Bahai Centre
Friday 3 August 2012
Before I begin I have two
declarations…firstly, Tom Vincent’s grandfather and my grandfather were
brothers, which makes us second cousins. And secondly, this is the first time
I’ve written about jazz.
The Tom Vincent Septet Premiere began with
Tom clicking his fingers to a full house at the Bahai centre, and the notes
flowed from there.
We heard a collection of original and
arranged works by Tom, including some recognisable pieces by Cole Porter, George
Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael and Duke Ellington. By recognisable, I mean there
were certainly moments where I felt a line to the 1960’s, where these old
favourites were evocatively and audibly evident, but placed in a bed of notes
that defied genre or a particular style. Septet Trombonist Don Bate described
Tom’s compositions and arrangements as “Cubist Jazz … where the old tunes had
been wacked out and the notes had been totally re-written”.
