"Ensemble Glories in Diverse Sounds"
Local content proved a winner in this concert, part of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Paul Grabowsky's Australian Art Orchestra too rarely tunes up, and this performance made one ask why.
Aside from the individual talents of the musicians – and here the three compositions provided ample exposure on a musical plane built with quality, not quantity – Grabowsky's talent for diversity of sound within an ensemble was bravely answered. New works by Willy Zygier, Elena Kats-Chernin and Grabowsky were as different as you could want in a single concert exercise.
Sydney-based Kats-Chernin stole the show with her riveting TurnTableTurn, deliciously sassy and full of surprises. Her powerful and pacey treatment of the brass and woodwinds pitched the bulk of this piece almost like a steam train gathering momentum, with an infectious beat broken by cleverly fragmented central slow section, exploiting he colour of the solo sounds with marvellous attack and attention to detail. From this initial a-b-a thrust, with its imagery rooted in Central European traditions, the piece changed direction abruptly, centre-staging the soprano saxophone of Sandy Evans in a splurge of solo showmanship. Zygier's The End of Music was an equally powerful though less intense statement. With Nyman-like rhythms, his treatment of the tuba, double bass and bass-clarinet gave the work a determined if solemn start, while the disintegration of sound through he four uninterrupted movements channelled the work neatly to its pathetic conclusion. Zygier's compact sound groupings helped the piece achieve a sense of finality, frailty even, as his music reached its gentle percussive end.
Grabowsky's penchant for theme and variations has already been exploited with Bach's music. Again he turns back time with Variations 'd'un gout etranger on a theme by Marin Marais. This was a complex mix of sound and tribute, touching on such stylists as Charles Ives, Ennio Morricone and Miles Davis. Even Bach entered the picture with a splendidly juicy fugue treatment that had Grabowsky at his rich best. Yet despite fine keyboad from Stuart Campbell, Ollie Olsen's electronics and great trombone by James Greening, the piece often struggled to find its feet amid the turmoil of sound, which masked any sense of direction or even tribute both for Marais and for those celebrated with him.
- The Australian (Jeremy Vincent), Monday 24 January 2000
