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Queens Arms Hotel
Tue March 13
Jenna Bonavita, RIP IT UP
Adam Page lives on the edge and sometimes jumps over it. An extraordinary improviser, Adam uses any item at hand, such as occharina, bass clarinet and table lamp to create grooves and loops of immense musicality and entertainment. Obviously loving what he does, Adam’s enthusiasm and sense of fun is completely infectious. It’s not just that he’s an incredible musician (and he is), it’s his ability to live in the moment and incorporate whatever is thrown at him, literally without missing a beat. Adam, with audience assistance, selects the instruments and style on the spot, ensuring no show will ever be the same. How does one improvise a collage of salsa, bluegrass and hip hop with a hat, pen, a paper plane and asthma inhaler? Find out yourself by booking tickets to experience this brilliantly talented, unique and interactive performer!
The Advertiser
BEN HYDE, March, 2009
HAVING won rave reviews at the Edinburgh and New Zealand Fringe festivals in 2008, Page has returned to his local Adelaide Fringe this year and is relishing the opportunity to entertain his home crowd. Page is a musical genius, drawing on countless instruments, many of which are extremely unconventional, to create his unique musical numbers.
Anyone that can make an egg shaker solo sound good is clearly oozing musical talent. Page “getting funky with fruit” is also a musical and comical highlight. His creativity and ability to improvise is second to none. He makes everything from a crowd member’s name to a plane flying overhead musical. What’s best about Page’s performance is that he appears to be having a load of fun as well, not just the audience.
“Diva” DVD filming
STEVE JONES, dB Magazine
28/01/09, Chapel Lane Studios
Adelaide based Adam Page is not your average musician. Most players can only concentrate on one instrument - and one style, for that matter - at a time, but Page is able to spontaneously build an entire song by playing a multitude of instruments (and I do use that word loosely), by consecutively plucking, blowing or tinkling a few notes out of each and cleverly looping them back over each other. If you didn't witness the man at his craft and merely heard the result, you'd think there was an entire orchestra at play.
To back this claim up, the intent of tonight's performance was to capture it all on film and release it on DVD for all to see, and like most who've seen his show before you won't believe your eyes and ears. This guy is amazing and being local he truly is a hidden treasure, as well as absolutely friggin' hilarious to top it off. Page can be best described as a new age Victor Borge, but with too much time and far too many resources on his hands. After using such common fare as bass, electric guitar, keyboards, saxophones and clarinets, synthesizers and various other bits of percussion et al, Page then moves on to extend his canon to include such oddities as beat-boxing, a Jew's harp, mbira (African thumb piano), a power drill and a carrot... I'm not even going to attempt to explain that last one except to say that his imagination is much like his musical abilities - boundless and very unorthodox - and it would be a fair call to say that no two shows could ever be alike.
The cozy upper floor confines of Chapel Lane Studios provided the perfect setting for Page's mayhem-filled, yet beautifully composed (thanks to his ever calm and well-measured approach) and ever-evolving antics. These began with a dancing monkey and somehow turned into Page looking like the best man at a wedding before morphing into a sumo wrestler and eventually settling on just jeans and a well-worn Metallica t-shirt. Inviting audience participation and constantly hamming it up in front of the many cameras stationed around the stage, Page was truly in his element and if you don't believe me, just wait until you see the disc. In the meantime, go see him live if you get the chance because this is one performer that's guaranteed to put a smile on your face every time.
“Diva” DVD review
July 2nd, 2009
TROY FOSTER, Rip it up magazine
By now you should have already seen this show. Adam Page Solo is a regular highlight at several local festivals and frequently appears at various local venues. The Diva DVD takes in a performance recorded and filmed at Chapel Lane Studios at the start of the year and features hand-crafted vegetable instruments, samples, random genre requests and audience participation. There’s a striptease, inflatable sumo suit and hot pink miniature electric guitar, yet the whole thing remains family friendly. While it’s worth it’s weight in comedy gold, moments of seriousness like Antarctica spotlight an incredibly talented musician with a rare gift for creating hypnotic and heartbreakingly delicate music. Check out the extras for further proof, as well as an amusing portrait of the artist as a young man. For the full experience get along to a live show, and then pick yourself up a Diva DVD to enjoy at home.
DVD: Extras:
ADAM PAGE SOLO Reviews
ADAM PAGE SOLO Reviews
New Zealand Fringe Festival 2009
Texture.co.nz February 23, 2009
I got a little sneak preview of what might be in store for me at Adam Page Solo at the Chit Chat Lounge - the Fringe Festival's twisted answer to Letterman.
Adam Page turned up to chat with hosts Derek Flores and Vinyl Burns, and then graced the stage with a little sample of his one-man-band musical stylings. Basically he uses loop pedals to create layered compositions with multiple instruments - in this case bass, a tiny electric guitar, beatboxing, saxophone and the jazz flute - but really, there's no "basically" about it. Suffice to say that I left The Fringe Bar grinning ear-to-ear, in great anticipation of seeing his show a few days later.
