leonardcohenforum.com

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.