Bass and beyond
Canberra Jazz blog - Tue 8 Jul 2025
Pippa Macmillan was coming to play with John and Marie in Apeiron Baroque and I was in.  Pippa is now in Australia but is quite and international, with degrees for the Royal Academy of Music and Juilliard and appointed Professor of baroque double bass at the RSM, that school next to that oth... ... More...

Our annual songs meet
Canberra Jazz blog - Mon 7 Jul 2025
I love my jazz and other gigs but my longed-for favourite each year has to be NCO with CCS.  That's a full orchestra and choir at Llewellyn; 120 or more on stage and some fabulous music.  I've played a string of these including Beethoven, Carl Off, Monty Python (?!), Haydn, Brahms... Pl... ... More...

The allure of standards
Canberra Jazz blog - Fri 4 Jul 2025
Apparently Geoff had suggested a standards trio and I was not alone in thanking him for it.  Jazzers can become a bit blasé about our American songbook but when it's played with this delicacy and beauty and awareness of the great players that precede us this can be a thing of great beauty, i... ... More...

Early days
Canberra Jazz blog - Thu 3 Jul 2025
Zachary Li was new to me but he'd started playing piano at 4 and achieved his AMEB Grade 8 at 14 so I shouldn't have been surprised with the effectiveness and commitment from the first notes of the Mozart Sonata that started his concert.  Played from memory, like all the pieces, expressive, ... ... More...

Tastefully typical
Canberra Jazz blog - Mon 30 Jun 2025
Sally Whitwell is a Canberra resident and it was she who designed a deliciously effective description on her day.  She earlier spoke of being in a rut with choirs and finding this enlivening as a musical interpretation of our true lives: three coffees a day, breakfast, cat, veggies for lunch... ... More...

Joy of the dance
Canberra Jazz blog - Sun 29 Jun 2025
It was a pleasure to take in Musica da Camera with 2 basses from the audience.  This was such an interesting and inviting program and well presented.  The MD was Robert Harris and the title dances and suites and there were plenty of them, nicely bouncy and rhythmic for dance.  But ... ... More...

Reminiscent of improv
Canberra Jazz blog - Wed 25 Jun 2025
An impromptu is a classical piece that's "reminiscent of improvisation".   Today I heard four impromptus on piano.  It's probably not easy to think of an orchestra improvising, but I've described the piano as "an orchestra in a box" but that's probably because I'm a bassist and we ... ... More...

CJ's 20th
Canberra Jazz blog - Mon 23 Jun 2025
It was just a week or so ago when I published CJ's 3,000th blog post.  Today I/we celebrate CJ's 20th birthday.  20 years!  Tons of time and energy and a decent record of my musical journey over those years and how it crossed with Canberra and the Jazz School and travels and my lat... ... More...

Degrees of separation
Canberra Jazz blog - Tue 10 Jun 2025
It's said that you are only 6 degrees of separation from anyone.  Maybe.   An old friend had shared a lift with George W Bush in the White House; 1 degree of separation: check.  I played a gig once at Rupert Murdoch's house out of Canberra and RM himself came up to the band, a... ... More...

Kamasi 3000
Canberra Jazz blog - Mon 9 Jun 2025
This is CJ Blog post no. 3,000.  Blogspot keeps the count, not me, but it's opportune that a big international touring artist should get this post and also that it's someone who is making jazz as it is.  I like big bands and swing and bop and modern and the rest, but jazz must remain a ... ... More...