“Any similarity between that and jazz is purely accidental. You’ve got play with a blues feeling on a groove, and a melodic line.”
– Lou Donaldson commenting a track from Ornette Coleman’s 1987 album In All Languages. Downbeat_ blindfold test, August 2006.
The veteran saxophonist had a clear idea of what he thought constituted jazz and it didn’t include Coleman’s later work. Presumably, he would have a similarly dim view of much else that is produced under the banner of jazz today.
There was a time not long ago when the opinions of self-appointed guardians of the jazz tradition, particularly the dogmatic and articulate Wynton Marsalis, carried considerable weight. But the dynamic of the music is now against them, as it spins in countless directions, failing to heed calls for conformity, whether in the form of a blues groove, a conventional swing feel or American pedigree.
Sydney’s Jazz:Now Festival is a celebration of this new reality and a showcase of some of the country’s most exciting musical talent.
Now in its fourth year, Jazz:Now is a collaboration between two key presenting organisations – the Jazzgroove Association and the Sydney Improvised Music Association (SIMA) – and the Sydney Opera House.
All the performances take place in The Studio, a space Jazzgroove Association co-artistic director Cameron Undy describes as ideal for jazz.
“It still feels intimate, particularly in the way they have been setting it up the last couple of years,” he says.
“You still get that sense of intimacy that a jazz concert needs while being able to play to a larger room. You still feel like you can hear the musicians breathing in a quiet moment.”
Cameron says staging Jazz:Now at the Opera House also helps to attract a broad audience to the event.
“I believe many people attend [Jazz:Now] who would not go to a club venue like the Sound Lounge or the Excelsior, and there is a certain cachet in being associated with the Opera House,” he says.
While musicians have been taking jazz in new directions in recent years, Cameron says the public hasn’t yet caught up. Jazz:Now provides something of a four-night summary of what jazz now represents to many artists.
“In trying to promote this festival and other Jazzgroove Association activities I have found that trying to feed people a different view of what jazz is now is quite tough.
“But this festival … helps to update the perception of what jazz is. The artistic part of forging that new sound has already happened and I think it’s just a matter of everything catching on to the fact that this is what is going on now.”
For SIMA President Peter Rechniewski one of the key characteristics of Jazz:Now is that its programming decisions are based on the quality of the music.
“At present it’s the only jazz festival in Sydney that is driven by artistic considerations exclusively. That’s important enough in itself,” he says.
Peter nominates the JazzGroove Mothership Orchestra (JGMO), Phillip Johnston’s saxophone quartet and Mathias Schriefl as some of the highlights in this year’s program.
“The JGMO follows Sandy Evans’ Gest8 and Ten Part Invention as a large ensemble feature. It is becoming a very strong band as its members get more experience playing together and as new material gives it a wider emotional and dynamic range to work with.
“Johnston’s band is the type of group tailor-made for festivals and Johnston deserves to be spotlighted as he’s such an imaginative and internationally experienced musician.
“Schriefl is part of the German new wave of contemporary jazz and I think it’s a great opportunity for the audience to catch such artists at the start of their career.”
Cameron Undy says the festival organisers also wanted to highlight some of the groups that have produced strong recorded work over the past 12 months.
“There are a number of artists whose albums have come out this year that are being represented at the festival. Trio Apoplectic and the Tom O’Halloran Trio, Showa 44 are doing great stuff in the recorded medium and they’re also terrific to see live, and so it’s building on the two aspects of the music.
“If people can come and hear them at Jazz:Now and be really excited they’ll also be able to take home a very high quality album that’s been made very recently. That has a positive ongoing effect in terms of a feedback loop.”
For Cameron Undy overseas guests Matthias Schriefl & Shreefpunk epitomize some of the exciting developments in jazz in recent years, incorporating a variety of influences within the context of an acoustic jazz ensemble.
“Not that this an entirely new thing that’s happening; it’s been going on since the ‘70s with different styles of music affecting jazz in its evolution. But it represents a new stage of development in Europe, particularly Germany, of these ideas.
“I think there is a kinship between some of the musicians here and their ideals and perhaps some of the things going on there.”
Matthias Schriefl & Shreefpunk are being brought to Australia by the German cultural organisation the Goethe-Institut. Peter Rechniewski believes connections with such bodies are potentially very important.
“Goethe is an outstanding organisation. It is very supportive with very knowledgeable staff. I hope that in future we can also develop a link with Alliance Francaise and perhaps others, but Jazz:Now would have to expand a little because the programme should be predominantly a showcase for local artists.”
Despite the vanguard nature of much of Jazz:Now’s artistic programming, attendances have generally been good and audience responses enthusiastic.
Cameron Undy isn’t concerned that some media coverage of the event has failed to fully embrace the festival’s ambitions.
“It’s daring to put on things that some critics might say isn’t festival material but I think that’s part of the growing nature of the Jazz:Now Festival and of the scene itself.
“We’re putting this stuff, which had only really existed in small venues, into these larger venues and bigger, more prestigious events. Some of these acts don’t necessarily have a track record for doing big festivals but it needs to start somewhere.”
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