It often puts one’s hackles up to hear people flatly say ‘I don’t like jazz!’ and it’s a pity music has to be labelled, often eliminating the spread of so much joy which essentially all comes from the same source. As Debussey said, ‘I love music passionately. And because I love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it’.
It’s the interpretation that makes the difference, but the variations can be infinitesimal. One of the most famous would be Vivaldi’s Five Seasons incorporating a jazz saxophone component devised by Uli Lettermann and, of course, George Gershwin spent a lifetime trying to convince non-believers until he finally wrote ‘Rhapsody in Blue.’
The presence of two magnificent full-scale concert harps, their frames edged by tiny lights which changed colour with the tones in the music, commanded the dark stage at Revolt Melbourne. At one sat Catherine Ashley in a full-length white satin dress, a graduate of the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, who not only teaches classical harp in Perth but is also a casual member of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra when she’s not performing overseas. At the other harp sat Michelle Smith, one of the few jazz harpists in the world, with the same skills and techniques as Ashley, but following a different path, studying jazz harp with one of the best jazz pianists in Australia, Graeme Wood, also from Western Australia.
Smith zipped off her boots and took off her jacket to convey the more relaxed playing style of a jazz musician and played the first piece which she composed. This was followed by an exhilarating mix of classical and jazz music which both women interpreted together in harmony or as rivals, trying to outdo each other by fair means or foul. Alternately they would both use one harp or simply demonstrate together how a jazz tune like Brubeck’s ‘Take Five’ or Joplin’s ‘Mapleleaf Rag’ had a firm foundation in classical composition. As they played, they clapped, they stamped their feet, they strummed and slapped the harps to deliver their different renditions of Beethoven’s ‘Fur Elise’, Gershwin’s ‘Summertime,’ Chopin’s ‘Nocturne in E Minor,’ Tchaikovsky’s ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ as well as Kosma’s ‘Autumn Leaves,’ to name a few.
A pedal harp, with many more strings than a guitar, is considered one of the hardest instruments to play, as well as extremely costly to purchase, insure and manoeuvre on tour; not to mention the fact that harpists have the highest rate of injuries amongst musicians. Yet these two slightly built women have not only delivered an excellent performance but have presented an original concept which I feel sure will take them a long way, especially with a little more definition at the start to tell the ‘rival’ story. By the time they perform at Perth’s Fringe World in January next year I’m sure they will have honed their acting skills to match their musical expertise. If you want to follow their careers further they will also be at the World Harp Congress for two weeks of workshops and performances, in Sydney mid-2014.
While there are certainly harp duos in the world, there may be no other such diverse harpists who are also capable of expanding our appreciation of music and removing the great imagined divide between classical and jazz. This is a unique performance for Melbourne Fringe-goers and there are only a handful more shows. The first had a full house, so be sure not to miss it.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Classical v Jazz – The Ultimate Harp Battle
Created and Performed by Catherine Ashley and Michelle Smith
Revolt Melbourne, Kensington
2-5 October
Melbourne Fringe Festival
www.melbournefringe.com.au
18 September – 6 October
