"A true marriage of sound and vision sees Bird take flight"
Kicking the ABC may have become the nearest thing we have to a national football code, but that 8¢ a day still goes a long way. Take a bow Christopher Williams of Audio Arts. It was he who originally commissioned this tribute to Charlie 'Bird' Parker from poet Yusef Komunyakaa and composer Sandy Evans, Parker being the man whose alto saxophone 'laughing and crying at the same time' etched bebop into the tomb of the 20th century.
In translating Testimony to the stage, director Nigel Jamieson and designer Dan Potra's hugely ambitious concept of placing most of the Australian Art Orchestra in a three-tier scaffolding must have monumentally complicated perfecting the sound. The pay-off was the startling visual impact of the structure and its twin screens, on which were projected images and abstract animation. It was a true marriage of sound and vision. If Testimony seemed more or less complete as a radio work, this added another level of immediacy.
Komunyakaa, an acclaimed American poet, wrote 14 sonnets testimonies to Bird. Aptly and imaginatively setting 11 of these (three being spoken by actor Bobby C) as the core of her work largely liberated Evans from the immense hurdle of trying to depict a towering musician in music.
Kristen Cornwall began, teasing Komunyakaa's evocative lines (``high heels clicking like a hi-hat") and goaded by a delightful interlude from guitarist Carl Dewhurst. Kate Swadling, Dan Barnett and that inimitable soul survivor, Jackie Orszaczky, followed, the last hauling us through the Old Testament by the heart strings.
Toni Allayialis gave us the low-down on Bird's love of Latin, and Tanya Sparke haunted us with life at the Camarillo Hospital, after a scarifying account of Parker's breakdown from Bobby C, violin and jangling orchestra.
The drug and alcohol issues were confronting. Singer Shelley Scown was typically ethereal here, with contrasting tenor saxophone from Julien Wilson.
The moment the Bird really took flight came with the blazing singing of Tina Harrod, robustly supported by trombonist James Greening. The material dealt with the death of Parker's baby daughter, beginning with Phil Slater's trumpet weeping against Bobby C's delivery of the distraught telegrams Parker sent to his wife.
Seeing Joe Lane take the Concert Hall stage was a justification for this endeavour by itself, and the veteran singer's duet with bassist Philip Rex, leading into Parker's Moose the Mooche, included some of the night's most compelling improvising.
A tribute to Parker's timeless work with string orchestra had an almost gothic element as Michelle Morgan's supernatural voice coiled with John Rodgers's violin against snaking graphics on the screen. Finally Lily Dior presided like a pagan priestess over the last rites and, appropriately, Evans delivered the coup de grace with her tenor saxophone.
If something was missing, it was the sort of red-hot alto saxophone Bernie McGann contributed to the original recording.
"Bird Lives" insisted scrawls of graffiti at the show's conclusion. Hard to argue with.
Testimony closes tonight.
- Sydney Morning Herald (John Shand), 18.01.02
