Music / Three Views to a Secret. At Greenaway Studio, April 27. Reviewed by IAN McLEAN.

The Greenaway Studio in Chapman was the perfect setting for this fascinating concert of jazz focused new music.  

Three Views to a Secret afforded three fine musicians the opportunity to perform their own compositions and to provide comprehensive explanations regarding the meaning and motivation behind the works.

The artists – jazz singer and composer Annaliesa Rose, bass player John Burgess and pianist Daryl Wallis – wrote independently of each other but joined forces to perform the pieces together as a tight, well musically disciplined trio.

A light jazz funk tune, Bronte, A Magnificent Dream, with lyrics by Annaliesa Rose set to music composed by Canberra-based trumpeter Miroslav Bukovsky, opened the program and explored Bronte the place and how it has changed over the years, losing its original charm and peaceful solitude as it developed into an upmarket Sydney suburb.

Amongst standard bass instruments John Burgess also played an electric double bass that has an extended range (well into the standard cello register) and is linked with computer technology. He was one of four soloists chosen from around the world to perform in the YouTube Symphony Orchestra that appeared at the Sydney Opera House in 2011.

He introduced, then played, two of his recent works – The Path Onwards, adding bass and piano to computer generated atmospheric chords embellished with wind chimes, in a dreamy and reflective piece that seemed to make reference to Gershwin’s Summertime but  was also chillingly fitting for current Anzac Day commemorative reflection.

By contrast, A Fork in the Road, with added vocal, was in a jazz waltz style, compelling though never rushed nor frantic.

Annaliesa told how the germ of You Are the Devil I Know came to her at 1.30 one morning resulting in no sleep until the music and lyrics were completely written. A strong bass produced a bounce to lyrics about men known to her during her life and some of their traits. There was a certain European lilt to the music – a catchy treatment of a tune with similarities to the folk music of that region.

Four pieces then from the pen of pianist Daryl Wallis, Best Score and Design Award winner (in collaboration with Elena Kats-Chernin) for the Ensemble Theatre production of Frankenstein.

They ranged from Song for Alison, a broad, expansive piece written to celebrate a birthday, to two pieces written in response to Indian poetry and intended to reflect the fragility of life (Our Hearts Pursue) and relationships with the environment (While on a Terrace Shed), a work of rhythmic repetition which could have been played with a softer dynamic to better capture the mood of mystery that the music portrayed.

Soft rock, featuring the sultry Annaliesa voice in Life in a Pickle Jar, completed his intriguing composition contribution to the concert.

The trio completed the afternoon with two more Annaliesa Rose tunes – Home Is, a pretty and melodic ballad describing home as the place where one feels whole, then a homage to Charlie Parker – no message here, just a cute little bossa nova about Little Red Shoes.

An appreciative audience enjoyed this new music concert then topped off their afternoon by moving to the Greenaway Studio garden to enjoy afternoon tea in the autumn sunshine generously catered, as part of admission, by hosts Sally Greenaway and her husband Peter.