PRESS

University Jazz Shows a high degree of talent

John Shand Sydney Morning Herald 18/08/2000

The step up offered by the Band of Five Names was not so much a matter of standard of playing as of conception and imagination. This band makes composition sound like improvisation and vice versa. Pianist Matt McMahon and trumpeter Phil Slater exude a feeling of their solos being very carefully controlled, yet remaining totally spontaneous because of the playersÕ uncanny response levels to what happens around them.

The unaccompanied folky theme with which Slater opened the set had a rocket put under it when bassist Jonathon Brown and drummer Simon barker joined, while McMahonÕs solo diffused the excitement and refined it. Barker is close to completing a lengthy process of bringing his spontaneous dynamic control up to his astonishing standards of inventiveness and propulsion.