Judith Was a Very Talented Woman of Conviction. a Bad
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COVER STORY 7 which is really hard to get right. I was so in- Dance Company, and a newly shorn and perox- spired by them as an ensemble; they are amaz- ided Noonan. “It was a physical representation ing classical musicians and totally open- of the album,” says the former redhead, “and the minded.” fact I’d gone through some tough stuff, losing Noonan had met Cassidy in Brisbane in 2011, people and being badly let down by a friend, and when both were performing at the Queensland come out different and stronger.” Music Festival. Her original idea was to create a A text pings in from the other side of the project celebrating the work of beloved Aussie world; Noonan laughs as she shows me a photo poet and cartoonist Michael Leunig (“I gave of her young staffordshire terrier, Sassy, wear- Paul a little book of Leunig’s work”) but dis- ing a pair of headphones. “She likes the mixes,” tance made writing together difficult. (Leunig Noonan’s saxophonist husband, Zac Hurren, has been collaborating with Noonan and her has written underneath. Pics of her two fair- jazz trio Elixir, with a live debut at Bennetts haired sons, Dexter, 10, and Jonah, 9, follow. Lane Jazz Club in Melbourne last June follow- Family is vital to Noonan, who does not allow a ing the release in February of an EP, Peace is My TV set at home (“I want to preserve their inno- Drug.) cence for as long as I can”) and tours only pro- In 2013, Noonan found herself in Fortitude jects she loves (“I’m not going to leave my Valley, Brisbane, doing a double take at the family if I don’t want to do it”). large brown building she had passed a zillion The daughter of journalist Brian Noonan times before, the Judith Wright Centre: “I re- and one of the Australia’s best-loved sopranos, alised with great embarrassment that I didn’t Maggie Noonan, Katie and her brother Tyrone, actually know who Wright was. So I went in- seven years older, grew up in a house filled with side, found an anthology of her poetry and read music. For a while she intended to be a concert it cover to cover. Her work just blew me away.” pianist, having learned the instrument from the She read on, discovering that Thomas Shap- age of three, until she realised how solitary it cott, the Aussie poet who inspired Elixir’s album was and how intensively she would have to First Seed Ripening (which won the 2011 ARIA practise. award for best jazz album), had edited Wright’s “[French pianist] Richard Clayderman was final book. my childhood crush; I had his piano book with “Judith was also a founding member of the those Vaseline cover photos and thought he was Marine Conservation Society, battling to pro- sooo handsome. I loved Glenn Gould’s Bach tect areas like the Great Barrier Reef,” says stuff and I really loved Keith Jarrett. Noonan. “And when they had their 50th anni- “Brisbane was like a big country town back versary celebrations at QPAC last September I then,” she continues, “which I think was hard performed a song I’d written for them. Tim for my mum, who taught singing and piano at Winton was there and he told me he’d put home after moving up from the big smoke of Wright’s poem Surfer, which happened to be Sydney. I just spent my days reading books, rid- the poem I’d chosen to score, on the opening ing my bike, listening to music.” page of his new memoir [Island Home]. She entertained the idea of becoming an in- “Then just before Judith died at the age of 85 Council’s Pink Ribbon campaign and work vestigative journalist, doing a Year 11 work ex- she was at the front of the march in Canberra JUDITH WAS A VERY across art forms with visual artists, theatre and perience stint in the ABC newsroom. The muse, for reconciliation and land rights. We began re- dance companies. however, was calling. cording this album on Australia Day, which I TALENTED WOMAN Oh, and poets. In 2005 she teamed up with “I’d heard Bjork, Jeff Buckley and Tori Amos haven’t celebrated for years since I found out Grabowsky for the song cycle Before Time and these other artists who didn’t sound like what it represents, and which is prompting OF CONVICTION. A Could Change Us, which featured the words of anyone else, and started writing songs. Then I some hard discussions right now, in the country Australian poet Dorothy Porter (and won that moved into this big creative student household, where the First Fleet sailed from.” BAD ASS, BASICALLY year’s ARIA award for best jazz album). Porter, getting into the opera degree