reviews

DAVE MacRAE TRIO/

ANDREW ROBSON TRIO

The Sound Lounge, September 18, 2009

Reviewed by John Shand

THE playing of both pianist Dave MacRae and saxophonist Andrew Robson fizzed with animation as they packed such intensity and energy into each phrase as to be a microcosm of a life well lived. Both are imaginative composers and astute programmers, so each hour-long set became a travelogue of diverse stop-offs.

MacRae is a key figure in Australian jazz. New Zealand-born, he played piano with Buddy Rich's orchestra in the US, and in London was part of jazz-rock's crowning glory, Matching Mole, and The Goodies' musical director. Over the last 25 years in Sydney his profile may have diminished, but not his powers.

He flitted between the mesmerising Eastern Haze and the machismo of the punningly titled El Ninety (after the Palm Beach bus). Backwater began with eerie, electronically manipulated piano and, despite a swampy groove emerging, retained the dream-like quality that counterbalances MacRae's zest. Drummer Nick Cecire hit just the right feel, although bassist Gary Holgate could have dug in a little deeper.

Hamish Stuart's drumming on Scrum gave Robson's set a sizzling start. Riding bassist Brendan Clark's irrepressible swing, Robson then tore up a blues, so the leap could hardly have been greater to The Three Ravens, a bewitching ballad from 400 years ago that gradually metamorphosed into a jazz waltz. After guest trombonist James Greening's breezy, playful solo on The Servant, Robson leant on notes like a NSW standover man, with Stuart armed and dangerous.

Lingua Franca, the Robson-penned title track of Greening's new album, had the latter using plunger mute to sound like a virtuoso kookaburra, and Robson by turns chirpy and fervent.