I just returned from the Joe Sealy concert at the University of New Brunswick. It was an excellent show. Despite initial technical problems, and tiled floors and smooth wooden walls, the sound was surprisingly clear in the Wu Conference Centre, where the large foyer had been set up as a jazz cafe. In support of the music, the bar closed while the band played, and opened again at intermission.
1st Set:
(?) Blues Walk (Clifford Brown)
Inverness (Sealy)
Lush Life (Strayhorn)
Things Ain't What They Used To Be (Mercer Ellington)
(?) Plata Caliente (Sealy)
The very soft-spoken Joe Sealy began by introducing the band members, Steve Heathcote (drums) and his longtime collaborator Paul Novotny (bass), and they launched right into a tune by Clifford Brown. I'm not sure of the title "Blues Walk"; but it's the "Choo Choo Chaboogie" song that was used for a chewing gum commercial a few years ago.
The second tune was a Joe Sealy original "Inverness." I assume the title is a reference to Inverness County in Cape Breton, and the beautiful bass solo was a nod to Celtic folk music, but definitely remained in the jazz idiom.
Joe introduced "Lush Life" by relating the story of 16-year-old Billy Strayhorn wanting to do something really special, and going to the Ellington orchestra with the piece and asking them to play it. This was the first reference of many to Duke in the evening, and Sealy's piano naturally was featured prominently on this one. When he was done he said, "I built model airplanes when I was 16." They then jumped straight into "Things Ain't What They Used To Be."
Before the next number, we were introduced to the last member of the band, Phil Dwyer on tenor and alto saxes. Joe announced that he really likes "doing this next song, because it sort of anticipates the season." It was called (something like) "Plata Caliente," which he said means "Hot Beach." It's a latin number, and Phil ripped the joint up with it. At the intermission, my friend Rob asked, "Did you hear how he went from low Bb to altissimo in about 1/2 a second, hitting every note in between?" I hadn't noticed that, just that it was a damn hot solo.
I bought the CD (no longer np because people in my house are going to sleep) and a ginger ale at intermission, and brought it back to my table. BTW, if anyone tells you the kids today aren't interested in jazz: I was sitting with two 17s, a 16 and a 14. On the other side of me was a near-60 and a couple of late 40s. Most of the other tables had similar age spreads.
Anyway, the second set was all originals numbers from the CD (which got the JUNO last year for Best Contemporary Jazz Album):
Brown Bomber
Caterpillar Tree
Train's Comin'
Duke's In Town
The Road
Leaving Home
Song of Hope
Joe told a story about each and every one of the songs from the suite:
"Brown Bomber" is a tribute to Joe Louis who stayed in Africville (rather than allow a Halifax hotel to make an exception to their discriminatory policies just for him), and to what Sealy said was the "first black hockey team" (ever?), which was formed there after Louis left. The song was appropriately upbeat, actually funky, verging on hip-hop, and Dwyer again knocked one out. So did Sealy.
"Caterpillar Tree" was a beautiful piece performed by Phil Dwyer on alto. It was followed by "Train's Comin'," which expresses a love-hate relationship with industry in Halifax's black community. When Africville was in existence in Halifax, the city decided to zone it industrial, which meant they put factories, stables, dumps, and anything else they wanted there, including railways. I got an image from the music of kids running after the trains, but the song is really about how the train literally divides the community and yet provides employment to the residents there. Excellent drum solo by Heathcote, and Dwyer did some amazingly train-like sounds on tenor, ending with an absolutely perfect imitation of a train chugging away into the distance.
Sealy said Ellington's second wife Mildred Dixon was from Africville, and Duke would visit his in-laws there whenever he was in the area. Hence the pretext for the song "Duke's In Town." The song might just as well be called "The quotable Ellington" since it's head is a cleverly constructed series of quotes from different Ellington standards. A great set of solos from the whole band on this one. I'd call this the highlight if I had to pick one.
"The Road" was another feature, this time of drummer Heathcote. It is about an old and overgrown dirt road that lead to Africville. After the residents of the community were forced or induced to move, the road slowly disappeared. Heathcote's brush solo faded away to nothingness in the end too.
The next song as it appears on the album is called "Sometimes I Dream," and has lyrics by Dan Hill; but originally it was an instrumental called "Leaving Home." Tonight they did it in the original form, as a gentle soloing number, and everyone took a turn at it.
The only downer for me was the closing "Song of Hope." It was a fairly generic-sounding piece, introduced with the stock banality of "We hope that the lessons of the past will lead us to a better tomorrow." (Apparently not: Sealy failed to mention that recently the city of Halifax announced they were going to be constructing a new dump. Guess what the predominant racial makeup is of the community to which it is closest?) Dwyer managed to pull out a great solo on this, which I think saved it, along with Sealy's excellent comping (and quoting) which reminded me of Oscar Peterson's.
After the show I tried to speak with Joe Sealy, but the sound tech was busy apologising to him for the technical problems (which weren't really that bad: it was a smallish room, and could have worked without amplification at all, but for the bass). I spoke briefly with Phil Dwyer, and found out he teaches at York University in Toronto, although he himself was educated at "the school of the street" by "old guys yelling at me whenever I made a mistake." I had forgotten that he and Novotny both work with Carol Welsman who is also a teacher/pianist/ vocalist in Toronto, and who I raved about here last September. Dwyer said this was their last show after a three week "world tour," which took them to Denmark. I wondered to myself if it took them anywhere else, because all he said was Denmark.
"Africville Suite" is on Sea Jam Recordings as SEA JAM 1005-2.
They're using Paul Novotny's web-site.