Poem by Geoff Page
“It’s great to be here in Perth and I really like it so much I’m telling people I want to move here (laughs)
Here she is in Perth at last,
as far away from New York as
it’s possible to get —
except maybe the moon.
It’s May 8, 1989.
We’re at Hyde Park Hotel.
She joins three locals on the stage:
Ray Walker on guitar;
Brian Bursey on the bass and Gary
France on drums — ‘from Syracuse,
New York,’ as Emily will wisecrack
later. We have bootleg of it —
never quite released.
The tape is fine except the cymbals
sound a little out of phase.
Ray Walker is on rhythm but
he gets his solo share.
It can be hard to tell between them
but Emily’s the one who mainly
chases after risk —
as in ‘Tenor Madness’,
the tune she left on Youtube. (See
above). The Perth take is much wilder —
no cameras dancing in and out,
just a room that has the knowledge.
This trio on the western edge
of jazz around the world
is more than satisfied to have
a visit from the core,
this lady with technique to burn,
who knows her bossa nova,
who makes it seem as if the ghost
of Wes is sitting in.
The set-list’s unremarkable
but none the worse for that:
songs from Hollywood and Broadway
(‘Yesterdays’ and ‘Softly as …’,
‘What’s New?’ and ‘Secret Love’);
two bossas by Jobim
(‘Triste’, ‘How Insensitive’)
two tunes from Miles and Sonny Rollins
(‘All Blues’, ‘Tenor Madness’).
Plus some Monk and Clifford Brown.
‘Days of Wine and Roses’ too,
sadder now in retrospect,
remembering the film.
The tape is raw, unedited.
We hear the space between the songs,
her off-mike chatter with the guys,
calling tunes and keys and tempos.
Emily’s announcements,
properly preserved,
are wry and humorous at times —
and not at all ungrateful that
this room so far away from home
appreciates so much.
She hears it in the clapping surely,
a whistle here and there,
set off by wild intensities
not to be foreseen or willed.
They bring her back to do an encore
(Bill Evans’ ‘Funkallero’) —
another one who died too soon.
The voice that bids the crowd goodnight
is young and sure, as if it had
another fifty years or more.
Gary France that night could see
no sign, although he knew the rumours.
‘Friendly’, ‘Nice’, ‘Always supportive’
‘No dirty looks,’ he says. “
Geoff Page