JAZZ CONCERT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27463, 24 September 1954, Page 7

JAZZ CONCERT

Big Audience Enjoys Performance

GREAT VERSATILITY SHOWN

The contrast between the harmonic basis of the rhythm section and the melodic part constitutes the charm of jazz, according to a standard work on music. The .writer, rather unkindly, adds that the devotees of jazz clearly recognise that charm without, apparently, being capable of the slight intellectual effort required to analyse the nature of their enjoyment. That somewhat sweeping description of the art and its patrons would hardly be true of today, certainly untrue of the jazz concert in the Civic Theatre last evening. A good many of the large audience consisted of very young people, it is true, but they seemed, by and large, to be no less noble of brow than those found m responsible business and administrative positions in the city. Quite a number, indeed, would not have looked at all out of place on the operative end of a bow in a string quartet, and among them there gleamed, here and there, the spectacles of the middleaged civil servant or shopkeeper. The most striking attributes of the performers were their technical excellence and their astounding versatility. Julian Lee, for instance, was billed as “the blind pianist,” but he contributed numbers on the piano, the saxophone, the piano-accordion, the trumpet, and even the Civic Theatre organ. Bart Stokes was similarly equipped—piano, clarinet, alto saxophone and tenor saxophones were all nlaved with careless confidence and

piayea wim uaieicoo uvuuuwz.vv - extraordinary skill. Another outstanding success was Win Christie, who was on stage throughout the entire performance, singing, playing the double or trumpet. He is a son of Mr Lyn Chiistie. of Christchurch, well known as a musician and in circles often less harmonious. of local body affairs. The opening of the concert was itself an extraordinary performance. The players Appeared one by one, and were greeted as familiar friends by the audience. A successful Ranfurly Shield team could tardly ask Lot a better reception. After tluß, Dorsey Cameron provided what was described as “some quiet, salubrious trombone, and his gently persuasive playing ot “I’m in the Mood for Love” could not have raised an eyebrow anywhere. Myra Love, a Christchurch vocalist, was not perhaps completely at home, although her “Sunny Side of the Street" was well received. The programme then took a sharp plunge to bebop, which is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea. It depends for its success, apparently, on the nimbleness of the vocalist’s tongue; there are no recognisable words, but a good many of the listeners seemed to understand. It was after this that Keith Rowles, a young gentleman with a genuine sense of comedy and a pliable voice, took the house by storm with his impersonations of wellknown vocalists and combinations. Later, under a horrid greenish light, with his ample hair in disarray across his face, he reduced his audience to helpless, healthy laughter with his version of “Try”—a bright variation of Johnny Ray and “Cry.” It was not until the Dixieland style was introduced that things began to happen. This rollicking rhythm was most enjoyable, even for the more inhibited. Several members of the audience began jiving in the aisles, and Lyn Christie, in the course of a more or less solo passage on the double bass, was advised by a gentleman who might have been the family solicitor to “pluck that gut.” Others leapt to their feet at intervals and made impassioned appeals, like buyers at a wool sale.

The show maintained an increasing pace until “The Blacksmith’s Blues.” definitely the piece de resistance, had the addicts fairly leaping and shrieking; two athletic young men were noted disappearing backward into their well-sprung chairs, their feet kicking high in the air in delight. It was good fun, in an eccentric fashion, but fun it undoubtedly was.