News location:

Canberra Today 14°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review: Jazz festival sets the benchmark

THE Capital Jazz Project is not like the thousands of standard jazz festivals around the world. Far from running safe themes or jazz styles, the CJP pushes every boundary. Musicians explore new territory and audiences are shoved well outside their comfort zones.

Three of the more than 20 shows on offer, took me to places I had never been.

Drummer, Andrew Dickeson, with bassist Brendan Clarke and Steve Barry at the piano indelibly stamped their fingerprint, as Dickeson put it, on some of the great tunes from the American Songbook. Their improvs were the embodiment of carpe diem as they twisted and turned every harmonic nuance of the melodies.

The Arrebato Ensemble takes the Spanish flamenco style, stretching it into new dimensions and pushing it unashamedly into the jazz realm. An unusual line-up of instruments made for intense and mysterious music-making.

CJP artist-in-residence, The Raah Project, pushed the jazz envelope right over the edge in an extraordinary concert that decisively put paid to any theory that hip-hop was not jazz. Backed by a 30-piece ANU School of Music orchestra, including a full string section, Ryan Ritchie and Tamil Rogeon compelled us to imagine jazz in 2025.

Cemented firmly in the Canberra music scene, the CJP is at once crazy-brave, educational, experimental and exploratory, but always entertaining. Congratulations go to The Street Theatre and the ANU for a festival that sets the benchmark for all others.

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews