McGann / McMahon / Swanton / Barker
The Excelsior Hotel, Sydney
1 May
On paper it looked intriguing.
The reality was thrilling: hearing Bernie McGann, the great free spirit of Australian jazz, out of his usual context.
The alto saxophonist has led his own trio or quartet for decades, usually with Lloyd Swanton on bass for the past 25 years. Meanwhile, in the past decade another vital and very different force has emerged: the questing triumvirate of trumpeter Phil Slater, pianist Matt McMahon and drummer Simon Barker. Now these disparate strands of creative music were entwining in a quartet: McGann, McMahon, Swanton and Barker. Although there have been previous overlaps – Barker working with McGann and Paul Grabowsky; Swanton with McMahon and Barker in the Phil Slater Quartet – this was something new.
Inevitably, the common ground was McGann’s hard-bop turf, but reinterpreted through the Barker-McMahon prism. Especially successful was Wayne Shorter’s Footprints, which could have been written for the aggregation, allowing as it did for the atmospheric interplay that the pianist and drummer have made their own. The evolving density of the piece was largely defined by Swanton’s bass, against which McGann used his stabbing phrases to build a patient, long-trajectory solo towards little intimations of ecstasy.
Read the full review in The Sydney Morning Herald
