October 2002

Notes from
Down Under
Archive

EVANS ABOVE

Not In The Mood. Sandy Evans Trio (Newmarket) 9 stars : The Sydney-based saxophonist and composer is really the queen of Australian jazz (as much as she would chuckle at the description, no doubt). Over several decades now she has deepened her reputation both as a gifted and masterful sax player, witnessed on endless recordings and with premier outfits such as Clarion Fracture Zone, Ten Part Invention, The Australian Art Orchestra and more, and as a composer of such lauded work as the Charlie Parker concerts at the Sydney Opera House last year. This is the debut album by the trio--which has drummer Toby Hall and bassist Brendan Clarke in the ranks--and it is a real treat to hear Evans expounding at length and as the leader. Twelve tracks of absorbing variety and rarefied skill. Though she is a soprano player along with tenor, it is not automatic to include a Coltrane work like Peace On Earth, but since she has, it says something about her roots and influences. On this threnody she puts her tenor through a crucible, powerfully and urgently rising up out of a thrillingly bold beginning, and you can hear her gulping in air between the twisting and discursive torrents of phrases. Yet the tracks on either side of this piece are good examples of the trio nature of the recording. On Snake Gully it indeed sounds like a gathering of shy creatures in a dry water bed, the drummer supplying muffled bells and an arid clattering and chattering of percussion, while the bass strings are tapped by the bow and the soprano sax explores some hoarse twilight zone of register as Evans manipulates its harmonic overtones. Similarly, on Free Play she has Clarke repeat a little series of falling, harmonised notes which are as liquid and evocative as water running down a window. It's a subtle but brilliant effect and a great example of the eclat in her writing and in the way the band plays. After this exciting track we are disarmed thoroughly by the sheer beauty of the sublime, sinuous entry of her breathy tenor as it proudly and elegantly swirls up from nowhere in the opening statement. There is plenty more like this, the constants being her ability to be both relaxed and totally in control of proceedings, the way art is meant to be. The whole album is a joy. The CD is being launched at the Side-On Café, in Annandale, Sydney, on Tuesday, October 15. (See www.newmarket.com.)

SAMPLY TERRIFIC

Jazzhead 2002 sampler. Various (Jazzhead) 8 stars: Australia's jazz scene has two centres, Sydney and Melbourne. It's amazing how little they cross over, the elite musicians from each being recording by a couple of labels--in Sydney, it's Rufus, in Melbourne, Jazzhead (Joe Camilleri's estimable outfit) and the equally admirable Newmarket. The only outfit spanning both centres is ABC Jazz. So, too tap into the best of what Melbourne's musicians are up to you need this--11 tracks culled from Jazzhead's most recent batch of recordings. This is highly creative music so it comes in all sorts of forms--the thrilling and burstingly outbound alto sax of Ian Chaplin, Dale Barlow's magisterial reading of when "I Fall In Love," Festa's double threat with Julien Wilson's sax work and Tim Neal's Hammond organ, the Feeling Groovies beat-driven spacey funk; the svelte, brassy post-bop classicism of alto saxophonist David Rex's quintet, guitarist James Sherlock's quintet's guitar and organ based groove; Tim Stevens’ hushed and pristine piano offering; the summit meeting of Ian Chaplin,trumpeter extraordinaire Scott tinkler and David Rex, with its dark, menacing drums and percussion setting up the unison brass statements; and finally the contemporary/retro that is Allan Browne's New Rascals’ tribute to Duke Ellington--a sly masterpiece that collapses the years and the generational gaps. Treat every one of these tracks as a door--they each lead to at least one album, but in fact, beyond that, whole careers of fascinating and vital musicianship. (See www.jazzhead.com.)

THE HUNTER

Local World. Steve Hunter (ABC Jazz) 9 stars: Sydney-based bassist of renown Steve Hunter has been threatening to make an album of this calibre for a while now -- he has a clutch of discs to his own name and has appeared on many more that befit his standing in the local jazz elite as an electric bass virtuoso. Hunter's writing is an equal part of his musical identity and this album finally pulls all his creative talents together. The fusion jazz of the '60s and '70s is the wellspring from which he draws and extends his own direction. That is obvious in the electric charge of the music but explicitly so in the opening track, Kiss The Rain, which is based on a vocal riff by Manolo Badrena on Weather Report's '70s track, Rumba Rain. There is an intriguing scope in Hunter's writing - from the quasi-gospel incantation of Pray (In Your Own Way) - rendered by vocalist Tina Harrod who puts the fire into every nuance - to the Portuguese narration by Bianca Rosa on Savant. Along the way there is a thrilling mix of first-class jazz exponents such as Phil Slater on trumpet, Matt McMahon on Rhodes piano, Nick McBride on drums, Frank Hevia (percussion), and - most importantly - guitarist James Muller, whose every recording seems more of a revelation than the last - and he's made quite a few. This extraordinary player now shows an adept hand at slide guitar among his other riveting talents. The man defies categories - he simply surprises the listener all the time. With a cast like this to do his material justice, Hunter has everything in place this time. (See www.stevehuntermusic.com.) (See interview below.)

