Nick Garbett’s The Glider @ NERAM

Booking essential.

Fathom (4.15-5.00pm)

Drum and trumpet: two instruments sharing a long musical companionship, most commonly found together in larger ensembles; less often heard as a duet. It is a pairing that offers challenge and possibility in equal measure; a way of testing the wisdom of the old adage, “less is more”.  Fathom – Ash Hall (trumpet/sound effects) and Steve Harris (drums/percussion) – have been playing together for many years in a variety of combinations and across a range of musical genres; yet the challenge of working as a duo has in many ways proven their most rewarding musical experience. To reduce is to refine: to take greater risks in order to achieve new expressive combinations; to achieve clarity and closer musical cooperation: to have the space to focus more intently on the interplay between notes and rhythm. These possibilities are explored on their debut CD, “Delve”: fresh forms of interlocking pattern and dramatic texture emerge, and, through improvisation, a keener sense of the dynamics of interplay are brought into play.  Inspired by both the legendary duo of trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell, and the recent extensions with the same format by Australian musicians Scott Tinkler (trumpeter) and Greg Sheehan (drummer/percussionist), Fathom offer their own contribution to the musical possibilities of discovering more by working with a little less.

The Glider (5.30-6.45pm)

Coming off the back of Garbett’s 2018 Freedman Jazz Fellowship win, and subsequent relocation to Italy, The Glider captures a period of travel, discovery, and reconnection between old friends. The result is a meditation on colour, texture and rhythm, with musical landscapes and electronic flourishes reminiscent of Jon Hassell and Brian Eno’s Fourth World, all grounded in a distinctly Australian celebration of togetherness.

“You find that a lot of jazz players in Australia practice out in the bush to get that sense of spice in their playing, and that’s really reflected here. It’s a very particular kind of Australian music in the way it’s joyous and uplifting, as well as having a real elastic sensibility. I love the way this moves.” KCRW

With most of the project’s musicians still in Berlin, Nick Garbett has assembled an Australia-based lineup for the album’s release, with Matt Keegan (sax), Dave Rodriguez (guitar), Aykho Akhrif (percussion), Finn Ryan (drums) and Pat Harris (bass) all enlisted to bring The Glider to life on stage for the first time.