Jazz Jam!

My penultimate post from the 2009 Melbourne International Jazz Festival. On Friday night, after two wonderful concerts at the Melbourne Town Hall I wandered up to Bennetts, in the hope of hearing The BBC (Nels Cline/Tim Berne/Jim Black Trio) but the queue was out the door so I popped into the little room next door to have a vodka and check out the Jazz Jam! I left at 1:30 ish, which is when the music stopped and I guess that means I had a good time! Marc Hannaford has been the host for the 11:00 pm jazz jams throughout the festival. I only went to the one night - Friday; that's the trouble with a day job, no matter how much you love your work, it can get in the way of staying out until all hours!

Reader, I had a ball! I loved that Bennetts was noisy. People were having a good time and there was music as well! The small room was packed. It didn't seem like many people were putting their names down to play but we had a few changeovers, though Marc played piano the whole time... just one plaintive 'do we have any piano players who want a go?' Des White on the bass for most of the time, Sam Bates on drums (I think) for alot of the time. Though Jordan Gilmore got up for a couple of songs and I really liked his playing... He has a light touch and good ears is what I would have said in my vodka-and-cranberry-juice-and-jazz-induced state of happiness...

Marc was a good choice for host! He was okay with people talking, realising the context made it okay... and he's such a versatile player and good with people too! Gawd knows what he's thinking, but he keeps smiling through it all.

Scott Tinkler was an unexpected treat. I suppose that's the thing about Jazz Jam! Anything can happen.

A chance encounter with a cognac-drinking architect was refreshing. If you hang out in 'the scene' you can sometimes feel like you're having same conversations all the time. Don't get me wrong, I love the conversations I have in the scene, but there's nothing wrong with a new voice. The architect (let's call him A) is at a conference this weekend and we had a nice little conversation about the way humans create space. He'd noticed that I'd been very focused on getting to the corner behind the coffee machine. I like places in corners with views of the stage (it's a problem I have with the jazz lab at Bennetts actually... I haven't quite found that space yet!).

A says that architecture (in his opinion) is less about the buildings than about people and the choices they make. Food for thought.