BURNETT BURNS

Three Voices. Fiona Burnett (Newmarket) 8 stars: Melbounre soprano saxophonist Fiona Burnett has three albums to her name now and as accomplished as her first two are, this one is her best so far, confirming her steadily rising stocks in the local jazz elite. There is a deepening of artistry on this disc which is not surprising, given the standards of her previous work, but which confirms the earlier promise. She has been a noted player, despite her relative lack of years, for a while already and it's clear she is settling into really fertile territory now. This album is distinctive for her in that she is accompanied by only two other players, Melbourne first division bassist Ben Robertson, and the drumming virtuoso, David Jones. As much as they are right there with her all the way, the album spins totally on her sustained occupation of the foreground, which she carries off now with seeming ease. In long, slow passages such as in "The Gift" her beautifully controlled playing--a fount of ideas and probing emotion, wrought by excellent technique--is utterly compelling. And whether a jaunty little tune such as "Bubba's Blues", or her take on "My Favourite Things" or the title track, she reveals a maturity and organic wholeness both in her approach and her range of material. I like the way this is recorded too--the soprano is tremendously "present", with no distance or aloofness in the mix, while her sidemen seem just that--by her side. Robertson sounds rich and full-bodied and Jones is the epitome of his generation of drummers: buoyant but not too busy, and eager and joyous in musical personality, as always, tasteful and constantly interacting with the others. A really enjoyable disc and highly recommended. (See www.fionaburnett.com.)

RING CYCLE

The Lord of the Rings, Vol 1. John Sangster (Move) 9 stars: The Australian jazz maestro--writer and vibraphonist, mainly--wrote hours and hours of music in the mid-70s based on the saga of the Hobbitt, something of which he was a fan since 1958. Over the years EMI released a bunch of albums (some of them double albums) before Sangster got it all out of his system. As he put it around 1988, quoting his own book reflecting on his epochal music making, "all the musics I love are in there; some plainly stated, some distorted and disguised a little bit the way memories sometimes go". And that's how it sounds. Anyone expecting a fog filled, gothic, mother earth bunch of sonic atmospherics will find nothing Tolkienesque in all this music--it is simply not to be approached as one might think of contemporary sound images (though Sangster was perfectly capable of writing that way, in a jazz form, as his soundscapes of Australiana showed). These compositions take the Hobbitt saga at quite a remove, through the filter of jazz idioms such as swing and semi-orchestral composition, to classical sounding works, and some that go even further back to the two-beat basics of the trad era. THAT's how he can say all of his favourites are in there. This is a jazz album, inspired by the Tolkien tale but interpreted in a jazz way, not as a soundtrack to a narrative. So much can be said of this blockbuster but a few essentials stand out: the scope of the writing and its constant authority and control, despite its litany of jokes, effects, humour and general bonhomie. Second, the quality of musicians is remarkable, amounting to a roll-call of the best players of the day--over a couple of decades, from Roger Bell, Len Barnard, and the trad crew to the younger generation of guitarist Jim Kelly, trombonist Bob McIvor, saxophonists Graeme Lyall and Tony Buchanan, pianist Col Nolan, reeds master Errol Buddle, not to mention Sangster himself on a mass of percussive devices and marimbas/vibraphones. What you hear is a huge panoply of instruments scored for all sorts of interesting effect: guitars and flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, piccolo, acoustic and electric basses, harpsichord, soprano sax, indeed, all manner of things, including a string section. This sprawling project took years and yet across these two albums it sounds coherent yet diverse, unified yet full of surprises. This re-release is a remaster, and that brings me to the third point: it is amazingly detailed and rich as a recording, as I find with a great many local releases (I don't know why, they simply sound less compressed than a lot of foreign discs). It obviously goes back to the painstaking quality of those original EMI recordings. Also on these albums are CD-Roms of rare film footage and PDFs of the original artwork. These discs are part of the Sangster legacy project which Move is engaged in right now, and they remind once again of the late composer's stature in Australia's musical history. (See www.move.com/au.)

INTERVIEW: STEVE HUNTER, ELECTRIC BASSIST

With the release of Local World (see above), Sydney bass player Steve Hunter made another instalment in what is a long, illustrious career. Since emigrating from England in his youth and striking out on a career consciously limited to the electric bass, Hunter has made a unique niche for himself as master bassist and a composer of increasing value and repute. The electric bass, he says, fell into his hands when, as a 15-year-old partygoer he once picked one up and found it was such a natural fit for his lean lanky frame that his friends present at the occasion thought he was a player who had neglected to tell them. It was an instrument for the times.Around the corner were the '70s and the heyday of showstopping electric bass and bass players. He picks up the story...

Steve Hunter: Every player always has the physical and the technical side of music to master, and for me the physical, technical side of playing the instrument has been easy. But I've had to work on other things.

AAJ: Such as what?

SH: Well, such as being able to hear the larger harmonies around it, hold the tune in my head and be able to identify things . . .

AAJ: You are obviously influenced in a really deep down way by the music of the '70s, fusion jazz and all that.

