GIG REVIEW – Julien Wilson Quintet at SIMA Sound Lounge, Sydney 6th August 2016.

Julien: tenor sax, Carl Dewhurst: electric guitar, Barney McCall: piano, Jonathan Zwartz: bass, Hamish Stuart: drums.

I knew this wasn’t going to be just another gig! Five of Australia’s top artists all on the one stage was guaranteed to create fireworks! Ostensibly this was a CD launch of ‘This Narrow Isthmus’ which was recorded in 2014 with the now-deceased Allan Browne on drums. This current aggregation has rarely, if ever played before. Certainly the rhythm section has played together on numerous occasions for instance; supporting Gary Bartz. Its time is telepathic – like Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb on Miles at the Blackhawk – extraordinary!

Bouyed by the full house, Jules played his heart out. He is definitely one of Australia’s best kept secrets. Echoes of Ben Webster, David Murray, Trane, Archie Shepp but certainly no copy. He has his own script and his own sound (as we on FB know only so well).

Barney recently returned from 20 years in New York and he demonstrates the difference between living in New York and living New York. His influences were beautifully demonstrated with quotes from the school of Les McCann, Bobby Timmons, Don Pullen and more – what I call ‘soulfully out there’. His command of dynamics (soft to loud) is extraordinary.

What can one say about the rhythm section? I first heard them playing together at the Woollahra Hotel in the early ’80s. They were fantastic then, they are now sublime. One thing I hadn’t noticed before; Hamish is less of a ‘tricky-dicky’ fills player and more of maintaining-the-time AND the pulse which when all the band members are stretching everything paper-thin, is mandatory.

Believe it or not, this was my first time hearing Carl Dewhurst live…WOW is all I can say! Modern sensibilities with a wonderful sense of the dramatic. After one song, Jules announces the 2 ‘drummers’: Dewhurst and Stuart, as an observation.

The gig was recorded and Jules intends releasing it on his own label: lionsharerecords.com.

Don’t miss it, whatever you do! In the meantime buy some other wonderful music off his website so you don’t get withdrawal symptoms.