The Vampires
South Coasting
(Jazzgroove/Creative Vibes)

***1/2

The Vampires are a quartet of some of Sydney’s outstanding youthful musicians, and they have an equally talented guest in Melbourne trombonist Shannon Barnett.

These originals were composed by leader and saxophonist Jeremy Rose, trumpeter Nick Garbett, and one contribution from bassist Mike Majkowski.

The Vampires are not after anyone’s blood, they just want to pump up the pulse a little, and they succeed with a track like Action/Reaction. It opens with a rhythmic, counterpoint figure from unaccompanied alto, trumpet and trombone, before Majkowski’s bass and Alex Masso’s drums arrive with a latin ostinato which ultimately modulates into a reggae beat for the horns to accentuate and solo over.

Most of the tracks use influences from Afro-Carribean and South American grooves, while the piano-less structure allows greater harmonic freedom for the soloists.

Perhaps it’s the Latin rhythms, but some of these pieces sound faintly repetitious, nevertheless there are fine solos from everyone and interesting, often polyrhythmic, arrangements.

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This review first appeared in The Weekend Australian and is republished with permission.

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Hash Varsani is the owner of The Jazz Directory, a network of sites related to jazz, travel and everything else he loves. He also runs a selection of jazz related sites including Jazz Club Jury, a jazz club and festival review site. Check out his Google+ Profile, to see what else he's up to...probably setting up another website from one of his many passions.

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