In The Waves

With In the Waves Barry marks a further cycle back to the modern jazz roots heard most recently with his Japanese trio Polyglot - described by luminary pianist Mike Nock as “stunning…the cutting edge of jazz today”. Composed largely during Sydney’s four-month Covid lockdown, the album’s 8 tracks hold the physical and philosophical qualities of water as a common thread; while the title track evokes the feeling of being powerlessly tossed around by the ocean, others reflect on the nature of water to work its way past obstacles, or of solids that become more liquid and thus more agile under pressure (Thixotropy) - apt metaphors for the trials and triumphs of the pandemic. The music showcases Barry’s trademark “harmonic adventurousness and non-bombastic sense of drama” (Sydney Morning Herald throughout, from the spiralling triplets of First 11 and Tug lightly to the glistening opening chords of Half Moon Lights.

Bringing the music to life are a stellar cast of local and international players. Drummer Eric Harland is one of the most acclaimed and prolific artists of his generation, perhaps best known for his work with pioneers such as Charles Lloyd, Terence Blanchard and Kurt Rosenwinkel, and as a go-to sideman for countless contemporary groups.

Long based in New York, the city’s 2020 Covid lockdown saw saxophonist Will Vinson and partner Jo Lawry return with their daughter and son-on-the-way to Lawry’s native Adelaide. Now living in Sydney, Vinson’s playing has been described as “a marvel of textural beauty and musicality”, that “challenges the notion of how jazz is defined in this era". Barry’s fellow kiwi expatriate, award-winning composer, bassist and brewer Thomas Botting completes the ensemble in continuation of a now decade-long musical partnership.

Barry discusses his choice of personnel: “Will and Eric have been constant threads across many of my favourite records, so I’m thrilled to have had the chance to get them together to play this music. Will demonstrates his trademark lyricism throughout, navigating some occasionally-indecipherable chord symbols with the same poetic ease I hear in his own prolific output. The title of this record is also a fitting description for how it feels playing with Eric – a bubbling propellancy like riding the crest of a wave: being held up, driven forwards and sitting on the precipice at the same time. As one of my oldest musical comrades, Tom is the vital glue that brings it all together, with the hook up between him and Eric on clear display throughout the record, especially on On Dirt and Alchemy.”

Recorded in mostly first takes over a day at Free Energy Device Studios - the common birthplace of many Sydney jazz records - In The Waves offers a daring, multi-faceted take on the genre. Barry’s adventurous compositional ear and background in 20th century classicism is on clear display, deftly balancing an obvious fluency in the jazz vernacular with a restless inclination towards chromatic spices and flirtations with the chaotic.

It’s a compelling collection from a pianist described as “one of Australia’s most inventive and accomplished composer/improvisers” (LoudMouth), and one that sets a further landmark in Barry’s evident pursuit of new interpretations of “modern jazz”.