cd in hiding

Album:  In Hiding
Artist:    Calum Builder & Tate Sheridan

Release Date: 2014

Category: jazz
Label:     Independent

It’s pleasing to hear a debut album by two final year students in Canberra – saxophonist Calum Builder and pianist Tate Sheridan – from the ANU School of Music. With funding from Friends of the School, the duo have been composing and recording these original works for the past year resulting in a relaxed-sounding, highly listenable collection.

There’s a floating quality to these pieces; they’re mostly introspective, but always brimful of fresh ideas.  The opener My Lord – and longest track at over eight minutes – sets the mood with an alto sax cadenza flowing tranquilly into a rhythmic sequence above a piano riff.  A similarly placid atmosphere pervades Piece by Peace where Builder takes up a soprano sax – as he does on two other tracks – to explore a pastoral theme with Sheridan’s thoughtful and sensitive contributions as the performance gathers strength and power.

Amongst a soothing, mostly ethereal collection, Czech Mate is the only piece to espouse a bop theme moving in a vigorous alto and piano combination before an energetic sax solo underpinned by the piano’s running bass line which develops into a fine, swinging solo complete with a stomping stride section. The closer, Stable Change begins with a stately, spacious theme established by the piano which then is joined by the unison alto in a work reminiscent of the music of a religious chorale.

This unusual album of duo performances, by two players who understand each other’s approach perfectly, has a pleasantly sedate quality that will best suit a contemplative listener.

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For just over 24 years I have been a freelance writer, publishing in that time a wide variety of genres: news items, live concert reviews, travel articles, features, personality profiles, and CD and book reviews. I have written for various in-flight magazines, The Adelaide Review, The Republican, The Bulletin, The Australian, The Advertiser, The Melbourne Herald Sun and several regional newspapers. In 1994 I won a national travel-writing prize sponsored by The Australian newspaper, which led to my writing regularly for that paper. Since 2003 I have been jazz critic for The Advertiser and The Australian newspapers, on average contributing weekly to each paper. In 2005 I won a national Jazz Writing Competition sponsored by the Wangaratta Jazz Festival.

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