at the Conservat- Wright’s prose is more pertinent than ever, Shapcott, Leunig, Wright … While Noonan’s orium, and completely by accident forming Ge- says Noonan, a former ambassador for the Indi- KATIE NOONAN own lyrics tend to be thoughtful, often spiritual orge with an actor in the house named James genous Literacy Foundation and an artist who musings on personal and universal issues, her Stewart, his twin brother Nick and my brother. has also gone her own way. “Judith was a very love of prose — Australian prose — has given Much to our surprise our [2001] debut album, talented woman of conviction.” She flashes a some of our greatest bards a fresh platform. Polyserena, went platinum.” smile. “A bad ass, basically.” Creative freedom is vital to Noonan, who is At 20, Noonan wasn’t prepared for the effect With financial blessing from the Australia rarely seen at openings or in society pages and her self-penned songs had on listeners. The hit Council, Noonan set about cherrypicking the never on reality television singing shows, and single Special Ones, which featured her French project’s composers, among them Carl Vine, who has moved between record labels, reluctant horn arrangements, had women twice her age John Rodgers, Richard Tognetti of the Austra- to be tied down. Her most recent album, Trans- stopping her in the street to thank her for giving lian Chamber Orchestra and previous Brodsky mutant, was enabled through a Pledge crowd- them the impetus to leave a violent relationship. collaborators Andrew Ford and Iain Grandage. funding campaign that reached its “I was like, ‘Shit, that’s not how I meant it’,” Her brief was simple: choose a poem by Wright target in just 48 hours, with do- she says. and go for it. nations going to mental “It was beautiful that people reacted like that “So yeah, I nabbed The Surfer, this Zen na- health charity Beyondblue; but it was actually written about someone who ture poem about a man and his relationship first single Quicksand was had a serious addiction and wasn’t a good per- with the sea. But all the songs are beautiful for accompanied by a black- son to be around. different reasons. Richard Tognetti’s Metho and-white video featuring “I didn’t know how to respond to these really Drinker has this sort of spiritual keening and Charlene Yap, principal strong reactions but I’ve got better with age. moaning. Carl Vine has done a beautiful job dancer with the “Quicksand is a sort of grown-up, less angry with The Slope, a profit-before-environment Sydney version of Special Ones; it’s about a breakdown poem with such incredibly haunting words.” of trust with someone who was really close to She rummages in her bag for the sheet music me, a person I thought really knew me and and reads out the words that run under the accepted me but didn’t know me dancing notes. “The core of suicidal Earth plot- at all, and figuring how to ted them, then / That politician, his grey look function after that.” She sidling like a rat / These profit makers cheating pauses and shrugs. for position …” A look. “Isn’t that powerful?” “But then I’ve had There’s Failure of Communication, a poem people who’ve emerged about “the space between” that was chosen by from the depths of men- Rodgers, Noonan’s former teacher at the tal illness writing to say Queensland Conservatorium and a man she that the song exactly describes their calls a genius: “I still have an improvised vocal journey. And I’m like, thank you for to do for that song. John’s advanced improvi- telling me. sation technique course was one of the hardest “Music is the most powerful tool to things I’ve ever done, but he knows I really like bring people together. I love looking out at improvising.” my audiences and seeing a tattooed, pierced A keen experimentalist as well as a seven- renegade sitting next to a beautiful older couple time platinum selling artist, Noonan makes a in their 70s. And the Brodskys’ audience is point of breaking down barriers, of challenging equally varied.” herself. In a career spanning opera, jazz, pop, Thus reminded, she stands to go. The four rock and dance music, she has performed in the musicians are waiting in the studio next door; pop-rock group George (sharing lead vocals Katie Noonan, main there’s still that improvised vocal to be done. with her brother Tyrone), the aforementioned picture and right; top, Noonan flashes a grin. trio Elixir and bands the Captains and, most re- the Brodsky Quartet, “For me, making music is a privilege,“ she cently, Vanguard. Her collaborations range from left, Daniel says.