reviews

The World According to James

James Greening/Trombone & pocket trumpet Andrew Robson/Alto saxophone Steve Elphick/Double Bass Toby Hall/Drums

Reviewed by John Shand/The Sydney Morning Herald
December 1st, 2000

Given the band's name, it was apposite that The World According to James's concert should be a barrage of new experiences.

Despite the demure title, A Little Peace had some scorching moments, highlighting drummer Toby Hall's fluency, while pushing energy levels relentlessly.

The scene shifted dramatically for Mossman. Leader James Greening shifted from his primary instrument, trombone, to the intrinsically elfin effect of pocket trumpet, while Hall lent an exotic effect with shakers.

The raport and consequent preparedness to take risks in this band were in abundant evidence on saxophonist Andrew Robson's Greetings from the New World. At one point Hall ceased riding the cymbals to enter a phrase in tandem with Greening. Bar after bar they were at it, second-guessing each other, and once in there was no easy way out. That they could do this without tripping each other up and eventually emerge with a resolution was thrilling.

That phrase finished, the risks continued: Hall and bassist Steve Elphick played with the time as though it were on one of those extending leashes, while Greening, back on trombone, skated over the top like a four-wheel-drive traversing potholes.

Wishing had a gloriously buoyant groove from Elphick, who anchored the harmonic movement and made it coherent, while avoiding routine solutions. Robson displayed a similar ability to find unforeseen implications and extensions of his own phrases.

Medicine Man featured a trombone solo packed with zany one-liners of considerable agility.Perhaps the most telling hallmark of Greening's project is the way devices from all styles and periods of jazz are allowed to collide with a strapping modernism. It's just part of the journey.

John Shand