SH: Yes, I was but prior to that in England I was out of the house very young--at 13 I was running around the streets, covered in tattoos--and soul music and reggae were the music that I was really into. And then when I first got to Australia, all the kids I met were into these English bands like Pink Floyd and Jeff Beck, and really Jeff Beck was my way into hearing Chick Corea and Miles Davis.

AAJ: So it was Beck's Blow by Blow album?

SH: Yes, so I got into the whole thing via Blow By Blow because of the English guitarist connection via Led Zeppelin and all that.

But everything's mixed in for a musician. I mean, when I was six or seven in England, the Beatles were everywhere. I know every song of theirs.

AAJ: It's funny. I was listening to Penny Lane for about an hour one day, in the car, over and over, because of the bass line and the way Paul gradually tightens it up into this exciting thing that suggests the ecstasy in his love of the place in the song.

SH: And that piccolo trumpet . . . the suggestion of those northern brass bands.

AAJ: Yes, I've never figured that out but I guess it's something I've felt about the song . . .

SH: Yes, I really like that sort of thing. Not just the notes you've written on the paper but anything you can do to add life to it, to communicate the feeling of it . . .

AAJ: Last month I was talking to Gai Bryant about how she composes using sound as colours to paint a picture or create emotional textures that hint of things. Is that something you do in your writing? The sort of thing Weather Report did in records like Black Market?

SH: Yes. I like that thing in music. Some of the fusion music, Chick Corea's for example, which I love, sounds like space opera to me, the stars and planets and things; whereas Joe Zawinul's stuff sounds like it's growing up out of the ground, and I like that. Especially when you're doing the fusion thing, the electric thing, you're walking on ground that's easy to abuse in a way.

AAJ: I was wondering about that . . . because it's so very technical in outlook and players can get into their "chops" and technique. When it doesn't work that's often why. It sounds like a bunch of guys doing a lot of exercises.

SH: They pretty much ARE. It depends on how much playing you've done and how long you've been involved in it. I've noticed that sometimes I'll hire someone--no names here--who I know is a great player and can play the music I want, but maybe they've been out playing in Cats or touring with Barry Crocker or something, playing tish-boom, tish-boom, you know, and when I hire them you can almost hear it, "Oh I’m doing Steve's gig and I can pull out all my fusion stuff now, my heavy fusion stuff, all the stuff I haven't been able to do for the last two months.’ And they'll blitz the gig!

Whereas for me, I've always been involved in the music I've wanted to do. I don't do those other types of gigs. And I've done dozens of records with bass solos, lots of gigs with that drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-uh [machine gun-like burst of notes], and I've been recognised for it, acknowledged for it, so now I don't need to. But for a lot of bands, if they've been doing that, it becomes a trap too, because if they change, they'll lose all those young guitar heads who are their audience. That's what they come to their gigs for and the band almost feels oblige to play like that.

That's why Weather Report was such a hip band--and lasted the longest of any in that movement.

It was still based on a group feeling and you always knew where you were in a Weather Report tune, regardless of all this tricky shit going on on top. They went for 14 years. Some of the offshoot bands of younger musicians imploded with their egos. Whereas Wayne and Joe were already, like, 40 when they formed Weather Report, and they were already "names" having played with Miles and Cannonball. So it was already heavy to start with and had more substance to build on.

AAJ: It sounds like you've been extending that type of music.

SH: Well there's something important that came out of the Nine Lives project. It was going back and using the colours that Miles was into . . . it's generally agreed that Bitches Brew and In A Silent Way were the seminal jazz rock or electric jazz records. So I went back to electric bass, Fender Rhodes, bass clarinet, percussion, soprano sax and trumpet, I went back and used basically the colours from those Davis albums, and then I thought, 'well what can I do with these colours?

From there I started to hear my own way out of that. By going back and checking out those original colours I think it helped me see my own way forward and that's what this new record is about . . . the influences are in there but as an honest embodiment of it.

AAJ: You play only the electric bass. How many other purely electric bass players are there in jazz?

SH: Not a lot, not a lot.

AAJ: Are they a particular breed?

SH: It depends on how you define the different little boxes within jazz. But I spotted it pretty young and I realised you couldn't do both acoustic and electric bass, to my own satisfaction. I also could see that it wouldn't matter whether I could solo as well as Charlie Parker or walk the bass as good as Ray Brown, if you play a horizontal bass you're probably not going to get the gig, not if there's a guy around who's got an acoustic bass. And so I didn't have that desire to study the whole Real Book, and the standards, because there's no point. And so it’s, 'well, what am I going to do?’ and I'd better create my own thing.

And it sort of cost me a little when I was younger and it even made feel like I wanted to be a part of the jazz "scene" because that's what I related to the most in terms of aesthetic, but I felt sort of on the outside of it--I still feel on the outside of it, but I don't care, I go in and out of it, and I’m part of what I consider my world. And that's something I think about with the younger players . . . they're not going to get the jazz gig, Wynton Marsalis is not going to call to ask them into his band. And you either end up in a funk band or show band or a covers band, but if you want to improvise or play with forms you'd better form your own band.

For more information visit www.stevehuntermusic.com.