"Flawed Gem"

Melbourne Jazz Festival: City of Women

Australian Art Orchestra with Deborah Conway The first thing one noticed was the green hair. It was Scott Tinkler, on stage with his trumpet ∆ with green hair, green goatee and tinted sunglasses. Clearly, the Australian Art Orchestra's debut performance at the Melbourne Concert Hall was not going to be a pompous, sombre affair.

City of Women is the second AAO project that seeks to examine – and perhaps dissolve – the boundaries between jazz and popular music. At last year's Melbourne Jazz Festival, Paul Grabowsky and the orchestra premiered a new work by Willy Zygier with DJ Ollie Olsen. This year, the repertoire for City of Women was adapted from songs by Deborah Conway, Zygier's partner and collaborator.

In the program notes for this concert, Conway writes of her initial concerns – that her songs might be 'mutilated' as they were dragged from their natural habitat into the world of the AAO, and that 'it remained bot be seen if the gap (between these worlds) could be bridged'.

With hindsight, and on first hearing, I would say that the gap has been narrowed, rather than bridged. Certainly, Conway is distinctive as a singer and songwriter. It is less certain whether her efforts – and those of the AAO – to find common ground have been successful.The arrangements that worked best followed a restrained, almost languid path, where Conway's slightly husky vocals were supported with subtle and intricate textural effects: softly-scraped string harmonics quietly chiming vibraphone; a gently tapped berimbau. Another time, the funky, rap-inspired Only the Bones had a kind of rock gravitas – more Conway's territory than the AAO's – where the singer sounded confident and assured.

But there were times when her voice simply did not have the strength to cope with the demands placed on it by a 19-piece orchestra, leaving her drowning in a sea of shouting horns or a barrage of majestic percussion. The Latin-flavoured 3 Love was one of several pieces that fell short of their potential, its complex time-feel preventing either Conway or the orchestra giving it the required vibrancy and lift.

However, I think it's important to note that while City of Women may not be an unqualified success Paul Grabowsky's efforts to continually broaden the parameters of this orchestra are to be commended and warmly encouraged. The AAO serves a unique and vital role in the cotemporary music arena, and has produced some unforgettable work.

Collaborations such as those which led to the creation of Into The Fire, and The Theft of Sita could not have occurred without a bold vision and a fearless attitude. If this vision is to be fulfilled, the risk of producing flawed work among the gems is a risk worth taking.