a long-time acquaintance lives in the town of wangaratta
runs the local music shop and ditto the shop at the annual jazz festival
so the offer of a free ticket and accommodation was hard to resist
all that was required was a bit of time flogging cd's at the stall
so onto a cheap flight out of sydney and into albury
seated coincidentally next to an acquaintance from sima
(sydney improvised music association)
who just so happened to have a friend meeting him
and so a lift to wangaratta was also provided for me
then another lift to the festival site in a car packed full of cds
the complimentary festival program tracked down and perused
a weekend of music offering a great mix of known and new music
first up for me being jim mcneely and the spare parts orchestra
never heard of the chap myself but hey he's from new york
the spare parts orchestra is a (presumably) hastily assembled combo
local (read australian) musicians again displaying their flexibility
4 trumpet players including sydney based star warwick alder
4 trombone players of unknown origins but presumably melbourne
5 sax players including paul cutlan and kiwi roger manins
the rhythm section of andrew dickeson and bendan clarke
last and consistently seen keeping time for mr bernie mcgann
jim mcneely himself leading the orchestra on piano and mc duties
well it all sounded very appealing and so i was there in the crowd
but, but, but it just did not work all that well unfortunately
sometimes i just sense that there is too much reliance on skills
this outfit had that to spare and in theory should have killed it
but then in my limited experience you have to add 1 of 2 components
either a connection forged from lots of rehearsal or live playing
or a connection and an absolute trust in your fellow musicians
so that improvisation works and comes naturally and easily
uh-oh - in this case, on this night, we had neither component
meaning that it was quite a shambolic, sloppy, unenthusiastic performance
couldn't help thinking the local guys were going through the motions
but trying their very best to lift the performance and make it special
jim mcneely between tunes seemingly trying to redeem himself
constantly name-dropping other concerts or orchestras
blatantly reminding us the audience of his stellar connections
i kept thinking i must have had it wrong - maybe a tuning problem
i.e. my ears not yet tuned into the cavernous space of the main stage
and very used to front row seats at intimate shows in small spaces
i left the concert very underwhelmed by the performance
was still thinking about it the next day in the main street
when i stumbled onto the local school big band doing it's thing
playing with confidence and in unison and making a fine racket
reminding me very clearly of the disappointment of the night before
sorry jim but for me not a successful festival opener
