Erosophy

Club 199
Sun 18 March
season closed


In the sophisticated setting of Club 199, I settled in to a leather sofa for an afternoon of jazz and poetry on the theme of love. The dynamic Melbourne jazz group Henry Manetta & The Trip featured exciting piano virtuoso Adam Rudegeair, outstanding tenor saxophonist Ron Romero, switching between the highest harmonics and the deepest resounding blasts on Misterioso, supportive bass from Adam Spiegl and dramatic drums from Scott Hay. Manetta hunches and twists like a Spanish dancer, his resonant voice alternately growling and hollering compellingly.

Matt Hetherington read unemotionally, suggesting enigmatically in Love Poem that "Love is smiling at the world the way a dog smiles at a fence," while his Words I Promise I'll Never Use in a Love Poem list evoked laughter: "Ukelele. Stirrups. Howard! [...] Please. Clap." Angela Cook was accompanied by a drum pounding with growing intensity as she intoned, "I am the embodiment of desire, red with light." Reading Like This by the Sufi poet Rumi, to set off each epiphanic moment miniature cymbals were clashed together, their shrill sound hanging in the air.

Helen Milte's poem Hills Like White Arses sounded startling in her soft voice. Rudegeair was an effective accompanist, creating discordant thumps to replace explicit words. Her Text Message Love Poems written with partner Kris Allison seemed rather expansive for this terse genre, but were intriguingly counterpointed by his responses.

Allison was the most dynamic performer, taking on different personas to hector commuters "Read my arse!" Hetherington performed an electrifying Tom Joyce poem, Play, challenging Manetta's unpredictable voice to respond. For lovers of poetry and jazz, this was a stimulating series of conversations.

Rosie Clarke