The Necks create magic up close and personal

Jazz trio the Necks create magical journeys over four nights in Sydney Opera House’s intimate Utzon Room.

The Necks performing in the Utzon Room in a four-night residency at the Opera House. Picture: Clare Hawley

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I first saw the Necks perform 10 years ago when Brian Eno curated the inaugural Vivid festival at the Sydney Opera House.

That concert — or perhaps “event” is a more appropriate description — featured the British art rock guru writing thoughts and ideas on Post-it notes projected on to a massive screen with improvised music.

Ten years later and the three musicians — bassist Lloyd Swanton, pianist Chris Abrahams and drummer Tony Buck — returned to the Opera House in very different circumstances, swapping the 2000-plus seats of the Concert Hall for the intimate Utzon Room for a four-night residency.

Rightly described as “the best jazz trio in the world”, the Sydney threesome have built up a loyal following since they first started playing their unique brand of experimental music in 1987.

Everyone knows what to expect. Each piece often lasts up to 50 minutes and is a mesmerising circular journey. The surprises come with what happens within that round trip, from a usually quiet opening, through the joyful building crescendo and back to a peaceful resolution.

STILLNESS

Abrahams sits at the piano — a Steinway in this case — with Zen stillness while Swanton exploits the full range of sound his double bass can produce with eyes closed and a fugue of expressions, grimaces and grins flitting across his face.

Buck, surrounded by a battery of drums, bells, gongs and percussion instruments presides over his aqua streaked Remo kit like a Buddhist monk at his devotions, rotating as he produces the subtlest of cross and counter rhythms with a flick of his drum stick.

There were no chords, no solos, just the freakish telepathy between the three players as ideas developed

The Friday night gig started with a rapidly repeated single note on the piano against a prerecorded track of clicks and whirs. Swanton took up the rapid staccato with short swift bowing, exploiting the timbres of his contrabass playing near the bridge. Buck rubbed the skin of his floor tom, creating a circular wavelike effect which built over the next 40 minutes as piano and bass oscillated between two notes.

There were no chords, no solos, just the freakish telepathy between the three players as ideas developed.

Finally Abrahams broke out from the repeated rippling arpeggios into a bluesy, melodic coda and the first set ended in stillness.

The second set was in strong contrast, starting with a duet between Swanton’s plucked bass figures and Buck getting some extraordinary rustling effects from a brush and snare.

Again the piece took the listener on a remarkable sonic adventure which managed to both relax, uplift and excite at the same time.

And that’s why the Necks are like no other live band you’ll see and why fans, new and old, keep coming back for more. Every piece is different every time they play it — it may have a name on one of their many albums, and you may recognise a passage here or there, but each is an individual creation of the moment.

And the listener just goes with the flow.

DETAILS

● CONCERT: The Necks

● WHERE: Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House

● WHEN: Friday, June 18