Three takes on Aussie jazz

AUSTRALIAN label Tall Poppies has three fine jazz albums out on recent release showing the depth of the local music scene.

Sandy Evans and Friends have released another album of colourful and stunning jazz on the Tall Poppies label.

• Geoffrey Lancaster’s trifecta of fortepiano perfection
• Fiddler Ray casts wide net
• Boris Decca brought in from cold
• Home-spun words from Wenham

AUSTRALIAN label Tall Poppies has three fine jazz albums out on recent release.

Anything Sydney saxophonist Sandy Evans turns her hand to is well worth a listen and rockpoolmirror (TP 244) finds her and her regular Friends band cutting 12 tracks inspired by Tall Poppies founder Belinda Webster’s dawn photos taken at Shoalhaven Gorge nearly 20 years ago.

It opens atmospherically with Evans duetting with Satsuki Odamura’s koto on the spacious Rock Water Temple. Things then speed up with some sinuous and acrobatic soprano sax complemented by Bobby Singh’s wonderful tabla work on Lake Yarrunga Morning Mist.

Adrian Sheriff channels some didgeridoo on bass trombone interspersed with jazz riffs on Dasavatara and there are some knotty unison passages between Evans’s alto sax and Steve Elphick’s double bass on Tree Tangle.

Interspersing the acoustic tracks are some moody electronic effects from Alon Isar’s airstick and drum solos.

Superbly inventive as always, Evans’s music is all her own and covers a wide and colourful canvas.

Melbourne band Tripataka makes an impressive debut with its album Yakiya (TP 242). The trio is unconventional to say the least, marrying bass trombone (Sheriff again) with Jonathan Dimond’s electric bass and Adam King’s drums over eight original tracks.

COOLER

Formed in 2013, the trio set up an irresistible groove with plenty of low-down grunt. A good example is the title track — Yakiya was a Papuan tribal elder and church leader from the PNG village where Sheriff was raised.

Album artwork for the Tall Poppies album rockpoolmirror by Sandy Evans and Friends.

Album artwork for the Tall Poppies album Yakiya by jazz trio Tripataka.

Album artwork for the Tall Poppies album Home By Eleven Mix't Trio.

On the cooler side Mix’t Trio is a WA outfit and their album Home by Eleven (TP 245) features three musicians playing a variety of instruments and performing works especially written for them by some of Perth’s leading composers.

Matt Styles juggles saxes — soprano, alto and tenor — with flute; percussionist Paul Tanner contributes vibes and marimba and Adam Pinto plays piano and bass thongophone, plastic tubes of varying lengths which when hit by a rubber thong produce humming notes.

Djenne is a sunny opening track with Styles’ soprano sax vying happily with Tanner’s vibes while Pinto’s piano provides plenty of forward motion.

There’s some tongue-in-cheek humour throughout the album which makes for an attractive overall package, with plenty of changes of mood. Guapo: Nickname for a man who practises the cult of courage would have to be one of my favourite jazz titles since the halcyon days of Charles Mingus.

Enormous fun.

All three albums are available from www.tallpoppies.net for $23.