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Jazz Sound Suits a Late-Night Café

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Description: This image was taken for a story that ran in The Manawatu Evening Standard on 17th June 1992.

"Cool Bananas have the quiet, brooding intensity which set them apart from many of their peers. Hearing them blow their cool blend of be-bop, jazz-blues and free fusion at Sweet Blues Cafe on Sunday nights, one could be forgiven for thinking it was a return to the coffee bar scene of the 1960s.

"Maybe there is something of the old Nicoberg days in the music and the audiences we are attracting," says guitarist Terry Schindler. "It's very interesting how kids are turning up who're wearing all the latest gear, then come up and admit they've never heard of Miles Davis or Charlie Parker, but they're really into what we're doing."

Bassist Rod Shotton agrees: "I get the feeling many people are becoming tired of always having to go into bars to hear a live band. Young people are looking for venues which don't cost a fortune, where they can drink coffee and hear themselves talk." Since Cool Bananas formed from the ashes of the more avant garde groups, Jetejormama and Free Fusion, the trio have been rehearsing a set of structured arrangements, from within which just about anything can happen.

"We're using more formal arrangements now -- head arrangements that we return to for a sense of continuity," says drummer Martin Rose. "This means we have to listen to each other intensely, bouncing ideas off each other, and the audience in a small venue such as Sweet Blues are picking up on that. We might lead in with a regular timing, then shift to irregular for the soloing, then sense together when it's coming back around to the head. This gives a sense of excitement, it's real coffee music. Cool Bananas would be wasted in a bar.

[Pictured] Cool Bananas are (from left) Terry Schindler, Martin Rose and Rod Shotton."