Critical Listening Review NAME: Oliver PickupConcert date and performers: Elliot Galvin Trio 28 Jan

Please consider the repertoire, interpretation and social factors listed in the handbook when completing this evaluation. To direct you, you may consider the following questions: if this programme included unfamiliar repertoire what was your critical response to it? Did the performers communicate their ideas strongly?; If some (or most) of the repertoire/genre in this programme was familiar to you, please critically evaluate the performers' approach to the music; consider relevant issues such as style (HIP), balance, tempo, nuance, etc.; discuss the performers' communication with each other; discuss issues of stage presence and the performers' interaction with the audience; if new repertoire was presented to you at this event, are you going to investigate the composer or genre further? If 'yes' please state what you have discovered; if 'no' please try and critically evaluate why not; consider overall satisfaction.

Critical Listening Evaluation:

The concert opened with Galvin hammering out a simplistic melody on a toy piano which eventually leads into a mixture of both the toy piano and prepared grand piano. I feel like the aim of the opening section of this first piece is to explore rhythm and the timbral differences between the two instruments, rather than focusing on a melodic idea. This continues once the drums enter, playing a groove that reminded me of African drumming. Once a steady groove kicks in, the drums lock into a very slow swing feel which contrasts the straight 8th runs in the piano parts. The music carries on evolving and developing into various different, thick textures and eventually starts to strip back down to a similar style to the beginning. The music here sounds almost atonal, random and chaotic before slowing down to nothing. I feel like this piece was a great choice to open the concert with as it showcases what I believe to be some of the fundamentals of contemporary jazz: rhythm, timbre and groove. Galvin then introduces the band somewhat hesitantly with lots of “umms” and “ahhss”, perhaps showing signs of nerves in the intimate setting.The second piece, “Blues”, begins as an up tempo blues before quickly disintegrating into slow and sparse sounds. Unlike the first piece, this one actually has a melody, albeit tricky to follow at times. The bass interlude that follows is interrupted by intrusive piano flourishes that disrupt the flow of the music. The general feel of the piece is quite immersive and almost like background music at a jazz club, not something that you would go to see as a feature act. I did however enjoy some of the quotes from a couple of jazz standards, especially Bags Groove. I found the bass solo that followed difficult to listen to as it incorporated a lot of odd rhythms that did not sit well with me as a listener especially with the intrusive piano tremolos and stabs. The ending of the piece felt very much out of place with the groove and atmosphere of the rest of the piece and I feel like it somewhat ruined the ambience. The next song began with a creepy sounding music box that integrated with soft tones from the piano. I feel as though the music box was there just for the sake of being there and did not really fulfill any musical purpose; sort of “look how new and edgy I am”. An almost dream like state follows supported by bowed harmonic tremolos from the bass. Galvin creates some great textures by placing sheets of paper between some of the piano strings and running his finger across the inside of the piano. All in all, a really nice contemporary jazz ballad that was pleasant to listen to with a few nice surprises and a shame about the use of the music box. It is difficult to review a concert without just writing a step by step account of each song so I have tried to avoid writing about all of the pieces, that is what program notes and liner notes are for. A lot of concerts in the York concert series

leave me wanting to leave during the interval due to either music that I would consider boring or uninteresting, or the physical nature of the performers making me want to fall asleep. This concert however was an exception and left me looking forward to the second half as well as filling my head with lots of new ideas for my own compositions. The second half opened with a loud piano glissando and alternating fast staccato hammered notes and softer chordal phrases. The opening did definitely remind me of something that you would expect to hear at a Chimers Ensemble concert. After the opening section, the groove changes to almost that of ragtime with stride chords and idiomatic swung phrases. Once the drums kick in, the piece develops an almost Latin groove which is a nice contrast from the previous sections. This change is reminiscent of a much extended version of the Latin standard “Mahjong” which alternates between swing and Latin grooves. I found the rest of this set to be similar to the first half with lots of indulgent and immersive grooves. After the final piece the band were given a huge round of applause by the audience which was received professionally and followed by an encore.The stage presence of the band was very much as you would expect from a contemporary jazz group. They were all clearly immersed in the music and having a good time playing it, which rubs off on the audience and people seemed to really get into the immersive grooves.

Galvin’s melodic playing reminded me of John Taylor at times and it was interesting to pick out these parts. It was also very difficult to differentiate between improvised passages and crunchy sounding written parts at times. As “Dreamland” is the debut album by the trio, it was impossible to have heard any material by the group prior to this show. This particular concert gave me mixed opinions of the trio. Some of the material was really “out there” and fun to try and understand but as mentioned, some of the pieces seem to be “contemporary for contemporary’s sake” which I find to be quite pretentious. If the group were to release a second album then I would definitely give it a try as I do really the emphasis on immersive grooves.