GEST-8 is as hard to pin down as those silks or automotive finishes that change colour with the light. There is always a surprise or a twist in its musical tales. Augmenting a jazz sextet with koto (a 13-string Japanese zither) and electronics virtually guaranteed unexpected textures, and the ensuing possibilities are milked in myriad ways, yet they never shade the real business of intriguing composing and vibrant improvising.
The octet first emerged at the Opera Houses’s 2004 Jazz:Now festival, then popped up at the Side On Cafe, before disappearing into the black hole that sucks in so much of Sydney’s creative music: nowhere. Twenty months later this vehicle for the compositions of Sandy Evans and Tony Gorman has been resurrected to joyous effect, and continues to bolster the proposition that this is Evans’s finest project.
Suddenly Susanly began with Greg White electronically treating Phil Slater’s solo trumpet to generate hosts of spectral trumpeters, heard as though through the mists of time and space, but rooted to the present by sudden emotional thunderbolts. Slater’s ability to sustain intensity peaked on The Emperor’s Old Clothes, when he stabbed burning phrases between the ribs of the relentless rhythm section of Steve Elphick (double bass) and super-sub drummer David Goodman.
Whistling at Dinner showcased the eccentric string-section of guitar (Carl Dewhurst), koto (Satsuki Odamura) and bass, augmented by Paul Cutlan’s bass clarinet. This became an unlikely and entertaining exchange of blues licks between guitar and koto, although with an over-reliance on echoing each other.
Inner Spaces had a haze of electronics impregnated with gentle flecks of koto, an instrument that is uniquely able to suggest suspense and calm simultaneously. Kaleidoscope shed both the koto and electronics for a jazzier rampage, celebrated by Cutlan’s piping and absurdly happy Eb sopranino clarinet, before Dewhurst darkened and dirtied his guitar sound for an audacious solo. Evans held her bruising tenor in reserve to finally surge across Lambent, anchored by a koto ostinato.
The Sandy Evans Trio plays The Sound Lounge, August 19.