The Beauty of Optimism

Graeme Allwright and band
Saturday, 3rd December 2005, University of Auckland School of Music

Graeme Allwright's concert last night demonstrated how this French star remains a virtual unknown in his country of birth. I imagine a passport check at the door would have revealed as many French citizens in the audience as New Zealanders. And I was very possibly the youngest person at the event!

Folk music is not my regular predeliction. However Allwright's performance affirmed that this music should be more widely appreciated and heard. Storytelling and collective memory play such strong roles here, and this is the common thread that links the work of Woody Guthrie and Willy Nelson to Charles Trenet, George Brassens and Jacques Brel. Allwright's choice of material for the evening highlighted these hidden transatlantic links.

Too often today our popular music is characterised by lyrics that are self-centred and cynical. Allwright's music evokes a kind of simplicity and optimism (or hippy naïvité?) that is so often lacking in songwriters of more recent times. Listen to this, recorded by Allwright in 1978:

Graeme Allwright - Petite Fleur Fanée

From The Best of Graeme Allwright: Mercury Universal 077 090-2 [Buy]

Allwright's kiwi band were great, although at times overpowering the nonchalant delivery of Allwright himself - his vocals could have been higher in the mix for the whole evening, with perhaps some of the mids dropped out. It was refreshing to hear Jonathan Crayford and Lucian Johnson in a frankly non-jazz setting (although Crayford got to play to his strengths, and Allwright got to play at Charles Aznavour in a swinging rendition of "It had to Be You/Il fallait que ça soit toi".)

Allwright's music is one of great lightness and beauty, and I hope that I am as sprightly and commanding on stage at the age of 78 as was Monsieur Allwright last night. C'était vraiment très bien.