Outlines - Austin Salisbury Trio
An elegant and assured debut album from an ensemble with versatile chemistry.
Outlines is the first full-length release from Perth pianist and composer Austin Salisbury as the leader of his own trio, featuring Alistair Peel on bass and Peter Evans on the drums. To date, the trio has released two EPs, both recorded in March 2022: a collection of Salisbury’s compositions called Out West, and a selection of three Bud Powell pieces entitled High Bebop, Vol. 1.
All of the pieces on Outlines are Salisbury originals, except for his arrangement of Charlie Parker’s “Yardbird Suite”, in which the opening and closing statements of the theme cycle through several abrupt but smoothly-executed modulations in speed and style. Over the last few decades, metrically adventurous interpretations of jazz standards have become a tradition in their own right, but this approach is particularly fitting as a tribute to one of bebop’s founders; it’s a way to re-enact, for contemporary listeners, the sonic disruption that Bird and his colleagues wrought in the 1940s.
Notwithstanding Salisbury’s clear reverence for the architects of modern jazz, his music is more directly indebted to the artists who built on their work after 1960, expanding the rhythmic resources of jazz further beyond swing and broadening its harmonic palette to include both austere modalism and lush impressionism.
Straight eighths and lush chords characterise the opening track, “Shoot from the Hip”, which features a catchy bass line that spells the title. Against the urging of the bass, Salisbury’s solo exemplifies his style: poised, lyrical, and rhythmically assured. Not given to dense, intricate figuration, he prefers to sketch with a light but deft touch on a rich harmonic canvas. That’s not to say that his solos are crestless; he caps his excursion on “Shoot from the Hip” with an especially satisfying trill, echoed by Evans in a cymbal roll and answered by Peel with an apt linking phrase.
Here, and throughout Outlines, you can hear that the trio have worked together for several years; each member knows the others and their respective places in the music. Salisbury is unafraid of space, and this leaves plenty of room for Peel and Evans to contribute colour and conversation. The trio’s finely integrated chemistry, sustained across the album’s welcome variety of grooves, makes for engaging listening.
Alistair Peel possesses one of the fullest, deepest bass sounds on the Australian jazz scene. Hear it in his solo preamble to “Dive Bar”, as he traces abstract shapes with his left hand, adding folkloric intrigue with pull-offs, hammer-ons, and sinuous slides. In the ensemble, Peel’s bass is a supple and responsive connecting force; check out his elegant elision of walking bass and a more conversational approach on “The Look-In”.
In the hands of a passive drummer, Salisbury’s music might sound a little too serene. Fortunately, Peter Evans is an inspired catalyst. On “Dive Bar”, he spurs Salisbury on to some of the pianist’s most spirited playing on Outlines, offsetting crisp funk interjections on the snare and hi-hat with understated ride cymbal commentary. The well-honed nuances and tastefully varied textures of his drumming are artfully captured and rendered by engineers Kieran Kenderessy (recording) and Dave Darlington (mixing and mastering); listen for the vinyl crackle of Evans’ brushes under Peel’s potent solo on the album’s laid-back closer, “State Lines”.
Aside from the trio’s chemistry, the unifying element on Outlines is Salisbury’s compositional voice. His predilection for lyrical melodies and chords enriched with suspensions and extensions stirs a distinctive emotional undercurrent, flowing somewhere between introspection and wanderlust. Its pull is strongest on “Chance and Circumstance”, a high point of the album in terms of both composition and performance. Shimmering, searching piano sonorities hang in the air like mist clinging to the silhouette of a distant landscape. Salisbury shifts gently into time, introducing a stirring figured bass line with his left hand. As Peel takes up the figure and Evans enjoins on the snare, the contours of the road ahead heave into view.
Knowing essentially nothing about Australian jazz, this review is giving me a great place to start. Thanks Ben.