I wasn't disappointed. As well as being a demonstration of a phenomenal
musical talent, Adam Page Solo is side-splittingly funny. You're taken on a
genre-spanning musical journey - one where you suspect neither performer or audience knows what will happen next. Indeed, a good portion of the show is clearly improvised; throughout his set you constantly feel as if Page is deciding
on the fly which instrument (there are 15 of them) he'll play next. And one major set piece features him asking the audience for musical genre suggestions, then mashing them all together. On my night, this resulted in a genius combination
of "nursery rhyme", "Bollywood", and "techno!"
As per the poster, Page also busts out a vegetable. Normally I understand he uses a carrot - for New Zealand audiences he's selected something different.
A local favourite if you will.
I'll sum it up like this - if you love music, you must go and see this show.
You might even find that your new favourite band is made up of just one guy:
Adam Page.
Capital Times
25 February 2009
Reviewed by GARTH WILSHIRE
ADELAIDE-based multi-instrument, multi -talented musician Adam Page
is an excellent performer.
He’s talented and self-deprecating. His zany show mixes exceptional musical qualities with quirky high-energy comedy.
An accomplished wind player on saxophone, clarinet and flute – not to mention vegetables, guitars, percussion, improvised didgeredoo (a vacuum cleaner pipe from backstage) – Page is a totally charming performer.
He records sound loops as he goes, improvising on those and then mixing the loops with his live multi instruments and audience participation. It is an exhilarating combination.
And then there is his dialogue, and his suddenly inflatable “sumo-suit”.
The show is fun, and suitable for all ages.
But it is his consummate musicianship that truly shines. His warm personality indicates that his music comes from the heart, which enriches his playing.
He made a remarkable sound with a kumara – with and without the mouthpiece – and brought three audience members (singing à la The Supremes) onstage to sing in a finale, including Capital Times current tuneful editor Aaron Watson! The show should be a sell-out hit.
Don’t miss it.
Kapiti Chronicle
SAMANTHA MARSH
"Adam's quick witted and unpredictable act is acclaimed to be one of the best shows in the Fringe this year and with the audience whooping and clapping for more, no more proof is needed."
Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2008
Australian Adam Page is a musical wizard. In front of your very eyes he builds up layers of rhythm and melody to produce a complete piece of music.
He opened with a funky number. Starting with a basic drum beat using his voice, followed in turn by bass guitar and keyboards; he played a driving saxophone melody. He has all kinds of sophisticated gadgetry at his feet to enable him to produce an amazing full sound as if it were coming out of a recording studio.
By way of contrast, he can play different musical styles. He played one lovely lyrical piece which opened with an African thumb piano and ended with the flute. Musical improvisation also figures in his act. Asking for three musical styles he came up with a convincing number
He displays a wicked musical sense of humour, with a vacuum cleaner tube, an electric drill and a carrot all figuring effectively. Even the humble triangle is employed for just one note. Despite the technical artistry and clowning around,
he is a very talented solo saxophonist
Adam Page provides a feel good hour of entertainment that would please just about every musical taste.
Three Weeks Magazine
Adam Page Solo is exactly what you get in this one-man-does-all musical extravaganza. Fifteen musical instruments, one carrot, and some mighty fine recording equipment help Adam Page create a self made musical symphony in any genre of the audience's choosing. This man has some serious musical talent which was interspersed with down to earth Aussie comedy. On occasions the gimmicks, such as the inflatable sumo costume, were a little perplexing, but Adam Page's malleable talent made up for this. Guaranteed good fun for all the family, and even if showmanship was a little lacking, when you can make a musical instrument out of a carrot, live on stage, using just a drill, you have to be pretty special.
Fest Magazine
Scented candles fill the air with a musky aroma. Renowned Australian musician Adam Page Solo walks to the stage wearing an immaculate suit with his beloved saxophone in hand, and is warmly greeted by an intimate audience. The sax touches his lips, and by weaving his melodies together with a looping pedal he creates a sublime, soothing instrumental tune. Everything about the opening of this show screams of a sophisticated, exclusive experimental jazz gig.
Except that after no more than ten minutes he’s shed his suit and is showing the crowd his novelty purple underwear after churning out an improvised rock song on a tiny, bright pink electric guitar. Let no man accuse Adam Page of taking himself too seriously.
It’s eccentricities like this that allow him to really win over the audience, but Page is about much more than on-stage gimmickry. His set covers a vast range of genres and uses over 15 instruments in conjunction with his looping pedal to make some truly outstanding improvised music. One minute we’re listening to the beautiful, intricate singsong of an mbira (an African thumb piano that has to be heard to be believed), the next we’re hearing an oddly catchy fusion of Bach, polka and reggae after he started asking the audience to suggest genres.
Page’s prodigious talent holds all this together. An affinity for all kinds of music is helpful if you plan to attend this gig but it should succeed in broadening the horizons of just about anyone fortunate enough to hear it.