Perth Voice Interactive

THERE’S a poignant backstory to the new Mace Francis Orchestra single No Postcode.

The track was commissioned by Francis’s close friend Victor O’Connor, who wanted it played at his funeral.

No Postcode was sadly premiered at O’Connor’s wake, but despite the sombre occasion, the song is not a lament and sounds like Frank Zappa wrote the soundtrack for a 1970s cop show.

Kicking off with discordant, fuzz-box guitar and noodling drums, it’s not long before the song bursts into life and the brass section blasts out a riff that is like something from a car chase in Kojak. Then the track enters a Birth of the Cool-style phase, until the drummer announces some intense jazz fusion with distorted guitar and a serpentine sax solo (imagine Bitches Brew meets A Tribute to Jack Johnson).

The near-seven minute jazz odyssey ends with some Zappa-style guitar work and a brassy fanfare.

The superb No Postcode will be a killer live and it must have been quite the send-off for O’Connor at his wake.

Francis says the name of the song was inspired by the odd meters in the song.

“The bassline for No Postcode came first and was in a time signature of three bars of 7/8 and then a bar of 6/8… so 7776,” he says. “I didn’t know what to call the piece and as the number looked like a postcode, I was hoping it would reveal a place and a story, but the search came up as no postcode!”

The song is the title track from Francis’s new contemporary jazz album, which touches on everything from funk, rock, noise guitar and ambient sounds to dark country.

The composer/band leader is a big cheese in the Perth jazz scene – he’s artistic director of the Perth International Jazz Festival and WA Youth Jazz Orchestra, a Churchill Fellow, and band leader of several projects including Mace Francis Plus 11 and New York Nonet.

But the Mace Francis Orchestra is his true love, because he has complete artistic freedom.

“It’s so nice to be able to write music that is me, rather than having to bend the music into a style,” Francis says.

“The Mace Francis Orchestra is my main creative vehicle where I can really express what I’m feeling or thinking at the time of composing – more so than in any other band.”

Francis started the orchestra in 2004, after graduating from WAAPA, to experiment with big band compositions.

Over the years it has pushed the envelope of what a big band can do, tossing Glenn Miller in the bin to embrace more contemporary band leaders like Bob Brookmeyer, Thad Jones, Bill Holman and Maria Schneider.

Francis keeps the orchestra to around 13 high-quality musicians, so they can be versatile and play smaller venues.

The core of the group is the five original members – Ricki Malet (trumpet), Ben Collins (saxophone), Mark Sprogowski (saxophone), Catherine Noblet (trombone) and Greg Brenton (drums).

Over the past 20 years the orchestra has gone on umpteen national tours and released 10 albums. Their latest No Postcode was six years in the making and the title track is a corker.

No Postcode is out on April 12 and the Mace Francis Orchestra will be doing a special album launch gig at The Ellington Jazz Club in Perth on Saturday April 13. Tix at ellingtonjazz.com.au

by STEPHEN POLLOCK