2.14.05: Melbourne, Australia

Long day yesterday. Flew from Adelaide after a show... arrived in Melbourne and immediately went to the Arts Center to catch the 2nd half of an afternoon concert by the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) who had approached me some months earlier about a collaboration. This particular collaboration was not in the cards, as my spring schedule is too tight, but in the future, who knows?

So a bunch of the strings and I trooped over and were met by Jessica, an old friend and former Sydney Festival business manager, now working for the ACO.

In the 2nd half of their program there was a piece by the Estonian Tüür, suitably minimal, spiritual and modern all at once, I liked it. This was followed by Bach #5, which I didn’t care for, not being a Bach fan. (I just don’t "get" it — to me I hear someone jamming over chord changes with no particular end in sight — Jerry Garcia was much better at this back in the late 60s early 70s)

The end of the program was a Piazolla tribute by fellow Argentine Goligov which was full of fire. The strings must have liked this, as they are a tango band themselves.

The ACO is led be a young handsome man named Richard Tognetti, which I sensed made the concert slightly more alluring for some of the strings.

We rushed back to our soundcheck. It was a warm summer day and the streets of Melbourne were packed.

The show went fine, though the audience must have been enjoying their comfy seats, because they took longer than most to be up and dancing, but that's O.K.

Afterwards said hello to Kara, Michael, Beck and John Paul — all former NY residents who now have returned to live here. DJ Spooky was in town, too — for his Rebirth Of A Nation piece at the Sydney festival... so he was hanging out as well with some friends.

Jessica then led some of us to a bar café where we'd arranged to meet Richard and Bill Henson, the artist whose images will be part of a future ACO presentation. On the way in to the bar someone called out "David" — it was Rufus W, whom I guess was in town for his own show. I'd been trying, in vain it turned out, to convince him to join me on the Bizet aria in Sydney, as I knew he'd be back there the next day. But he'd already planned a camping trip (!) beginning that day.

As we sat down Spooky/Paul seemed to have friends in common with everyone at the table. He seemed right at home. Graham, Paul Frazier, George, Jennifer and Kris arrived too and sat at a nearby table — I suspect this may have been the only place open at this hour — 1 AM — really nice place, too. Wish there was a place like it in NYC.