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Jenny M. Thomas
The remarkable Australian vocalist/ violinist puts a lot
of work into it, discovers Ken Hunt.
J
enny M. Thomas, to my mind, means The catalyst for change came halfway was adding “trad. Australian songs” to her
diversity in a very good way. What is through a stint with Naked Raven (she concert repertoire.
plain from her two albums – the appears on their 2001 Saint Kilda Pier EP).
“I assumed that I would somehow
boundary-crossing Into The Ether During a break, she took on a stringent-
arrange these songs and get someone to
and Farewell To Old England Forever, an practice regimen. “I took on a new tech-
sing them,” she says, speaking of Farewell’s
original take on Australian folksong – is nique of playing violin. Say you’re playing
Australian repertoire, “because I’m a vio-
their startling stylistic differences. Her a piece of Bach and the Bach is one page
linist, I’m an Indian violinist and a classical
approaches to each project could not be long – maybe 50 bars or something – you
viola player. I was really excited but it took
more different. On Farewell To Old don’t go past the first bar. In fact, you
me a couple of days to get the courage to
England Forever she is, to give an English don’t even go past the first or second note
tell my husband because it was a radical
comparison, like a coiled Australian unless you’ve played that perfectly. I spent
idea, for me, to change. I was a bit scared
amalgam of Eliza Carthy and Jim Moray. a week and I got through four bars. This is
of telling him. We went for a walk and I
On the earlier project she is like no other playing hours and hours and hours a day. I
said I was really excited by this idea of
violin and viola player on the planet. had this time of quite intense concentra-
singing Australian folk songs. At this stage
Between the two she presents herself as tion on just the sound of one note on the
I realised that if I was going to take it on I’d
a wholly remarkable violinist-vocalist. violin; how to play it perfectly; and being
have to do it properly. Something in him
Her name will ring few bells in Britain
completely relaxed within my own body. It
recognised it was of some worth.”
– unless you were at Sidmouth – but that
revolutionised, for me, how I played.”
doesn’t mean that you are musical virgins From discipline came the ability and
combining voice and violin. Virgin
to her pleasure principle. She plays the strength to go to new places. The fruit of
territory for her. “I mucked around
Hardangar fiddle on the soundtrack to The that variant of woodshedding may be
T
he next hurdle was the matter of
with the violin for ages. I came up
Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The heard on her two albums. Into The Ether
King. But not any old instrument aban- (2003) has resonances of the bower bird’s
with this little riff in 5/4 and then the
doned in Australia. She got permission to gathering skills (literally in the case of
melody for Botany Bay came out. They
play Percy Grainger’s own hardingfele Scattered Blue Bits) with its collected
went together. Then it really started to
from the University of Melbourne’s South Asian violin techniques, found
come together for me as an idea and that
Grainger Museum collection and to take it sounds and Australian actuality – notably a
this could work and I could actually do it
out of the country. Her curriculum vitae busker at her local supermarket in
and make interesting arrangements.”
trails credits with Circus Oz, the Australian Appalachian Supermarket Music. Into The
Farewell To Old England Forever
world fusion band AKIN, Naked Raven and Ether was recorded in mid 2002. The year
(2006) is a complete departure, finding her
the DeFlocked String Quartet. after its release she wrote to me that she
singing and bowing and wryly reclaiming
lost Australian cultural territory. Her ver-
sions of Waltzing Matilda and Along The
Road To Gundagai transform the familiar
like few interpreters ever dare attempt,
without change for the change’s sake. In
their daring they are transporting. “I felt
strongly that these songs are really impor-
tant and we’re not singing them now.
What happens if we forget about the his-
tory of white people coming to Australia
and what they did to Aboriginal people?
And what happens if we forget how diffi-
cult it was for convicts?”
The timing was critical. “It felt so com-
plete to be singing these songs. Politically,
there was so much going on in Australia
about Aboriginal people and what their
rights were. There will always be discussion
about Australians and immigration. It was
a time about Boat People coming and Boat
People being sent away, about people get-
ting drowned trying to come to Australia.
It was a big time of discussion in Australia
about opening our borders and letting
people in. I thought, ‘Jeez, all these songs
are talking about coming to Australia.’”
Jenny Thomas’ music really gets under
the listener’s skin. And frankly imagining
life without her music and its surprises is
too bleak to think about. Jenny M. Thomas
is that transformative an artist. She is earth
and ether. Big words but true.
More at
www.jennythomas.com F
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