open space between notes, a crystal clarity that surprisingly yields an almost orchestral feel. Avoiding an excess of notes and making a virtue out of this is especially evident as they play off the ostinato passages (i.e ‘Non Compliance).
A transformation has occurred with ‘Non Compliance’; morphing from a tour de force trio piece into an other-worldly trippy sonic exploration. All of the musicians fit perfectly into the mix and this is a tribute to the arrangements and to the artists. Zwartz (an expat Kiwi who has a strong presence here) holds the groove to perfection and the drummers and percussionists, far from getting in each others way, lay down subtle interactive layers; revealing texture and colour. Barker on drums and percussion is highly respected on the Australian scene (as are all of these musicians). Adding the New York percussionist Mino Cinelu gives that added punch. On tracks 6 & 7 noted trombonist Shannon Barnett adds her magic and Hamish Stewart is on drums for the last track.
Barney McAll is an award-winning, Grammy nominated Jazz Musician based in New York. He was recently awarded a one year Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers Residency and he currently resides at the Paddington residency house in Sydney, Australia.
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