James Ryan Trio
Long Way Home
(Jazzgroove/Creative Vibes)
Rating: ****1/2
Originally from Darwin, James Ryan moved to Sydney in 2003 after four years performing in Europe, and his first album is an informal live recording.
Astonishingly it is also the first time James Hauptmann drums, Brendan Clarke bass and Ryan have played together. What leaps out from this session is the near virtuosity of the leader as a player of three instruments (tenor sax, flute, and saxello – a more mellow soprano sax) and as a composer.
Ryan’s energetic, hyper-fast tenor rockets through one of the originals, ‘Hey Which Way’ in a style that is far more than speedy finger-following. The solos are rich in ideas, produced by a superlative technique, supported and understood by a tightly integrated rhythm section. Yet the slow ballad ‘Moonlight In Vermont’, is just as expressive, lavish with moody sound pictures.
The opening solo flute on ‘High Life’, featuring overblowing and throat growls is a smorgasbord of hard-swinging excitement, reminiscent of the great US player, Roland Kirk.
This review was first published in the The Weekend Australian and is reprinted with kind permission of the author.
