The test of listening to the music we call jazz is being able to recognize the real thing when you hear it.

Last night’s opening performance by a selection of jazz artists all participating in the Standard Bank Youth Jazz Festival.

They made for engaging listening, not just because of the diversity of the performers but also because of the variety of music that was presented.

The line-up was titled the United Nations of Grahamstown, and was suggestive of a universal approach to the African-American art form we call jazz, an approach which is becoming more relevant as jazz culture spreads and takes root all across the globe.

No matter where one finds jazz, this much is shared: instrumentation, the improvisation ethic, and a bebop lingua franca. This much differs: the various local rhythms, flavours and traditions that jazz incorporates and assumes.

Of the four original compositions presented, each appropriately featured a different sound: from the Middle Eastern material of the first piece, to Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and European classical influences in subsequent numbers.

The set also included a beautiful ballad composed by Washington and dedicated to his daughter Jamila, and concluded with two Thelonious Monk standards, ’Round Midnight and Well You Needn’t.

High expectation set up

The repertoire fulfilled all expectations, but it was immediately obvious from a tentative start that certain performers were more fluent in the various styles than others.

Alarmingly, apart from Washington and Kevin Gibson on drums, the musicians relied far too heavily on reading notes, even in the Monk pieces which one would expect to be known by heart.

Perhaps linked to this – doubtless a result of too little time for rehearsal – was an overall feeling that this was more of a jazz demonstration than a conversation.

Stretching the United Nations metaphor, it was as if players were reluctant to venture beyond the script and to begin sharing and making meaning of the musical material.

Indicative of this was when Israeli pianist Micu Narunsky refused to solo or even trade fours with Washington in the last piece, Well You Needn’t.

His otherwise excellent playing on other tunes (particularly the fourth piece) was let down by this conservatism.

Other disappointments were some awkward moments in the bass playing by Mike Campbell, and a general lack of vocabulary and style from the Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser.

It comes together

Guitarist Tommy Lakso from Northern Sweden on the other hand was exceptional, blending technique with inspired rhythmic motifs in his enjoyable solos.

His composition, Arctic Red, had a comfortable 12-bar solo section in a driving compound time which was perhaps the portion of the entire set that elicited the most confident ensemble playing.

Drummer Gibson’s all round playing was by turns responsive and commanding, and his solos were outstanding.

And Washington displayed masterly skills with his effusive knowledge of bebop musical gestures and proverbs.

I particularly enjoyed his Coltrane-inflected introduction to ’Round Midnight and how he balanced quartet and sextet elements in his arrangement of this pinnacle of the jazz canon.

His friendly stage presence and body movements also helped to reduce the tension which seemed to exist between the performers.

A fine chairman of a somewhat unsuccessful meeting he proved to be.