Kim Sanders & Friends will present a tribute and farewell to long-time bassist Steve Elphick at the Sound Lounge on Friday December 9. A regular performer with the band for more than ten years, Steve is moving to Melbourne in January.
“The thing about Steve is, wherever the music takes us – and in this band we go to some places that might seem pretty strange to some people – Steve always plays so musically” says Kim. “Tonally, melodically, rhythmically. He’s a great improviser, and has been playing various kinds of ‘world music’ – how I hate marketing terms! – for long enough to be able to play without thinking about the sources he has internalised. And I have been playing with Steve, Sandy and the others for so long now that we can all forget that stuff, and just play! That’s when the magic happens!
A lot of my tunes consist of a circular bass-line, a melody-line and a rhythm. The bass-line holds it all together. When you have a bass-player like Steve, when you are improvising, you always know exactly where you are, even though the tune might be in 13/8 or 17/8, because the feel is there. It’s like a Cuban son tune – Cachao Lopez never plays the bass-line the same way twice but the feel is there, all right! The African infinite-minute-variation approach.
We’ll be sorry to see him go, but we’ll all be fired up at the gig!”
In a career spanning more than twenty-five years Kim Sanders has performed with Gypsy wedding bands in Macedonia, studied with Sufi ney-masters in Turkey, played in mosquito-infested night-clubs in Gambia, tavernas in Greece, concert-halls indonesia and China and on national radio in Bulgaria.
The occasion is also an opportunity for the band to perform with two drummers, Toby Hall, a regular at the Sound Lounge and Peter Kennard, a superb colourist and a master of the frame drum. Together with Steve, it’s a dynamite rhythm section! They will be joined by saxophonist Sandy Evans, herself an explorer in many World Music idioms including the Classical Carnatic tradition of Southern India.
* Kim Sanders: Ganesha (hybrid Bulgarian/Turkish/Balinese/Australian bagpipe), ney (Turkish Sufi flute), kaval (Bulgarian wooden flute, mey (Turkish double reed), tenor sax
* Sandy Evans: tenor and soprano saxes
* Steve Elphick: double bass
* Toby Hall: drums
* Peter Kennard: dhaf (Middle-Eastern frame drum), darabukka (Balkan/Middle-Eastern goblet drum), percussion
8.30 – 11pm
Friday Dec 9
The Sound Lounge
The Seymour Centre
Cnr City Rd & Cleveland St
Chippendale
$20(non-member) – $15 (member) – $10 (student)
Details and on-line bookings at www.sima.org.au
For HiRes photos, to arrange interviews etc contact Kim at kimzgaida@hotmail.com
This is the second in the Elphick’s Last Stand series put on by Sydney Improvised Music Association. The first will feature Steve with “The World According to James” at the Sound Lounge on Saturday November 26. Details, bookings at www.sima.org.au