Seven Steps to Manhattan: Dave Panichi Septet at the Sound Lounge, 24 November 2006

Surrounded by so many young faces on stage, Dave Panichi may have looked like the nurturer of talent with his new septet, but a closer look reveals that each one of these ‘new’ players is either a leader or co-leader in his own right.

Panichi has been on the jazz scene since 1975 and 18 of those years were spent in New York City, and you can tell. His trombone sound is bold and channelled like the deepest part of a waterway, clear and concise, thoughtful, logical and musical. The septet remains his primary showcase for his original material but some of his pieces such as ‘Pyldriver’ are played by other Sydney heavyweights.

He opened with what must be one of his audiences more favoured pieces in ‘New Orleans Thang’ where the funky Nawlins backbeat courtesy of the second line of Mike Majkowski on bass and Tim Firth on drums held sway. It set the scene really, for a night of commanding compositions coupled with driving rhythm and superb individual soloing, for Panichi’s compositions were not over-arranged with complex and contrasting dynamics. He preferred to get to the heart of the composition with pure clarity and melody in his improvisations and showed faith in his younger sidekicks to do the same. Working with Buddy Rich, Aretha Franklin and Mulgrew Miller in the US (just to name a few) did his style no disservice.

‘Dream Logic’ had hard bop flavours with James Muller getting the first of many vocal acclamations from the Friday night audience. The sound was pared back for Panichi’s solo to a trio of bass and drums only, then, Hugh Barrett on piano contributed the first of a number of inventive solos prior to the band returning to the head.
Mike Majkowski has an enormous talent that makes his bass sing with charisma and personality. His was sweet playing from diminuendo to crescendo in patterns that characterised a human voice rather than a constant legato.

The story behind the 1982 written ‘Manhattan’ was too raunchy for the bandstand, so Phil Slater provided a romping solo in its place to complete the first set with this piece that sounded like it was written and arranged for a contemporary big band.

The second set commenced with a dedication to saxophonist Dave Liebman and Slater took his horn in a different area, sometimes sounding like he was controlling the expulsion of air from a balloon. One gets the feeling Barrett has studied Herbie Hancock, but here he built his improvisations using melodic platforms in a similar way to his leader on the night. But Peter Farrar on alto nearly stole the show with his solo on ‘Lieb’. He has a tone reminiscent of Ornette Coleman and an expeditious array of ideas which drew an excited and appreciative applause.

Panichi’s fat vibrato was most evident on ‘Rhumba Quabe’, producing almost throttle like gargles, while Majowski delivered bass lines reminiscent of the most soulful of Horace Silver tunes, while ‘Hits and Spaces’ saw the interesting pairing of soloists. Firstly Slater and Muller, with Slater taking the lead and Muller playing the conversationalist, then Farrar and Barrett, in a wild exchange that had me checking whether Farrar was using circular breathing.

An exceptional live performance was capped by the funky ‘Pyldriver’ which saw Muller urging, pulling, teasing and then pushing hard, while Barrett drew cryptic lines against Panichi’s bone. Tim Firth put on the icing with a melodic, textural pattern that collapsed back into the groove.

– review courtesy of www.jazzandbeyond.com.au