Bennetts Lane Big Band
The Snip
(ABC Jazz/Universal)
Rating: ****1/2
The eleven member Bennetts Lane Big Band contains some of Melbourne’s best performers and improvisers.
This is a collaborative effort with nine originals composed and arranged by eight different band members, giving a diverse creativity to the tracks.
Some arrangements are quite minimalist, sounding like a smaller ensemble, sometimes out of tempo, with abundant space for soloists to display some superb improvising.
A few tracks, such as Gonk, have a customary big band sound with precise section playing. Bass trombonist Adrian Sherrif explores his instrument’s lowest notes with inspiration and a touch of humour on a swinging Blues for Iambie.
Saxophonist Jamie Oehlers contributed The Creep with its persistent ticking beat, angular arranging of reeds, and an outstanding solo from the composer, climbing into high frequency harmonics and fast atonal figures.
Trumpeter Eugene Ball supplied two pieces in languorous ballad tempos, imaginatively arranged, and supplemented by his own spectacular trumpet work.
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This review first appeared in The Weekend Australian and is republished with permission.
