Powerhouse drummer & percussionist Farella is very much at the centre of the action, always exhibiting prowess and finesse, without ever feeling the compulsion to overplay or overcook.
A true enthusiast for the music he plays, he's well-known for kickstarting the careers of younger musos, by way of a generosity of spirit and kinship embodied in freely-given workshops. In fact, he's regarded as one of the foremost mentors in Melbourne jazz.
The great, bearded one, it appears, is continuously busy, making his music his life and his life, his music. Further testimony to this is his direction of the Half Bent (which neatly encapsulates the caution-to-the-wind, jazz-rock crossover Mandala exemplifies) & Melbourne Jazz Fringe festivals.
As well, he's recently launched his own label, Downstream, on which Mandala and others record (if you purchase a copy of Mandala's tour vehicle, the aptly & wittily-titled I'll Stop When You Stop, you'll cop a sampler for nix). You might know him, too, in the context of backing Michelle Nicole.
Hannaford is the boy wonder of the group, having just finished highschool, in Bulli (local boy made good as gold), at the turn of the century. His playing, however, belies his relative babe-in-arms chronology. It's a feat to remain accessible within the context of the love-or-hate world of impro, but MH's chordal pianistic style enables just that. He does a fine job, too, of creating & carrying many of the basslines. It comes as no surprise then that, following his formal training in the nation's capital, he's moved quickly through the informal echelons of Melbourne jaz to work with the iconic likes of Scott Tinkler & Allan Browne (not to mention a swag of young, edgy contemporaries) and will soon have a solo release.
The enigmatic Geoff Hughes is the third cog in this big wheel. With eyes, for the most part, closed, he taunts, teases, tortures and titillates his guitar (a solid-body; Telecaster, I think), eking out the most extraordinary sounds; a veritable genius or, perhaps, genie, like some homegrown Jeff Beck.
The whole is much more than the sum of its parts. Any given piece is liable to be of indeterminate and considerable length (at least one was around 20 minutes, or more), & boldy go down paths and dark alleys where precious few would dare. The result is small steps often result in giant, quantum leaps, musically and emotionally.
Theirs is a kind of exploratory jazz surgery: they take a scalpel and nary a motif or two on a cosmic journey into the very essence of music and feeling; it's primal, visceral, with a physicality & dimensionality rarely encountered in such a 'spiritual' realm.
In other words, it's spirited, as well as spiritful; imbued with a profuse, often lurid palette of colours & moods. Poetry, in musical motion. There are leanings towards Miles 'electric blue' period (I'm not the first to note it), but it's, truly, all their own; an alchemical fusion of disparate elements.
The most accessible piece was arguably the last (my girlfriend thought so), which hovered around a relentless rhythmic guitar riff, rooted somewhere in a kind of mesmeric take on soul: Shaft meets Jaws. It got the odd body swaying.
If you prefer slow food to fast, like surprise birthday parties and generally relate to spontaneity; if you like to go with the flow, rather than the pack, zig when everyone else seems to unquestioningly, robotically zag, you're bound to find nirvana in Mandala. Electrifying, energised, molecular music that reaches right down, all the way to the core.
Kudos, too, to the good, bravehearted, devoted people at the Wollongong Con, who bring such music, regularly, to life. It goes to show the Illawarra isn't just one big coalmine; it's a coolmine, man!
Wollongong Conservatorium of Music present
Mandala
Marc Hannaford, Ronny Farella & Geoff Hughes
Venue: Wollongong Conservatorium of Music | Murphy's Avenue, Keiraville NSW
Date/Time: 7pm Friday, 26 June 2009
Info:
