Sydney Reviews

Festival time in Sydney means lashings of live music on barmy summer evenings. To this end, the Sydney Festival has set up a much expanded precinct in Hyde Park. The precinct was bursting with life on this Friday evening with a village market atmosphere complete with glowing water droplets falling from the sides of a stall canopy.

The Ross McHenry Future Ensemble took the stage at 7.30 in the Aurora Spiegeltent, not to be confused with the Famous Spiegeltent, which has become a prominent fixture at the Sydney Festival over the past few years. A small crowd gathered to continue their summer festivities or perhaps forget their first week back at work for the New Year. The early start meant that this was not the time for sweaty, writhing dancefloor mayhem. However, quite a few were up for a bit of a chilled boogie.

The Ensemble preceded to play an hour long set of groove based modern jazz with occasional hip-hop beats, which allowed for improvised solos from, bass, tenor sax and flute, bass clarinet, guitar and drums. Californian keyboardist Mark De Clive-Lowe added elements of high pitch electronica, making use of filtered and delayed effects. The electronica was subtly used, providing a different texture to the music, without ever dominating in its own right. It is a bit surprising that electronica didn’t play a more dominant part, given the name “Future Ensemble”.

The crowd appreciated the elements of tight and funky groove orientated music and started to get their groove on. However, the extended improvised solos were a little disconcerting especially when they interrupted the rhythm of the music, or in some cases, the rest of the band stopped playing. This was “talk amongst yourselves”, or “fiddle with your phone” time. Mind, you, it seems like any time is fiddle with your phone time these days.

New Zealander Adam Page, was the most striking figure, standing centre stage with his long grey beard. It was Adam who seemed to have the majority of the solos. It wasn’t until the final song, that drummer Myele Manzana was given his own solo and promptly went nuts. This seemed to provide the energy that some parts of the gig were lacking. It was a shame he didn’t have more solos. Manzana has his own gig tonight (January 10) along with Mark De Clive-Lowe and Ross McHenry at the Famous Spiegeltent, so perhaps he didn’t want to let too many tricks out of the bag.

An hour with The Ross McHenry Future Ensemble was a chilled and laid back way to spend the early part of a Friday evening, even if the improvised elements of the performance didn’t quite mesh with the more groove orientated parts. I’d certainly recommend a trip to the Aurora or Famous Spiegeltents during the Sydney festival. If the crowds and food prices in the precinct overwhelm you afterwards, you could always enjoy a quiet beer with the possums in Hyde Park.


Sydney Festival 2015
Ross McHenry Future Ensemble

Venue: The Aurora | Hyde Park North NSW
Date: 9 January 2015
Tickets: $39
Bookings: Ticketmaster 1300 723 038