Not only are Key Grip great communicators with their audience but they also play so well.  This is around the blues scene but not all 12-bars.  Plenty of nicely complex chordal movements, piano but also organ, that mainstay of a New Orleans-adjacent style, paens of love and loss and such blues themes from all manner of renowned artists (Dr John, Jon Cleary, Bonnie Raitt) and some ..read more

I'm a zealot of late for at least one thing: connection by the band.  We don't play mega-stages or claim art audiences so the role of the band is to entertain and do it with decent musicality and that all happens through connection.  We played a gig the other night and it was a huge pleasure.  We played well and were applauded and danced and listened to and that's a function of ..read more

I'd seen an exhibition of photos of Carol Jerrems a few years back at the National Gallery.  This one at the National Portrait Gallery was bigger.  I noticed works from on loan from the National Gallery, the National Library, presumably the NPG, perhaps more, and there were scenes, collections, images I hadn't seen before.  She's the creator of the iconic Vale Street 1975 with a ..read more

I'm an avid listener to ABC radio, especially talk radio.  I prefer radio to podcasts for the serendipity of it all.  I've just heard a discussion with musician and UMelb philosophy lecturer Jenny Judge on "Music, taste and AI".  It was an interesting discussion about education in music and styles and Spotify selections and more.  Visit ABC Listen for the podcast.&nbsp ..read more

The Pompeii exhibition at the National Museum was busy so we had to book tickets for the next day.  Not unexpected at this time, even if the road around Canberra suggest there's no-one in town.  Mostly visitors, I guess.  I like this time in Canberra.  The ticket seller suggested we'd only need under an hour because Pompeii is more AV-heavy than the recent Egypt exhibition ..read more

It's sad to see a venue disappear for jazz but it's not the first.  Venues change musics for business reasons or they are supplanted in a style or activity by another venue and they may or may not return to jazz sometime in the future and jazz just survives through it all.  Jazz goes through changes, not always comfortable but it's not extinguished.  The ANU ructions of a few ..read more

Eric Ajaye hosted a Q&A with bassist Gene Perla at the end of his concert for the Jazz Haus at Tuggeranong Arts Centre and my ear particularly picked up at the mention of Mingus.  Amongst some questions about his technique, GP mentioned Mingus' influence after attending his gig.  As I understood it, it was to play more freely over the neck, more freely over positions.  I had ..read more

CJ Intern's NYC Adventures Part 5a, as we reach an end (for this visit)By Jeremy TsueiTuesday again - Neal Caine and friends at Bemelman's BarAnd here's a little epilogue - my own "Scouring of the Shire," if you will. And just as necessary for the real fans out there. I'd been missing Neal's gigs in towns due to various reasons - including a double booking at the venue, clashes with other gigs ..read more

CJ Intern's NYC Adventures Part 5a: Objects in Rear View Mirror are Closer Than They Appear, or the Third ChristianBy Jeremy TsueiWell - here we go. The last one. Back home to Australia, but not before a brief family visit in Vancouver. Back to the shed, back to family, back to a bit of normalcy. With a lot of notches under the belt. Not only did I get to jam in New York (many, many times) - I ..read more

CJ Intern's NYC Penultimate Piece ends (part 4b2) By Jeremy Tsuei Monday: Jochen Rueckert and Chris Botti  Another Matt Penman gig, this time with Jochen Rueckert (drums and bandleader), Troy Roberts (sax), and Alexandra Ridout (trumpet). Alexandra was a last-minute call, but she absolutely smoked the gig. Sitting in the corner next to the drums, my friend Tony and I really got the whole ..read more