It has been a funny old week in Godzone (1): St Kilda Festival to the South, Halls Gap Festival to the West, bugger all to the North unless you count Bendigo (2), and why would you want to do that? So no-one is going to turn up for a little ole Sunday session de jam at the Leinster Arms in the Melbourne salubrious suburb of Collingwobble (3), innit?
Wrong, as it turns out - Keef, Frank the Indefatigable and meself had a fine time amusing ourselves, and, peripatetically, a slightly confused lone drinker at the Leinster for quite-a-while, until singers Maria, Lisbeth, Malcolm the saxophonost, Alan the nearlytheworlds greatest drummer (4) and a whole bunch of listeners fronted for an afternoon of casual ballad mangling interspersed with white wine and malicious gossip. Pleasant - it really , really was.
Where did they go?
Over the four and a half centuries, or whatever, since the Melbourne Jam sessions started back at the original Dizzy's Jazz Club, there have been a considerable number of jammers (well over 500), some of whom have gone on to bigger and hopefully better things. Where did they go? A quick survey this week came up with the following names
Whilst Captain Col probably sat in with every band in Halls Gap (I wouldn't know, I wasn't there), one time jammer Kate Vigo graced the stage at the St Kilda Fest, jam session maestro Adam Rudegair launched his CD (catch Black Wax on PBS FM if you can - he presents an increasingly eclectic mix of jazz: http://www.pbsfm.org.au/blackwax ). One time jammer Amanda has stopped sulking because her band got balloted out of Halls Gap, and is going to play Inverloch Jazz Festival with Rory Clarke (reputedly a close relative of the nefarious Sir Roger de Coverley whose mediaeval exploits and bebop proclivities are legendary) Occasional singer Cathoel is reading this in New York, one time jammer Sam Izzo is too busy, also in New York, to read this, (but is dropping some mighty fine names of acts he has got to see there) and the rest of us are too busy either gardening or just feeling envious of all of the above...
Normal service will be resumed shortly, once the medication kicks in. In the mean time, stick to the black notes, they're cheaper.
Lost in translation:
(1) Godzone: as in godzonecountry: Australia
(2) You may not have heard of Bendigo. Lucky you
(3) Collingwobble: aka Collingwood. The suburb was named after Samuel Pepys, who was named quite some time before
((4) Alan could definitely be the world's greatest drummer - its only the lack of ability as a drummer that is holding him back.
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