Velvet Sessions at The Q on Hallett
Friday Productions
TICKETS: End of Season
Friday Productions is rapidly carving out a niche for "music with a little extra," proving that Adelaide’s live scene thrives well beyond the Fringe season. Producer Alexandra Psaltis has a keen eye for curation, a skill evidenced by the assembly of the Millie Sarah & Co. jazz quintet. While Friday Productions is better known for opera, this shift into the jazz world felt like a natural extension of their high standards.
The ensemble displayed a charming chemistry, but it was the
individual flourishes that truly landed. Nat Brice (keys) provided the night's
most delightful "easter egg," weaving the Super Mario theme into a
solo with enough subtlety to earn a knowing laugh from the crowd. Trumpeter
Harrison Smith emerged as a clear audience favourite, delivering improvised
solos that were as technically tight as they were emotionally supportive of the
broader sound. While Millie Sarah’s execution of jazz standards was effortless
– most notably her impressive transcription of Sarah Vaughan’s "All of
Me" scat solo – one couldn't help but wish she’d stepped further out of
the shadows of her influences to offer more of her own improvised voice.
However, the evening struggled with its internal
"pulse." Each 45-minute set maintained a level of smooth, mid-tempo
lounge jazz that would be ideal for a cocktail gala but felt a bit safe for a
headline performance. To truly captivate a seated audience, the setlist needed
"peaks and valleys” – some high-intensity up-tempo numbers to let drummer
James Nisbet loose and break up the atmospheric hum. Similarly, Millie’s stage
patter took until the final moments of the second act to find its warmth.
Earlier context on the repertoire would have helped bridge the gap for the
less-initiated jazz fans in the room.
The Q on Hallett, a stunningly repurposed church, proved to
be an acoustic gem; the natural reverb complemented the quintet so well that
only the vocals required amplification. This may be Friday Productions’ first
foray outside the inherent drama of opera, but the foundation is strong. If
they can inject future sessions with the same theatricality they bring to their
classical stagings, their productions will undoubtedly become a benchmark for
musicianship in the city.
–Scott
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