Above pic, trumpeter Mike Kenny
I’m of the view that jazz in many ways has gone backwards over the last 25 years, and is now in a parlous state, particularly in Sydney, where despite a marginal rise in live performance opportunities since the Covid pandemic, most professional jazz musicians are unable to make a decent living. Given this sort of pessimism, I was delighted, courtesy of the Sydney Fringe Festival, to come into contact with a positive phenomenon which hitherto has escaped my attention, and which could bode well for jazz into the future, depending on how widespread it is: the excellent work which a jazz-loving music teacher can do in various schools to benefit jazz.
Trumpeter Mike Kenny has been a band director at Epping Boys High School since 2008, directing the stage band, jazz band and orchestra. He also takes the concert band at Ryde Secondary College, and does two days a week at The Scots College in Sydney, teaching brass and improvisation, running a jazz ensemble and helping out with their band programs.
His new ensemble The Mike Kenny Nonet, which I heard in concert at Pottery Lane Performance Space in Lane Cove on September 6, was not a student band but rather a group of experienced professional jazz musicians, most of whom have various day jobs. Kenny has been calling the band Blues Hues as, in his own words, he wishes “to keep the focus of the ensemble on the rich tradition in jazz of using the blues as a muse”.
Other than Kenny (trumpet/flugelhorn/vocals), the group included Melissa Kenny (vocals, keyboard, whistling); Murray Jackson (tenor and soprano saxophones); Dimitri Vouros (alto sax, flute and clarinet); James Kennedy (trombone); Barney Wakeford (organ/piano); Steve Crain (guitar); Pete Kohlhoff (double bass); and Andrew Massey (drums). It’s a pretty good band, which played Kenny’s arrangements with great spirit.
I estimate there was an audience of about 60 people present in a room which might have held in all about 80 people. I was immensely encouraged that many of them were young people, certainly a greater percentage of young people than one finds in most jazz audiences. They included, I gather, a number of Kenny’s students and their friends, who obviously had considerable affection for this popular music teacher. Moreover, it was palpably a sophisticated jazz audience, which listened intently to the music, invariably clapped the solos, and appreciated the music.
Kenny and his nonet provided a curtain-raiser with the Billy Strayhorn composition Multi-Coloured Blue, from an album entitled The Peaceful Side of Jazz which Strayhorn recorded in Paris in 1961. Kenny arranged it in the key of D Flat to suite the vocal range of Melissa Kenny.
Then it was on to twelve compositions which Kenny describes as a “song circle”. It began with a tune called Poogaloo in the key of C, followed by 11 compositions, their key signatures each descending in turn by a semi-tone. For example the second tune Toots ‘n’ Carmen, dedicated to the singer Carmen McRae and the guitarist/whistler Toots Thielemans, was in the key of B. The following tune Black Dog Blues was in the key of B Flat. And so on, until the final tune in the circle in the key of D Flat, Jolly Roger, which was dedicated to the late Roger Frampton, who died in 2000.
What inspires jazz composers these days is invariably fascinating. In Kenny’s case I found his inspirations chock full of interest. Here’s one example: Don’t Stray Far From Home in the key of A Flat, which Kenny says is reminiscent of the Charles Mingus tune Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. “I wanted to write a tune that felt like a blues but was through composed”, he says. “I love the way Wynton Marsalis arranges so I tried to capture some of his techniques in my arrangement.”
Another example is Shorter Days in F#min, which Kenny dedicates to the legendary US saxophonist Wayne Shorter. “It’s written in a way that I hope captures his spirit”, says Kenny, “as well as a reflection of aging gracefully in the lyric”.
As another example consider Good News Blues in the key of E Flat. “It’s about my best friend, Jesus”, writes Kenny. “It’s a gospel blues. I am a pastor and work one day a week for C3 Church Lane Cove, so I am a man of faith. Gospel music and the blues go hand and glove, so placing gospel lyrics over this blues with a bridge is a natural expression for me.”
A few observations to complete this short review. I thought it a pity that, even though there was a sound technician on hand, he was situated at the side of the stage, where it was difficult for him to be aware of the sound balance out front in the space itself. There were no major sound problems at this concert, but the vocal mike, primarily used by Melissa Kenny and Mike Kenny himself particularly when he sang in Black Dog Blues, needed more definition, if not more volume. Of course I can only report on the quality of the sound which I experienced where I was sitting. The sound could well have been excellent in other parts of the auditorium.
As for improvisations there were many strong solos, particularly from Kenny himself, and excellent work throughout from Barney Wakeford on keyboards particularly towards the end of the program, when he really came into his own. Otherwise I remember a funky guitar solo in Fat Sydney Blues from Steve Crain, and an excellent solo on alto sax from Dimitri Vouros in Josh’s Jive. However, perhaps it’s unfair to single out individual musicians in this way as there were so many good solos on the night. So I’ll leave it there, I think.
There were several reasons why I found this event entirely heartwarming. Importantly this was a presentation of original music, in the form of very hip compositions, of which Mike Kenny could justifiably be proud. This is a compositional project which should be recorded and made available, and I was very glad to have heard it.
My hat goes off to Lane Cove Council and Sydney Fringe Festival, who collaborated to make this event possible. I was left with the overwhelming feeling that this event was really worthwhile, and that there should be more nights like this in the future, preferably in Lane Cove, where there’s evidence that, as in Chatswood, where jazz concerts at The Lounge are invariably sold out, there’s a substantial jazz audience to be tapped into.
This concert, part of the Sydney Fringe Festival and the simultaneous Lane Cove Festival, took place on September 6, 2025 at Pottery Lane Performance Space in Lane Cove, featuring the Mike Kenny Nonet.
