The Pun

Adam Simmon’s Toy Band

By Claire O B ⋅ May 5, 2006 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

On a soggy Sunday afternoon in Footscray, the parental gratitude in the room was tangible. Musicians had wacky teeth bearing hats, and balloons and squeaky objects were causing a commotion. The animated offspring of an appreciative and burgeoning audience were up at the front. At this free concert, the atmosphere was a unique and loopy mix of kids party anarchy (Had this band been summoned out of a cracker?) and brooding brass heavy jazz: the Wiggles meet Blue Note.

The musical possibilities of jazz and toys intrigued me. I thought of the brave contemporary territory created by Margaret Leng Tan and her toy pianos, of Architecture In Helsinki and instrument swapping.

Adam Simmons’ eight piece band are, indisputably, a solid jazz outfit that accessorise with and dabble in…toys.

When jazz did fuse with toy play, Adam called these ‘toy pieces’, the music and ambience was at its most fun, and, musically, the band at its most creative.

The audience delighted in the whimsy of toy pieces like ‘Circle’, a rhythmic sequence of swannee whistle with distinct plastic toy noises that defy spellchecker. This piece was all boinging, squeaking, chiming, screeching, tinkling, tweeting, rubber chicken bashing, miaowing and plastic trumpeting noises. The audience participated with distributed party blowers - Great! - a sound that resembled a child crying.

I couldn’t help wondering whether Adam and his band were part of a cunning ruse to inflict jazz on the very young. A kind of jazz version of ‘Do you want a sweetie little child’?