Above pic : Dianne Cripps album headshot
This concert at Church Street Studios which took place on July 21 was reasonably well-attended considering it was a miserably cold night. It featured two somewhat different modern jazz bands: a trio led by the pianist Glenn Doig with the flavour of art music; and a quartet led by the singer Dianne Cripps, whose ability to relate to the audience as a cabaret performer was evident. Both played music from their recent albums: Trio, in the case of Doig; and I Told The Ocean Your Name in the case of Cripps.
Doig was accompanied by Brett Hirst (bass) and Simon Barker (drums), two virtuosos with unparallelled records of achievement over many years in Australian jazz. Their playing at this performance was at the highest level, predictably brilliant, and packed with interest.
As for Doig my interest in him was foreshadowed by a review of Trio from the perceptive Melbourne critic Des Cowley. He wrote: “Overall, Doig prefers to work in miniature – not for him Jarrett’s fifteen-or-twenty-minute improvised codas – with the bulk of Trio’s eight tracks barely nudging the five-minute-mark.”
Because outlets for profiles of our leading jazz musicians have fallen by the wayside over the last 40 years or so – Jazz Magazine, Australian Jazz & Blues, Extempore, JazzChord and latterly online publications such as Loudmouth, which has just gone under – this has meant that talented musicians such as Glenn Doig have to a great extent flown under the radar. We know so little about him. He’s been active for about 20 years in Sydney, but Trio is his debut album. What does this signify?
This performance at Church Street Studios offered some clues. I have rarely heard the leader of a piano trio so apparently reluctant to dominate the music. His solos were extremely brief, as Cowley already noticed and, at this performance, I was left with the impression that, once Doig had stated a theme on the piano, we only had to blink before we were into solos from Hirst and Barker.
Doig was not helped by the sound level – a smidgin too low – that he was given on the piano during the set’s first two numbers, Solemnly Joyous (one from the album) and Eluded (a new tune not on the album). As soon as the rhythmic grooves in the music gathered momentum Barker, the conversational modern jazz drummer par excellence, naturally would bring his volume level up. As a result the audience at these times heard a piano sound that lacked presence. Without that presence, communication with the listener was difficult to achieve.
Barker played at a whisper when Hirst was soloing – that’s how drummers have traditionally accompanied bass solos, because the bass has traditionally been so soft in the sound mix. But ironically Hirst’s sound here was very strong, certainly stronger than Doig’s piano sound. Given the latter I would have welcomed Barker playing at a whisper in Doig’s solos also. I can only assume that the drummer was unaware of how his sound at these times was overriding Doig’s sound.
The obvious solution to this problem was to considerably turn up the volume of the piano mike, and mercifully this happened during the third number Bathwater Baby. Suddenly the piano had more presence. This in turn militated against the impression that Doig was self-effacing, and reluctant to project his personality.
The other thing worth mentioning is that Doig, seated at the piano, was not given a microphone to use in announcing his tunes. This was a mistake, not only because Doig has a soft voice, in line with his rather diffident personality, but also because it confirmed the impression that he was reluctant to project.
Still I feel that the talented Glenn Doig is palpably a work in progress, and I look forward to his future output. In summary I agree wholeheartedly with Cowley’s verdict on Doig’s compositions: “These pieces play out like synergetic conversations, simple and unadorned, constituting a rewarding contribution to the art of the piano trio.”
Singer Dianne Cripps, originally from Virginia in the US, but now living in Australia, did the second set. She was accompanied by an excellent trio, somewhat different to the musicians who played on I Told The Ocean Your Name: Hugh Barrett (piano), Tom Ford (bass) and Steve Ley (drums). Her repertoire consisted of all eight tracks from the album, five co-composed by Cripps and pianist Matt Thomson, and three non-originals: Sting’s Roxanne; Neil Young’s classic Old Man; and I’ll Fly Away, a 1930s-era gospel hymn transformed into jazz.
From the first note Cripps showed that she’s a sensitive singer, with excellent phrasing and a pleasant vibrato. Also, she knows how to sell a song. Her own lyrics reveal her ability as a talented storyteller, concerned with love and its familiar bittersweet agonies. While those lyrics tend to be literal rather than poetic, most listeners can relate to them easily – that is, if you’ve ever been in love and it didn’t work out.
Cripps’s backing trio did a great job, apparently after only one rehearsal. In particular the pianist Barrett confirmed once again what a fine player he is. His solos were full of energy and projection, and his fills in the gaps between Cripps’s phrases were always energising. The three backing musicians, who were all featured in solos, helped to turn this into a genuine jazz performance.
The Church Street Studios venue, despite its smallness, with row after row of parallel seating, still reflects the ambience of a concert hall, encouraging a somewhat self-conscious atmosphere. This patently suits art music (such as the Doig group) rather than the more freewheeling ambience of cabaret (such as the Cripps band). The self-conscious atmosphere in this venue might well be overcome when an overflowing audience is present, as I experienced the previous week with a performance by the young singer Liz Player.
On this night I felt for Cripps, who found herself in front of an audience that had thinned out after Doig’s trio finished its set. Her performance deserved something more like the warm, bustling, relaxed atmosphere of the jazz club for her performance to feel right. Still, her astute professionalism was enough to tick all the relevant boxes.
These two performances took place at Church Street Studios on July 21, 2025 and featured Glenn Doig (piano), Brett Hirst (bass), Simon Barker (drums), Dianne Cripps (vocals), Hugh Barrett (piano), Tom Ford (bass) and Steve Ley (drums).
