BY LILY BRYANT
At my local pub, there’s a jazz gig every Sunday afternoon.
Over three hours, the punters will shuffle from Newtown’s King Street into a dark room with musty carpet and a stifling lack of air con. Everyone squeezes into cramped chairs or totters precariously on stools, sweat beading on hot foreheads and condensation forming on cold beers.
At the very end, the audience becomes an unlikely choir, led by the band in a rendition of gospel tune I’ll Fly Away. Suddenly, we are no longer strangers sweating in a room. We are members of a community, connecting with our shared histories, making art together.
That beloved song will be one of many performed in The Old Rugged Cross, Emma Donovan’s upcoming celebration of country and gospel music at the Melbourne Recital Centre, and she understands how well it binds people together.
“That’s where a lot of this style comes from, that gathering of people that want to come together, to be there for mob and people in the community,” Emma says.
“When I was growing up with the Donovan family, I was just following my Nan and Pop because we were a voice for community.”
The eminently musical Donovans gave Emma her earliest forays into the world of gospel. Her grandparents Mick and Aileen Donovan both grew up on missions in New South Wales where such traditional, spiritual songs significantly informed their experiences. The two of them formed a musical duo, setting in motion the foundation for their family’s future.
“I like to say that long before I was around, they brought my mum and her brothers up and that’s where the music started,” Emma tells us.
“I think a lot of people would know me for my soul and funk bubble that I’ve been in for the last 10 years, but for me, these are the songs that I stand on.”
The show features beloved gospel songs and hymns including tributes to megastar Aretha Franklin and Emma’s grandfather Mick.
The innovative arrangements of Paul Grabowsky (pictured below with Emma), who will perform alongside Emma and an ensemble of Melbourne’s foremost jazz musicians, offer a fresh insight into an old tradition.
“I never thought I could collaborate with a jazz musician,” Emma confesses.
“Some of these songs, the way I would sing them with my family would be just guitar and voice. The way [Paul] arranges things, it helps me go to another place. I just love how his arrangements make me sing.”
Just as Emma and Paul’s backgrounds collide to create something new, their show has also brought together listeners from all walks of life.
“I have come from an Indigenous community, and Paul has come from the classical community; we’re bringing them two communities together,” she says.
“That’s always really exciting, when you see a diverse crowd and not just Aboriginal mob, not just whitefellas, or anybody not from the Indigenous community, but from all over.”
Equally exciting for Emma is the opportunity to present this show in the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall.
“Absolutely love that venue,” she says.
“It doesn’t matter what style of gig you do in a place like the Melbourne Recital Centre, it’s always the best experience on the stage and in that room.”
Through the reintroduction of these tunes into the spotlight, this show isn’t simply a vehicle for preserving the realities of mission life, or for Emma to honour her family’s legacy; it’s a gift she gets to pass to a new generation of Donovans.
“I’m at that age now where I love looking back on memories. I’ve got things I want to talk about to my kids, and songs I want to pass down,” Emma shares.
“They didn’t meet their Nan and Pop when they passed, and it’s kind of setting up the story for them, and teaching them what I learnt.”
She laughs as she recalls a question asked by her young daughter: ‘Mum, what’s your first-ever song?’
The answer might be the music that starts long before we’re around, and continues to sound long after we’ve gone.
Hear Emma Donovan perform The Old Rugged Cross at 7.30pm April 2 in the Melbourne Recital Centre.
Images supplied. Emma headshots by Ian Laidlaw.
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