Australian & New Zealand Jazz

[bobcochran]

As everyone probably knows, I work as Jazz Director at a radio station here in Portland, Maine. I've been introducing the listeners to some excellent Jazz talent from countries other than the US. Ive been getting a lot of great music from Germany, Austria, France, Canada and the Scandinavian countries.

Can anyone here recommend some Jazz folks in Australia and New Zealand I should contact?

[postscript]

bobcochran said:

As everyone probably knows, I work as Jazz Director at a radio station here in Portland, Maine. I've been introducing the listeners to some excellent Jazz talent from countries other than the US. Ive been getting a lot of great music from Germany, Austria, France, Canada and the Scandinavian countries.

Can anyone here recommend some Jazz folks in Australia and New Zealand I should contact?

What about England, Bob?!!!
Try Chris Garrick who has just re-worked his web page at www.chrisgarrick.com/

The 'HWI' connection is that his mother married my brother-in-law following my sister's death from cancer a few years back. He does a 'Hayley' for us on Bastille Day (and other odd family occasions!) when he brings his band down and my brother-in-law holds a party in his back garden for a hundred or so family and close friends. This year Chris's brother also came, Gabriel Garrick, who plays Trumpet. Their natural father is the jazz musician Michael Garrick.

By the way, the 'Chris' stands for 'Christian' not 'Christopher'.

I'm sure he'd send you a disk or two were you to email him, or I'll arrange it if you like but I shall have to get them from him anyway--I am not a jazz fan! Although I have learned to respect the form for many years as a close friend (now in the States) loved it and I respect his tastes.

Seeing Chris on the violin is like watching Fiona Pears. His bow frequently ends up largely de-threaded too!

Gosh, what a waste. The way I treat Chris is nothing like the way in which I hold Hayley. 'Hayley, oh wow!' 'Hi Chris!'

But that is probably how Hayley's family and close friends treat her and probably the way she prefers it!!!

Peter S.

[postscript]

Following on my earlier post regarding Chris Garrick, I've been looking at his web site, which has undergone a major re-work since I last visited.

In the light of our admiration for Fiona Pears (as well as Ian Tilley) I thought the following copy from Chris Garrick's site might be of interest and I wonder to what extent the same problem affects Fiona, or whether her style of playing is sufficiently different that the demands she makes on her bow require a different approach to this work.



Bow rehairs
Due both to some of the styles and to the environments in which I play, it is bow rehairs alone that make my trade high maintenance. At a cost of between £30 and £40 a rehair every 4 or 5 concerts, I reckon I've spent around £7000 on bow rehairs to date. Even so, many many of these have been bad and I cannot understand how a relatively untaxing (though highly skilled) job can be so easily messed up. Pete Oxley tells me not to learn to do it myself, though I frequently wonder how else I can ensure my bow is rehaired to my satisfaction every time. If I possibly can I take it back to Pete or his partner Jutta for the work but I'm not always within 100 miles of Oxford when I'm touring!

There are several ways to mess-up a rehair and they are all annoyingly silly things all arising from slack execution.

• 1. Putting the hair in the wrong way up. Yes, the microscopic follicles must point one way and not the other: The wrong way and the violin sounds as though steam's seeping out of it.
  
• 2. Bad quality hair: Similar result to the sound.
  
• 3. Unedited hair: the most time consuming part of rehairing is selecting the good hair from one big hank of hair, discarding any broken ones, takes about 20 minutes for one bow. Don't bother to do this and I'll come back for a refund.
  
• 4. Badly cut wedges: there're tiny wedges in the frog and in the tip meant to stop the hair coming out. If not cut to a tight snug fit they'll just pop out rendering you Col Legno, or bust. Disaster.
  

Finding somewhere to get a good rehair wherever you are is like trying to get a good espresso used to be. Nigh on impossible. Good coffee is easier to come by nowadays and I hope now someone will be smart enough to set-up a chain of cafes where you can have your bow rehaired while you have a coffee. They could be called 'Ar Coffee' (Arco-ffee). Sorted.

© Christian Garrick
January 2004


Peter S.


Edit: I changed a couple of words in the copy, to save any possible embarrassment!
Richard

[Belinda]

Hi Bob ,
Malcolm Mc Neill is a well known Christchurch Jazz singer
he has sung for President Clinton and recorded with Dame kiri Te Kanawa. see links
Malcolm Mc Neill

Malcolm Mc Neill.com



Belinda

[bobcochran]

Thanks Peter and Belinda!! I'll definitely check out Malcolm Mc Neill & Chris Garrick.

Peter. I know a jazz viola player here in the states, Mat Maneri, who also plays like someone possesed. Offstage, it's "hey, Mat, how the #%^# are you!"

I definitely can't see myself being that way with Hayley if I ever met her.

I'll be glad to to check out any English Jazz folks you can suggest.

