Frances and Miriam, Sam and Jess in the woods

Sunday 13th August, 2017
secret woodland location near Canterbury

Sadly Joe Evans couldn't make it to play his ragtime guitar support set (he was in Waawles). So I asked Max Martin, who seemed honoured to have been asked, but was already booked up to play somewhere else (he seemed unstoppable at the time, now this turn of events seems particularly tragic). Anyway, in stepped Sam Sytsma, Canterbury Cathedral lay-clerk, who sang a selection of French impressionist songs from 19th century (by several composers whose names I didn't catch) in both baritone and alto registers at the (proper piano-sounding) keyboard, assisted by his wife Jess. She read an English translation of each lyric, beautifully, over extended piano intros, and played violin on one song. The format worked extremely well. They ended with a very familiar instrumental piece (which Sam apologetically admitted was something you'd regularly hear on Classic FM), called "The Swan" I think. The audience was pretty stunned by this stuff, many having heard nothing like it. I was hearing pre-echoes of William D. Drake and Tim Smith (both of the Cardiacs) in the impressionist compositional styles (perhaps having filtered down via Henry Cow, who strongly influenced them).

The other act on this occasion was radically different despite having the same voice/violin/piano instrumentation: Frances Knight and Miriam Gould doing some refreshingly interesting things with jazz standards. Miriam played viola and violin when not singing, and rather than the "trading solos" approach, they went more for the psychedelic jam everyone-solo-at-the-same-time thing. Very effectively. After minimal rehearsal — this was their first public appearance as a duo — they already have a strong musical chemistry. It was pleasing to have motivated them to do this, and in such a gorgeous setting. They also did Thelonious Monk's "Round About Midnight" because I'd mentioned it hopefully to Miriam a week earlier (she hadn't known it, but learned it, now loves it, sang it so soulfully). The set also included "Empty Room", written by her parents (her dad, the great tenor sax player Sal Nistico, wrote the music, and her mum Rachel wrote the lyrics some years after Sal died). It all felt very intimate, and made me happy, just seeing two of my favourite local musicians having such a good time and playing so well together.

Their encore took them beyond their prepared material. They needed a familiar standard, so I requested "Autumn Leaves". She'll soon be off to Australia with her Little Bulb Theatre company to perform their interpretation of Orpheus and Euridyce at the Brisbane Festival, a show that went down a storm in London and elsewhere, and which includes that song.