Above: Simon Tedeschi. Photo credit Keith Saunders
A jazz performance without a drummer in the band is very unusual, but this did not prevent pianist Simon Tedeschi and his three colleagues from providing a great performance at The Lounge on Thursday, December 4. Those colleagues were three of Australia’s finest jazz musicians: trumpeter Mat Jodrell, double bassist Cameron Undy, and multi-instrumentalist Paul Cutlan, who principally played alto saxophone and bass clarinet.
Tedeschi, born in 1981, is one of Australia’s leading classical pianists, with a distinguished track record. Wikipedia tells us that, when he was only nine years old, he performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 19, K459 in the Sydney Opera House. In 2004, he recorded Tchaikovsky’s 1st Piano Concerto and Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Bonynge. That’s just a couple of Tedeschi’s stellar achievements as a classical musician. Still, as this gig at The Lounge approached I was genuinely wondering: how would he fare as a musician in a jazz context?
The concert opened with Tedeschi and Jodrell as a duo, and it was interesting that the first notes Jodrell played was a short quote from the introductory theme to George Gershwin’s famous orchestral work Rhapsody in Blue. For a moment I thought we might be in for at least a few bars of what Gershwin played on the piano in this work, but this was not to be; in fact the opening number turned out to be one of the most often played numbers in the jazz canon, Basin Street Blues, written by Spencer Williams in 1928 and recorded by Louis Armstrong the same year.
From the first notes played, it was apparent that the absence of drums was no deficiency. In fact, this was an exceedingly positive element in the music, in that we were immediately drawn into the intimacy of the sounds that Jodrell was able to coax out of his trumpet, which were as clear as a bell. We were able to fully experience the nuanced ways in which he was able to bend his notes, and alter his tone throughout, so much so that we were brought very close to an extraordinary musicianship. I did not miss at all the normal conversational approach which jazz drummers adopt, that is to say, their characteristic rhythmic punctuations in the sound mix. Instead I felt we were hearing something very pure, not unlike what one might call classical chamber music.
Taking Basin Street Blues at a slow tempo, provided room for exquisite improvisations from both players. From the word go, Tedeschi showed himself to be a fascinating accompanist (a “comper” as we say in jazz), behind Jodrell’s playing, and also an excellent soloist; he doubled the tempo in his first improvisation, as jazz players are wont to do, and showed that he was an exploratory and thinking improviser. More on his approach below. Giving Basin Street Blues a comprehensive workout with such impressive solos, augured well for the rest of the performance.
Bassist Cameron Undy was then introduced for the second number, Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm, taken at a very bright clip. It was interesting that so much Gershwin was part of the repertoire during the performance. After I Got Rhythm, Paul Cutlan was introduced and we were to hear him using the rarely played bass clarinet, on Gershwin’s Summertime, with Jodrell using a plunger mute to create some very hip sounds. In the second set two other Gershwin pieces Embraceable You and But Not For Me were to be played.
As for Tedeschi’s style as a jazz pianist, he was a revelation, producing some fascinating and exceedingly interesting improvisations. He seemed to be a somewhat restless player, sometimes playing short passages which swung like crazy, at other times playing highly technical note clusters, while at the same time showing a preference for leaving a lot of space, suggesting an affinity with Monk. I found his style at the piano quite unique, and a complete pleasure to hear. As I said before, here was a thinking improviser. In my view he would be able to hold his own in any first-class jazz group in this country.
The group’s repertoire also was highly impressive: a mixture of well-known standards (Horace Silver’s The Preacher, for example, which opened the second set, and others already mentioned), spiced up with some unusual selections which were a delight to hear: Cole Porter’s rarely played composition Dream Dancing, for example, and Charlie Parker’s great blues Cheryl, where Cutlan tipped his hat to Parker and played alto saxophone, sounding great.
I couldn’t help thinking as I luxuriated in this music that this was the obverse of contemporary classical music, where most musicians restrict their artistry to playing the notes written by other composers. That’s not to say that there aren’t classical musicians who improvise, and improvise well, but it was lovely to hear, as always in a jazz performance, the musicians creating on the spot, playing with absolute authority the music that was in their heads; there was not a chart in sight.
This may be the best place to acknowledge the extraordinary bass playing of Cameron Undy. His solos were always brilliant throughout, testimony to his standing as one of a handful of great double bassists in this country.
This performance came to an emphatic close with Blue Rondo à la Turk, one of the classic Dave Brubeck compositions on his revolutionary 1959 album Time Out, the first jazz album to sell a million copies. Tedeschi stated the theme on solo piano at breakneck speed; to my ears it was taken at a faster tempo than Brubeck’s original version. Perhaps only a classical pianist with Tedeschi’s technical ability at the keyboard could have managed this with such authority. But it certainly was an exciting tour de force, a comprehensive version of the complete Brubeck work, including some excellent alto saxophone playing from Cutlan à la Paul Desmond; in fact all players went to town in their solos, bringing the performance to a rousing climax.
Blue Rondo à la Turk closed off another great gig at The Lounge, a venue which, as I’ve noted many times in these reviews, always seems to unerringly bring out the best in the musicians performing there. With good sound and lighting technicians on hand, an excellent piano, and a sold-out audience, everything is going well for the musicians, and they invariably produce their best.
This concert took place at The Lounge in Chatswood on Thursday, December 4, 2025, courtesy of support from Willoughby Council’s arts and culture program “Culture Bites”. It featured Simon Tedeschi, Mat Jodrell, Cameron Undy, and Paul Cutlan.
