review SUNMAN

One of the more arrant pieces of nonsense about jazz is that achieving a personal voice on one's instrument and having original things to say are attributes that may be attained only after years of immersing oneself in the music of the greats; anyone who leaps straight out of the musical womb with pretensions to originality is a fake.

Across the arts, of course, there are those who come up with something of their own, fully formed, at an early age, others who take time to find what they wish to. Say.

Two examples of the former on the Sydney jazz scene would be guitarist James Muller and saxophonist Andrew Robson. Robson's second album is a phenomenally mature work in both conception and execution. In part, this is due to working with such hugely experienced collaborators as bassist Steve Elphick and drummer Hamish Stuart, but primarily it is because Robson simply sounds like no-one else as he offers ideas of rampant beauty that are unburdened with intellectual inhibitions.

The combination of earthiness, emotional directness and grace is as ancient as it is futuristic. Above all, it seems natural: something a human would inevitably do with a saxophone. Sound has much to do with this. Most alto saxophonists make a piping, piercing noise. As well as exploiting this possibility, Robson achieves a richness - a munificence - across the range of the horn. The melodies themselves can have a flight-of-fancy lightness about them while being loaded with compelling expressiveness.

Elphick always opts for the right rather than the clever option. His solo on the sprightly Five Will Get You Ten typifies the commonality of his approach with Robson's, the seemingly playful lines suddenly acquiring unforeseen emotional weight.

Stuart, always a drummer to make the music feel good, has become ever more adept at also letting it breathe, at opening up options rather than closing them down. He finds imaginative solutions to the complete gamut, from the somber Chant to the dizzy swing of Spin.

The recorded jazz coming out of New York is seldom on this level.