Monsieur Camembert's Famous Blue Cheese in Perth & Brisbane!

[monsieurcamembert]

Hi everyone (and in particular Brisbanians and Perthons!)

I'm pleased to announce that Monsieur Camembert is taking Famous Blue Cheese to West Australia and Queensland!
We will be performing the show on Fri 19th September in Perth, WA, at the Perth Concert Hall. Most of the lineup from our Edmonton shows will appear (only cellist Anatoli Torjisnki can't make it), plus we will be joined by the wonderful singer who is on our Famous Blue Cheese CD, Abby Dobson...
Also reuniting with Monsieur Camembert will be Ngaiire, and members of Tin Pan Orange, Emily Lubitz and Alex Burkoy.
Proceeds from this show go to Alzheimers Australia Remember Me campaign (see below for the full blurb about this show)

Then, we will perform the show at the Brisbane Cabaret Festival, again joined by the wonderful Ngaiire and Abby Dobson, on Sat 4th October.

Ciao!
Yaron

Here is the blurb for the Perth show:

Monsieur Camembert is delighted to present its show based on the music and poetry of iconoclastic Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen. Drawing on Cohen material that spans 35 years, Monsieur Camembert’s entirely unique interpretations traverse styles including Hot Swing, cabaret, soul, latin and jazz. For further information please visit http://www.leonardcohenshow.com

About Monsieur Camembert
Monsieur Camembert’s CD “Live on Stage” won the ARIA Award for Best World Music Album. Their second CD "Absynthe" took out the same ARIA the following year. They received their third ARIA AWARD in 2005, and on the back of their ARIA nominated Cohen CD "Famous Blue Cheese', were invited in August 2008 to appear at the "International Leonard Cohen Festival” in Canada where they received rave reviews.

"While there have been myriad covers of Cohen songs, the eclectic M.Camembert ensemble exert a different kind of expertise, putting reggae, tango, klezmer, Latin and other global lilts on a jazz and swing base, doing justice to the emotional, lyrical and melodic intent of the songs while adding a new dimension". The Weekend Australian

"The vast dynamic range these musicians employ just goes to show why this band is so consistently captivating...I find no cause for hesitation before declaring that Monsieur Camembert is probably the most entertaining band in the universe. Ever." Drum Media

About Alzheimers
All profits from the concert will go to the “remember me” campaign which aims to raise $10 million to find a cure for Alzheimer’s and to care for the 22,000 Western Australians who have Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia which are progressive, degenerative and fatal brain diseases.

[Andrew (Darby)]

Hi Yaron!

That's fantastic news about those gigs!

I can't wait to see you guys in Brisbane on October 4th - I didn't think I'd get to see you again so soon after that awesome Edmonton experience! I'll also let everyone on my LC event mailing list (mainly south east Queensland) know about this Brissy gig and then promote it at our Toowoomba event 2 weeks prior!

You guys rock!

Cheers
Andrew (Darby)

[monsieurcamembert]

Thanks Andrew - it would be great to see you again - it was such a blast catching up in Edmonton!! And thanks for letting the Toowoombians know too, and best of luck with the Toowoomba event.

BTW, for any Melbournians reading this, we are planning to do our Cohen show in Melbourne for the first time on November 15th, with Deborah Conway as a featured guest. We are trying to find a suitable sit-down venue (between 500 -1200 capacity), so if anyone has any ideas, please do let me know!

Cheers,
Yaron

[jarkko]

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0 ... 81,00.html

In the name of the father
Article by Polly Coufos
September 13, 2008 10:00pm

Yaron Hallis gets regular emails from Leonard Cohen. So far, every one of them has arrived with a touch of disappointment.

The problem is, the emails are from Leonard Cohen his father, and not Leonard Cohen the Canadian songwriter who is the subject of a tribute show by Yallis’s band, the multi-ARIA-award-winning Monsieur Camembert.

The former Perth boy (whose full name is Yaron Hallis Cohen) will be coming home from Sydney with his band for a special performance titled The Leonard Cohen Show, with proceeds to benefit Alzheimer’s research. The stage show, which was the hit of this year’s Leonard Cohen Festival in Canada, takes a selection of Cohen’s songs and gives them Monsieur Camembert’s distinctive Gypsy jazz stylings.

In the tribute concert the master’s melodies are instantly recognisable, while the innuendo and sexual suggestion drawn from his lyrics match the boisterous settings.

“So many people focus, understandably, on the lyrics that they neglect discussing his beautiful melodies over some 40 years,” Hallis explains. “Suffice to say he would still have many admirers as a poet but there wouldn’t be all these musicians all over the world, from Willie Nelson to Michael Stipe to Liza Minelli, who have covered Cohen. I think it’s because the songs are so open to interpretation.

“With his droll, almost one-dimensional vocal delivery, it is the ultimate blank palette of the songwriting world. Vocalists can take it on in whatever is their style. That’s why so many different takes on Cohen work so brilliantly.”

Hallis has been a Cohen fan since his teens. He discovered the artist after seeing a recording at a car-boot sale and buying it simply because it bore the same name as his father.

Cohen’s music has since been a constant companion to Hallis, who studied at WAAPA (where he majored in arts management after just missing the cut for the music theatre course) while also playing in local band After the Fall.

Soon after graduation he headed for Sydney with a view to expand on After The Fall’s large-band format. He found like-minded souls who would soon form the nucleus of Monsieur Camembert.

The outfit recorded an album called Famous Blue Cheese: The Leonard Cohen Show. Recorded over three nights in April 2007 at the Vanguard in Sydney, it features guest vocalists Abby Dobson and Ngaiire (of Australian Idol fame). Both singers will be included in the Perth concert, as will Emily Lubitz, from Tinpan Orange.

“This show had no idea to try to enlighten people about Cohen’s life,’’ Hallis says. “It was simply about exposing them to the brilliance of his words and music in the fullest sense.

“I guess we wanted to dispel the myth that he is unrelentingly bleak and depressing. That may be a fair assessment of his earliest work, but most of his latter work tends towards being light, amusing and sensual. While he explores the full spectrum of the human experience, and not just the dying and the despair, his work is an absolute celebration of sex and fidelity.”

Monsieur Camembert
– The Leonard Cohen Show
Fri September 19, 8pm. Perth Concert Hall. Tickets $59.95 from BOCS. All proceeds will go to the “Remember Me” Campaign, for Alzheimer’s Disease Research.

[Andrew (Darby)]

Here are a couple of links to excellent reviews of Monsieur Camembert's concert in Perth last Friday:

http://www.theatre.asn.au/theatre_revie ... _september

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0 ... 64,00.html

If you ever have the opportunity to see them, it's a MUST!

Cheers
Andrew (Darby)

[Andrew (Darby)]

Just a quick note to say that MC's Brisbane show was, once again, awesome! There were a number of band member changes, making it a quite different group to the one at the Edmonton Event, but they were just as accomplished and professional. There was also a change in female vocalists, with Abby Dobson and Ngaiire performing, but not Emily Lubitz (who was apparently unavailable).

If I find any reviews, I'll post links here, or otherwise try to copy the text here.

Cheers
Andrew (Darby)