Sydney Reviews

There's something terrifying about Judy Bailey. I reckon she'd be a hard taskmistress. But that's precisely what's so great about her and, consequently, about the (mostly) con students who make up the Jazz Connection big band. For this is a great big band; not just a great, big band. Even in giving a virtual jazz history lesson (perhaps, as an educator, she just can't help herself), taking us on a musical journey down through the decades from just after the turn of last century down to the present, this band distinguishes itself, while paying homage to a venerable lineage: Ellington, Basie, Buddy Rich and much more. Bailey elucidates and distinguishes for us, by way of live samples, how much jazz has changed and how much it hasn't, ever since, as legend would have it, a New Orleans barber named Buddy Bolden picked up his cornet and 'blew the first stammering notes of jazz, thereby unconsciously breaking with several centuries of musical tradition'.

Thanks to this thoughtful, short, sharp, punchy presentation, even a jazz novice can begin to get a feeling for what it's all about; all that's implicit to this music, now over a hundred years young, with its roots so deeply planted in African-American communities in the southern United States. Tribal drums, its heartbeat. Blue notes, a defining idiosyncratic aspect of its distinctive, subversive character. Improvisation, its calling-card. Syncopation, embodying its propensity to surprise. Swing, its zing. 

Little wonder Bails was honoured for Distinguished Services to Australian Music at last year's 2008 Classical Music Awards, hosted by APRA, at the SOH. OK, like big Russ, the Finns, Kevin Borich, 'Rockwell T James', Ricky May, Max Merritt and too many others, we stole her from NZ, but who's telling?

Being a big band, JC has many featured players (the oldest of which is 22, a fact all the more astonishing upon hearing them play), but none better than star trumpeter, Dane Laboyrie, who Bailey repeatedly described as Louis Armstrong; certainly not without cause. Listen to his blaring blowing and you'll know why and, in all likelihood, be quick to agree with the legitimacy of this comparison of all comparisons. If you still question it after a solo or two, well, to paraphrase Louis himself seeking to define jazz per se, 'if you gotta ask, you'll never know'.

One seat only those with resolve and resilience would dare occupy in this outfit is the piano-stool (given Bailey's pre-eminence on the instrument). But Harry Sutherland braves it, with undue humility, given his tasteful playing. Similarly gifted with a restraint, maturity and finesse belying his years is guitarist, Paul Mason. Bassist Gene Taylor and drummer, Rob Turner, seem to grab any excuse to cut a little loose, eagerly, with both hands. And the results are halting. So, the backbone of the band is a sturdy one.

On the front line, saxophonists Evan Harris, Brendan Berlach, Louis Gordon and Scott Kelly show just how excitingly individual styles can be, yet their collective empathy is of a calibre usually only found in fully-professional orchestras of much more extensive experience. The second line boasts some powerfully tuneful 'bones: Paul Weber, Tim Coggins, Adam Pecar and Mitchell Nissen. Blasting over the top are the aforementioned Laboyrie, leading trumpeters including Ken Allars, Paul Meo & Charlie Casson.

But the x-factor is Bailey, who, almost by dint of her commanding, watchful presence and with precious few directions or gestures (other than to subdue, say, a sometimes over-zealous baritone; cue Sutherland in or out; ensure dynamics are optimised) guarantees a tightness and balance, again, only to be otherwise found in the truly great jazz orchestras. In short, it's jaw-dropping the ironically diminutive dynamo that is Bailey can be so, well, instrumental in seeing a group of greenhorns, in some cases still firmly in their teens, achieve such 'Dizzy' heights. If you knew nothing about this orchestra, were utterly ignorant of their 'apprenticeship' status, you'd still rank 'em. Balance, attack, camaraderie, rivalry. All the elements are there, under the conscientious, always mindful guidance and mentorship of Bailey, who needs no Barnum to run one of the greatest shows on earth: the big band.

God bless America for giving us jazz. As Art Blakey once said, 'no America, no jazz'. But to be fair (not merely parochial, I assure you), Australia has advanced it.


Judy Bailey Jazz Connection

Venue: Lane Cove Plaza
Date: 14 August 2010
Visit: jazzconnection.net.au