The year 2020 ended for two of our student jazz combos with real, in-person gigs. It was a challenging year with restrictions on live music preventing performances for most of this year. Not to mention restrictions on simply leaving home in March – April for us here in Sydney.
For a lucky two of our combos, we finally got to play in public this week at a festival of music presented by the Royal North Shore Hospital for staff and patients.
The first group to play, on Wednesday, was the Saturday 4:15 combo who had a gig in March cancelled due to Covid-19. Beau, Ben, Nathanael, Remy, and Oscar played a fine one-hour set of standards and blues tunes. The audience were amazed that such a young group could play so well. Some of these musicians gave up their last day of school to perform.
The next group was out advanced combo, a trio of Jacob on piano, Eric on guitar, and Henry on bass. They played Friday 18 December, an extended set from 11am – 12:15. Their set included mostly standards, but also the challenging Canyon Song by Ralph Towner – a beautiful melody with constantly-shifting odd-meters. The drumless trio was perfectly-suited to the cathedral-like acoustics of the RNSH lobby.
Thanks to Susan Day and Royal North Shore Hospital for having us and helping make the year’s end special for these two groups. Hopefully 2021 will see gigs galore for all our combos.
Saul Richardson.
