Music:
Member Since: 12/7/2006
Band Members:
Jazz: Now - Festival
September 11 to 13
The Studio, The Sydney Opera House,
Stu Hunter Experiment: Performance on Friday 12 Sept:
Stu Hunter, Piano
Simon Barker, Drums
Cameron Udy, Bass
Matt Keegan, Tenor Sax
Julien Wilson, Tenor Sax
James Greening, Trombone
REVIEW
The Sydney Morning Herald
Monday, September 15 - Page 12
Pianist/composer Stu Hunter is such a dark horse he makes Black Beauty look grey. Following his acclaimed debut CD, The Muse, last year, he unveiled a new suite with saxophonists Matt Keegan and Julien Wilson, trombonist/ trumpeter James Greening, bassist Cameron Undy and Barker. The results across a kaleidoscopic 70 minutes were triumphant, thanks to the improvisation and Hunter's steadfast structural instincts.Highlights included incendiary tenor solos over a loping groove, an eerie soundscape of flitting shadows, and solo piano of rigorous beauty. After a hint of tango and an opulent Undy solo, Greening splattered pocket trumpet across the other horns. Barker's drum solo washed in and out like the ocean, and the drurns converged on a blazing theme to close. This piece could top the bill of any arts festival.
Reviewed by John Shand
Influences:
or from : Birdland Records, Sydney ,
Sounds Like: Fifth Jazz:Now Festival
author:
John Clare
date:
Thursday 18 September 2008September 10 – 13 ?The Studio, Sydney Opera House...................................Now came the most powerful performance to this point: a continuous suite played by the Stu Hunter Experiment. Hunter directed from the piano and looked as if he belonged there: the composer and his chosen musicians. The horns were tenor saxophonists Matt Keegan and Melbourne’s Julien Wilson (who played so beautifully with Kurt Elling and the Sydney Symph recently), plus James Greening on trombone and pocket trumpet. The rhythm section was Hunter of course, with bassist Cameron Undy and drummer Simon Barker.
What unfolded would not have been shamed by a Charles Mingus work. From the first punching and gliding ensemble Keegan’s tenor rose, weaving and angling with fire and soul. You knew at that moment that this was on. Among the many intriguing configurations of the horns were long chanting figures and stretches where they repeated one gently pushed note in unison across the beat, against which the rhythm section interacted with complexity and with mesmerising pure time. Beautiful solos rose, Greening’s talking mute trombone being specially compelling. Wilson and Keenan both in their different ways used the tenor’s murmuring, crooning subtones and sang in the high register and broke the sound up with raunchy overblown exclamations and cries. Soon the ensemble rose with powerful grandeur, Greening’s pocket trumpet blazing on top. Ructions broke out – brief collective improvisations and written patterns. Bluesy ensembles of singular richness swelled and glided, and after much intrigue, much use of space and contrast, the whole thing began to roar at threatening volume. It locked into a pattern and there was a point where you thought there was no way this could ever stop. It could not be resolved.
It was hypnotic, slightly nightmarish and actually funny. Then the impossible cataclysmic climax arrived, and the crowd roared. I stood to applaud and so did many others. I heard myself shouting “Bravo! Bravo!†in an Italian accent. I didn’t care. For the moment I was Italian. It was transfiguring. Bravo! Bravo! Bravo once more. Everybody had played beautifully. Cameron Undy produced a bowed passage of eerie sonic manipulation and dark soulful melody. I will not forget it.
Type of Label: None
