Sydney Festival - night of the keyboard trios

My review of Wednesday's Marcin Wasilewski Trio and Medeski Martin & Wood concerts, as part of Sydney Festival, is up at The Australian

Extract one (Wasilewsli):
"These former accompanists of trumpet player Tomasz Stanko played utterly flawlessly, yet so much good taste also meant little danger or excitement, as is so often the case with ECM acts..."

Extract two (Medeski):
"After this demonstration of European elegance came the New York aesthetic of Medeski Martin & Wood, brash and loud, take-it-or-leave-it. In a self-indulgently ugly first half, my inclination was to leave it..."

(Image: John Medeski playing melodica, farm2.static.flickr.com ) berkshiresjazz.org)

Sydney Film Festival at a major crossroads

Sydney Film Festival is holding an Extraordinary General Meeting tonight to vote on a new constitution and board structure (which involves one NSW Government appointee on the board - relatively low level state govt representation compared to the Sydney Festival (arts) , which has had former state premier and arts minister Nathan Rees and Mayor Clover Moore in its top two board positions and prospered greatly.

My understanding is that SFF needs to pass this in order to qualify for a NSW govt finance bailout. I won't be able to attend - I'll be at Sydney Festival concerts I have to review - but will await the outcome with great interest.

For what it's worth, I support the proposal - I don't see any other realistic possibility. I note with interest that current President, Virginia Gordon, is not being proposed for the new board.

Care for some roquefort? 100 Cheesy Lines...

Some very funny ones here. I've never been able to watch Top Gun all the way through but if it's approached as camp I can see how it might have a certain appeal. The only one whose inclusion I'd query is the opener from Wes Bentley in American Beauty. Don't think that's cheesy at all.

Thanks to Matt Ravier for the tip.

2009 saw best box office share for Oz films since 2001

Edited PR release issued by Screen Australia. Emphasis is mine:

"The 418 films screened in Australian cinemas in 2009 grossed $1.09 billion, making last year's total box office the highest on record. Of those films, 50 were Australian, accounting for $54.8 million or 5% of the total, according to Screen Australia analysis of Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA) data.

"This is the highest number of Australian films to be screened annually in over 25 years and also marks the greatest domestic share since 2001, when a combination of Moulin Rouge, Lantana, The Man Who Sued God and Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles took the Australian earnings to $64.4 million (7.8 %)..."

The release quotes Screen Oz CEO Dr Ruth Harley as saying that “while box office is a lead indicator of a film’s performance, it is important to note that it represents just one way in which audiences engage with Australian content.

"Our Research Unit has been analysing case studies of films over their entire first-release life cycle. Kokoda, for example, which took $3.2 million at the box office in 2006, recorded approximately 316,000 admissions. The film went on to achieve in excess of 1.3 million viewings in the two and a half years from cinema release to first free-to-air television broadcast. Cinema admissions accounted for just 24 per cent of these viewings...

“It’s a high priority for Screen Australia in 2010 to better understand downstream viewings as we refine a new range of measures to reflect audience engagement with Australian screen production.”

(Postscript: After posting I read this story in The Australian by from Michael Bodey:

"FEDERAL film and television agency Screen Australia has inflated its 2009 Australian box office figures by including a US-financed film starring Nicolas Cage that it initially didn't consider "Australian"' enough to qualify for the new producer rebate: Knowing." As Bodey comments, the claim implicitly confirms the Proyas film did eventually get the rebate.)

Hot now, summer in the city...

Apologies for lack of blog posts this month but I've been enjoying the Sydney Festival, reviewing films and live events for The Australian and otherwise trying to take it easy after near-burnout at the end of an incredibly busy 2009.

Summer is balmy and bright and yet not too hot. Add this to the festival in full swing - so far new artistic director Lindy Hume seems not have put a foot wrong - and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else during January.

Here you can find my review of two events in Parramatta at the weekend, an extraordinary indoor concert by one of the greatest of African bands, Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra (pictured), and a huge outdoors free concert by Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman the following evening.

Extract 1 (Diabate):
"As Diabate demonstrated in a spoken interlude, the group's complex rhythms take their cue from the kora. First he set up a bass line (taken by electric bass), added the melody line in counterpoint (picked up by electric guitar), then let loose with cascading notes to form the third element, dazzling improvisations taken up in group playing by both kora and Fodaace Lassana Diabare's xylophone-like balafon..."


Extract 2 (Rahman):

"On display was an Indian-based global melange encompassing everything from sitar music to catchy pop, faux-reggae, heavy metal, balladry and even a Michael Jackson impersonation (by a female dancer). As spectacle it was consistently energetic and often impressive. As music it moved me little..."

Last night I went to the first show in the intimate Spiegeltent by another band led by a kora player, this time the UK-based Seckou Keita.

Clearly his outfit is not in the same class as Diabate's - I doubt he would pretend otherwise - yet after a pleasant but unexceptional opening half hour things warmed up considerably.

Keita performed a magical solo interlude on the harp-like kora, showing himself to be an accomplished player, with his Italian electric and double bass player helping to whip along the group playing that followed. My only serious doubt about the group is Keita's use of a violinist (from Egypt).

The violin is sometimes used in African music but not as a staple and for me its folk and classical associations sounded kind of wrong in this context.