Paul Grabowsky Trio joins audience in reaching a promised land

Melbourne jazz has produced many legendary figures (not least Graeme Bell) but never someone quite like Paul Grabowsky.

Paul Grabowsky is the master of establishing an exquisite mood. Photo: Tim Carrafa

Melbourne jazz has produced many legendary figures (not least Graeme Bell) but never someone quite like Paul Grabowsky: not merely an improvising pianist but also a screen composer, festival ­director, pioneer in cross-cultural collaboration with indigenous musicians, eloquent public arts ­intellectual, and so on.

On Friday evening in Sydney he appeared in one of his earliest incarnations: the classic piano, bass and drums format.

Not much happened in the first of two sets. Here I refer not to the music itself, which was well played, but to the vibe in the room. Like musicians, audiences need to warm up and come to the music. Grabowsky took inspiration from diverse sources: his composition Silverland, inspired by the pop group Silverchair, and two Bob Dylan compositions, Don’t Think Twice and Forever Young, the ­latter reminiscent of Grabowsky’s celebrated version some years ago of John Lennon’s Julia.

The long cadenzas where a short riff or fragmentary idea was explored were remarkable during the first set. It was in these pas­s­ages — not unlike The Necks but without that trio’s minimalism — that the individual voices of each player could be clearly heard and the music began to transform. The empathy here between drummer Simon Barker and Grabowsky was uncanny, with the brilliant fledgling bassist Max Alduca with them every inch of the way.

The second set began with two Grabowsky compositions, January and Wist. During these works the character of the night began to take shape. Grabowsky’s forte is his ability to establish an exquisite mood over a light drum feel, whereby his improvisations are delivered gently, but are still ­communicated beautifully to the listener. He showed this again in the atonal ballad Helix, where the players were always able to slightly shift the mood. By the end of Helix the audience was truly in the trio’s orbit.

The tune Cryptostatic was then played at a bright tempo with stunning brilliance. By this time the trio was flying and our imaginations fully engaged. A gentle treatment of Bacharach and David’s Make It Easy On Yourself had Grabowsky’s piano once again at pianissimo, and the bass and drums at a ­whisper. Even at this delicate ­volume, courtesy of the excellent sound technician Nathanael ­Edwardes, the piano sang in the air; at this moment, both musicians and listeners had reached the promised land.

A cameo version of Sonny Rollins’s Oleo, played at breakneck speed, with a solo of extraordinary brilliance by Grabowsky, capped off an unusually special evening.

Music: Paul Grabowsky Trio, Foundry 616, Sydney, June 16