Barry Deister: Hemispheres

Tenor saxophonist Barry Deister labels his sextet on Hemispheres a Collective, and for good reason—two of the musicians on Deister's fourth album are from the U.S., the others from Melbourne, Australia. Although the way they managed to work that magic isn't spelled out in the album's notes, the group performs seamlessly on seven of Deister's original compositions, which would seem to indicate that everyone was in the same studio in Preston, Australia, when the session was recorded in February 2023.

Deister shares the front line with his friend and colleague, trumpeter Paul Mazzio, and Aussie Julien Wilson (tenor sax, bass clarinet), while the entire rhythm section—pianist Andrea Keller, bassist Sam Anning, drummer Sam Bates—is from Oz. Deister writes that the idea for the album dates to his first visit to Australia, in 2008, when he decided that the talented musicians he had met and befriended there should be recorded.

What they have done is produce a pretty good album wherein everyone plays well—which can be said of most examples of contemporary jazz recorded these days. Put another way, although there is nothing disagreeable here, neither is there anything that rises above the norm. If that sounds like faint praise, it is. The music is generally good, as are the musicians, but there is nothing here that warrants a standing ovation or sustained applause.

Deister's modest compositions form the bedrock for earnest group activity and improvisations, which, again, are perfectly acceptable but not unlike what can be heard in many small-group enterprises on a similar plane. There is some rhythmic heat and variety, especially on "Scratchy" (with Wilson strong on bass clarinet) and "Dance Ridiculous," on which Mazzio's charming solo includes a brief quote from "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top."

When all is said and done, these are respectable musicians playing as well as they can, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. To observe that there is nothing on Hemispheres that sets it apart from or above similar enterprises is not to demean the participants in any way, simply to say that they—and the album—are good but not special, and that there is plenty of good but less than great music to be heard on Deister's trans-Pacific collaboration.