[postscript]

bobcochran said:

Thanks Peter and Belinda!! I'll definitely check out Malcolm Mc Neill & Chris Garrick.

Peter. I know a jazz viola player here in the states, Mat Maneri, who also plays like someone possesed. Offstage, it's "hey, Mat, how the #%^# are you!"

I definitely can't see myself being that way with Hayley if I ever met her.

I'll be glad to to check out any English Jazz folks you can suggest.

NO! Please don't say anything like that to or NEAR Hayley! She's not a prude she just doesn't see the need for expletives and in fact, when I am round people like Hayley--and there are many 'nice, normal, down-to-earth' people who never do either!--I try to emulate and realise the extent to which my everyday colloquialisms let down my otherwise reasonable grasp of the language. I do not see how any word expresses any more clearly the annoyance described by 'bother!' That word, interestingly, may have its origin in Celtic 'bodder'.

If I wish to attract attention to my state of irritation I usually find convoluted politeness works superbly well. Such as recently when someone was being particularly banal and stupidly asked for my opinion, which I promptly gave! 'I can best answer you by using that simple five letter English word that most succinctly describes spherical objects'.

They clearly weren't very up in geometry because it took them awhile to think of the noun from which the adjective 'spherical' derived, which meant the remark hit home more meaningfully than if I had simply cited the word!

Returning to subject, I attended an excellent concert in our parish church last Saturday. The programme started with Shostakovitch's Festival Overture which I love as a most glorious piece of sheer razzmatazz, followed by his second piano concerto. The pianist was Jeremy Filsell, uniquely a virtuoso on both piano and organ.

Due to bribery and corruption (otherwise known as family connections!) I was within four feet of the keyboard and it was fascinating being able to watch the fingerwork required to achieve the effects one knows so well in that concerto. Brahms' first symphony followed the interval.

The relevance to this thread is this. A former Director of Music of my old School was the conductor.My brother-in-law was playing timps, his second wife (Chris and Gabriel Garrick's mother) was playing clarinet. She had just picked up Chris from the airport and he was at their home resting while the younger son, Gabriel, was playing trumpet.

During the chit-chat afterwards, Gabriel was confessing that there were one or two occasions during the evening when he blew into his trumpet the wrong way! 'I noticed!', his mother exclaimed, as she had been sitting immediately in front of him.

Apparently the manner in which air is blown into the trumpet, which I suppose is controlled by the embouchure, varies depending upon the music and Gabriel confessed he hadn't played 'straight' music for a long time! Interesting to hear a jazz trumpeter refer to classical music as 'straight' music.

However, Bob, should you not pick it up by through Chris Garrick's web connections, here is another link for you concentrating on his younger brother Gabriel. www.jazzscript.co.uk/CDs/garrick04aca.htm. You may also find the notes to the Joe Harriott Quintet of interest, but I suspect you are already aware of him.

PS: The initial reference to Michael Garrick in that article of course refers to their father!
Peter S.

[bobcochran]

The "#%^# " I include in the greeting to Mat are in fun rather than anger. He and many of the other Jazz musicians I've meet over the time working here at WMPG are extremely casual and accessible,

I would never swear in Hayley's company. I save that language for Jazz musicians and fellow cartoonists or when my computer trashes 2 hours of graphic work.

Actually, I get very annoyed with stand up comics who tend to rely on swear words to get a cheap, quick laugh. I never use them in my cartoons or written material.

Getting back on topic... Sometimes musicians who play mostly in one type of Jazz have a hard time adapting to a different style, let alone a different genre of music. I once heard Frank Strozier, who's a very underappreciated alto saxophonist similar to Art Pepper in style, with the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra. He was doing some Hard Bop solos in the middle of a Sidney Bechet piece while everyone else was trying to stay consistent with the Bechet-era style. It made for an interesting listening experience even though the orchestra leader was clearly getting annoyed.

[specialjenny]

Mark Sholtez is a great Australian jazz singer.

www.marksholtez.com

[bobcochran]

Chris Garrick sent his two most recent CDs, and they are both fantastic!!! Thanks for suggesting I ointact him Peter!

[bobcochran]

belinda said:

Hi Bob ,
Malcolm Mc Neill is a well known Christchurch Jazz singer
he has sung for President Clinton and recorded with Dame kiri Te Kanawa. see links
Malcolm Mc Neill

Malcolm Mc Neill.com



Belinda

Hi Belinda,

His CD "Skylark" finally arrived...the postal folks sent it regular mail by mistake. It would have got here faster if he tied it to a rock and let continental drift do its work.

The music is great!!! Thanks for recommending him to me!

Bob

[Belinda]

Hi Bob,
I thought you might be interested in this,
in April Christchurch hosts the New Zealand International Jazz and Blues Festival 13-21 April 2007
Wow glad you finally got your CD.

www.jazzfestivalnz.com