Jazz at the Spiegeltent

After the joys of the boys in the morning (the Vienna boys choir, that is!) I then had the pleasure to attend Sunday afternoon jazz at the Spiegeltent, as part of the Brisbane Festival.  I was quite proud of this, as I had done something VERY CLEVER - by booking the ticket through school as part of 'professional learning' (because one of the performers did a workshop with our kids) - I can write myself a certificate and count 3 hours of professional development towards the stupid 30 we have to do as part of maintaining teacher registration!  I'm now even thinking, given that the Vienna Boys choir concert feature SSA singing, that I might be able to stick that down as PD as well!

Anyway, the concert was quite good.  The first group, the interestingly named Luara Carlson-Carp trio (either a typo and it should really be Laura - or the product of yet another parent who can't spell, and thus lumps their child with some stupid name for the rest of their life - methinks the latter more likely!) were surprisingly quite good.  She has a lovely, silky, inoffensive quality to her voice.  Whilst I wouldn't go buy the CD, I could listen to her again if I had to.

The second group was the Jacam Manricks (seriously, where do they dig up these names?) band - and they were VERY GOOD.  Fantastic in fact.  I loved it.  Or maybe I just loved him - he is sooo cute!  Regardless, I've never heard anyone play a saxophone like that - not even at Ronnie Scotts - well actually I never heard any saxophonists at Ronny Scotts anyway!  It was just amazing.

The final group was the one we'd actually come to see - Ingrid James and the San Gabriel 7 featuring Bill Watrous.  Awesome.  Clearly the best group there, they literally wiped the floor with everyone else.  Magnificent.  I mean, maybe I'm a bit biased - Ingrid James is after all the mother of one of the girls I teach and she comes to our Weight Watchers meetings also - but still, they were clearly the best.

So in all, a very pleasant Sunday - with the added bonus of ticking off another hour of professional development!  Nice one!