Roseville, on Sydney's upper north shore, on Monday evening. One doesn't expect much. Oh sure, once upon a time, there was a vibrant, jumping jazz club (Red Ned's) just down the road apiece, in Chatswood, but how many remember it? I didn't just dream it, you know. As a matter of fact, thanks to my forensic research on Google, I've just found Di Gaston's Sydney Morning Herald 'Jazz Scene' column, in the August 2, 1981 edition, which notes John Nicol's Monday night residency there.Well, I'm (still) here to tell you jazz is back in the north, albeit in the unexpected environs of the Roseville Returned Soldiers' Memorial Club, on the Pacific Highway, at the point that heralds Roseville Shopping Village, just a little north of Boundary Road. And it's a conducive enough venue. Especially once Today Tonight and Home & Away, screening on the large television directly behind the band, are extinguished. Comfortable, relatively intimate, with a decent bar and an old-school Italian menu featuring the likes of Veal Oscar, it seems almost tailor-made for The Cam Atkins Trio.
I won't pretend I know Cam or his band members. I plead ignorance. But if playing's any guide (and what else is, if not that), they've been around some. Tony, the upright bass-player, tells me 'Cam's known around town'. I'm sure he is: the middle-aged guitarist seems to be able to adapt to almost any tune, or style, with but a moment's notice. He puts himself to the test by hosting a veritable open mic evening. Musicians have come from near (Lane Cove, Lindfield) and far (Gosford, Cabramatta) to have a blow, bow, or sing.
Billed as presenting 'smooth, sophisticated jazz', The CAT tends to veer towards standards: despite my notoriously short memory, I recall George & Ira's A Foggy Day, that wonderfully evocative ode to London masquerading as an absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder, pining love ballad, for example. There was, I think, All Of Me; Stomp'n' At The Savoy; et al. The usual suspects, you might say, if you were cynical. But I'll take a standard any day of the week: the musical equivalent of comfort food.
The guests include Brian (no better known to me than Cam, or Tony, or fill-in drummer Colin, who's shapes up as a remarkably sensitive player), who arrives early, conscientiously preparing impromptu charts, by the look of it. He turns out to be an astonishingly good sax-player, especially on baritone which, let's face it, you don't hear so very much.
Mark Fagin (who also, apparently, has an abiding interest in tractors) sits in for a couple, having to reconfigure Col's left-handed kit to do so. He's a little stiff, but effective enough.
The implausibly slim Julian has come all the way from the Central Coast and sits alone, behind us, silently rehearsing and charting. He's a lonely-looking, nervous figure, but proves, while no threat to Buble or Torme, to have a very endearing vocal quality. Besides, you can't help but feel for the guy, as he clearly lives and breathes for any chance to have a go.
Lisa takes a song or two to warm up, but confidence and an ear for jazz inflections ensure her performance is solid and she spends the best part of the evening strutting her stuff.
Later, just as things are wrapping-up, Ros arrives, with violin and voice. The latter instrument seems to reside, if anything, more in the folk idiom (like Julian, she sports a broad Aussie accent, of which I approve). Come to think of it, the bowed one probably does too, but Atkins' adaptability makes it a strong pairing.
It might almost be called Cam Atkins' Karaoke. The man can be blunt with the talent, but noone can knock his fundamental generosity in lending time and space to all-comers. You could do worse, on a Monday evening, than lend an ear.
The Cam Atkins Trio
Venue: Roseville Memorial Club | 64 Pacific Highway, Roseville NSW
Dates: Every Monday evening
Further info: www.rosevillememorialclub.com
