BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
For Kelly Ottaway, jazz is about freedom.
“I see jazz and its common links in music as a non-violent tool to stick it to the man: you can tax me out into the street, but I’m still making music and you can’t stop me!”
The Hobart based vibraphonist has shown Tasmania how it’s done since 2006 when he started up the Modern Operative – a nine-piece big band small in size, but larger than life in energy.
“The problem with aiming for a large numbered band is getting all the people you need to fill the chairs in each section. In Hobart, the challenge is far greater, simply because of population.”
“My solution was to put together a small big band, have the same sonic impact but with half the horns.”
Kelly has had a successful musical career in his own right, having received two Arts Tasmania grants, a Musicians Union of Tasmania study scholarship, and the 2006 Hobart Jazz Club Jack Duffy Award. Though he started out on piano, he bought a set of vibes toward the end of his studies at the University of Tasmania Conservatorium, and “couldn’t get off the instrument.”
“I took up the vibes to be a front man. I wanted to take on the roll that a sax player, trumpet player or singer would take and, in my mind, it’s less complicated to play.”
“Single lines were all I needed to think about and it certainly changed the way I played piano.”
“I still go through the process of learning songs from the songbook era and I teach students via the medium of jazz standards. Going beyond this, ditching the charts and tunes and playing to a framework with others, is the ultimate.”
Kelly shares his love of group performance as an ensemble tutor, and feels the most important message to pass on to students aiming to be great musicians is to simply get listening.
“What’s in your record collection? What do you listen to most of all? We feed our mind through what we see and hear,” Kelly explains.
“If you want to be a monster jazz saxophonist and all you listen to is Aerosmith, you’re not going to accomplish much. Play as much as you can, practice as much as you can, listen to as much music as you can. But, listen objectively to the music you want to emulate, assimilate and then use a vehicle for your personal expression.”
Jazz is unquestionably personal for Kelly too, who says he doesn’t “know of anything other than music that taps into my emotional energy.”
“What I hope to achieve in my writing and performing is a connection with my listener. I want them to like what I’ve prepared. Judging by that remark, you can see that I am an idealist.”
The Modern Operative are Kelly Ottaway (piano, arranger, leader), Jeremy Williamson (trumpet, flugal horn), Alastair Dobson (tenor sax), Mitch Ellis (tenor sax), Les Johnston (trombone), Tim Jones (tuba), Nick Parish (guitar), Hamish Houston (basses), and Liam O’Leary (drums).
