Fiona Burnett, Sound Lounge, April 23

This was the Sydney launch of the ABC album Counterpoint, the second by this trio of Burnett, soprano saxophone, double bassist Ben Robertson and drummer David Jones; the first one being the superb Three Voices on Newmarket. Because this setting is so different and so conqenial, it would be easy to make the mistake of forgetting about previous albums with people like Mark Fitzgibbon and Tony Paye. But back to the present.

There is no doubt that this is a step on, even from the previous album. And the live performance brought another dimension into play, the presence in the space of a chamber music dynamic, which created a wonderful atmosphere sometimes at pianissimo level. Indeed some pieces seemed to grow from beneath audibility, an effect which really drew eveeryone in. The brief opening piece began with low-mid range soprano note that was as big, shining and pulsing as it was quiet. The drum’s response was quieter still and I can’t remember where the bass entered, but it all drew the listeners, who were as intent as the players, into a complete world. This level was returned to often, but on some pieces, Burnett played with great projection and passion, mixing baroque and eastern influences seamlessly. Some of these flights generated a powerful, emotional excitement, with Burnett’s great full open tone sometimes pinching down to create more intensity at points of maximum force.

The visual effect was considerable. Burnett is a striking young woman, and when her long blond hair threatened to hide her face and a wild high note pierced out through it, the thought occured that this should be filmed. But the playing was the thing. The range of modern wind instrument devices was deployed with an intelligent spontaneity that made them distinctively Burnett’s. In one solo she wended upward to peak with a surprise little sweet, spiteful swipe, like the sound you’d expect to hear made by a tiny jungle cat – a marmoset or something of that order.

I have spent time on this to acknowledge how the always impressive Burnett has developed recently. Robertson’s superb bass tone was deployed with wonderful rhythm and invention, and in the softer, slower, almost tempoless pieces, his notes would appear high and low in the music at points where the space was emphasised rather than filled. Jones is of course quite freakishly talented. He may not be one’s first choice for some kinds of jazz, but certainly not through any lack of ability. Beyond a certain technical level these choices are made on concept, temperament, inclination and background. Even so you could be sure he would bring a high level of sheer invention to the idiom. In quite a few areas of music – including this – his choices, sympathy and virtuosity are simply amazing.

Jones’s range of colourisitic and melodic percussion was used here with infinite tact. Elsewhere he has sometimes gone over the top with an exuberance that is as funny as it is impressive. On one piece percussion was used with unpredictable spacing that suggested the music of a Noh play. The overtones created between ringing percussion and soprano were brilliant and, in the improvisation, it seemed to blend the influence of Ravel with Chinese music.

Two arrangements of Bach were also presented. This is a fraught area, but for this trio I found that it worked beautifully. The soprano has at least a hint of the oboe, but Burnett did not ‘break into’ baroque, with all the inflections of the idiom. The C Major Prelude emerged simply as a line to conclude a brief improvisation, and it was played luminously but relatively straight. What a line! J.S. does it again. With two Part Invention No 1 Burnett made no real mistakes but sounded less secure than she does on the disc. J.Shand told me later that she had mentioned reed trouble to him. This was not mentioned to the audience, nor should it have been. Robertson’s bass part was played with a wonderful rhythmic buoyance but no exagerated syncopation, thus avoiding the sense that ‘Hey, we’re really swinging Bach!’

Both sets were played at a very high level, but the second flagged at times for me. Perhaps one set is the ideal length for such a recital, but if I had these resources of talent and material at my disposal I might have started the second set with a brief but volcanic Jones drum solo to refresh the palette and waken the senses to the subleties that remained.