Matt McMahon
Paths and Streams
(Kimnara records)
Rating: ****1/2
This album, the resultant production from Sydney pianist Matt McMahon’s winning of the Freedman Fellowship 2005, successfully combines a modern jazz quintet with a string quartet. They play McMahon’s arrangements of originals from various Australian composers, including classicist Peter Sculthorpe. Most lead work falls to McMahon’s piano, James Muller’s guitar, or Phil Slater’s trumpet – consummate improvisers all.
The challenge in such a combination is to avoid scoring the strings (two violins, viola, cello) as mere sound effects or simple backdrops. McMahon overcomes cliches by using laid back tempos or passages out of tempo where the strings assume integral importance. In uptempo sequences, and full on solos, the strings are prudently silent.
Classical influences are evident: Beginnings features strings and pensive piano in a beautiful pastoral theme, while the title track pitches classical strings against mallet and cymbals percussion. Mostly, the album stays in touch with jazz sources, notably in Slater’s Lissom where the composer’s trumpet tremolos build high frequency excitement against McMahon’s alternately fast running, then stabbing piano.
This article first appeared in The Australian and is reprinted with permission of the author.
