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- "Bassist, Sam Anning has created the perfect outlet for his prolific ideas, his debut CD RE-turning Point - an onomatopoeic musical exploration of the joys of journeying and the solace of love and kinship, flowing from his twenty-four year old mind to the manuscript with the insight and creativity of a serious talent.

There are no cliches here.

The title track was a romantic surprise without the schmaltz, beautifully executed by Sam’s handpicked ensemble from which they never stray. Time Travels, is a wonderful musical play based around the sensation of writing the piece whilst on a train from Edinburgh to London and featured cross over time feels propelled by the driving energy of drummer, Danny Susnjar and two scintillating solos by Carl Mackey on tenor and trumpet player Mat Jodrell. Sam’s ability to use multiple time signatures in, One Day Without You, without inhibiting the melody, soloist or listener, is a credit to his technical and artistic understanding of the nuance of composition, thus allowing the soloist to extrapolate ideas and challenges from within.

The unfolding of this outstanding debut CD grows stronger and richer as the tracks continue, culminating in a heartbreaking and relentlessly emotional solo by Mackey on, Sachsenhausen, an efficacious composition written by Anning after his visitation to the concentration camp of the same name, near Berlin, in 2005.

The last track, Johnsberg Illinois by Tom Waits, was Sam’s ‘Re-turning point,’ dedicating this track to his Wait’s fan mother, Helen, with the renascent cello quartet, Wood, adding to the already beautiful melody and bringing closure to this exceptional album by an exceptional artist."

- Helen Matthews, August 2006

 

- These musicians know what they are doing. They are competent enough to intelligently manage both bebop and avant-garde styles, and connect with the listener either way. Although it can be risky hanging your hat on one chordal structure for an entire tune, they are successful whenever they do so. Many of the tunes are within the tonality of “D” or “E,” but because such impeccable technique is used so well to further the group’s imaginative improvisations, any potential lack of harmonic diversity is easily overcome.

Trumpet player Mat Jodrell, whether in a free or harmonic style, plays in the tradition of Kenny Wheeler, with a sure and excellent command of his instrument and creative instincts. Carl Mackey, on any of his saxes, displays a lyrical and technical competence that is top of the line. The rhythm section, with leader Sam Anning on bass, crackles with energy, ability and skill on their respective instruments.

Note that these musicians are Australian. The CD is recorded, engineered and produced in Australia. Given the excellence of this CD, groups like this should always be in one’s aural eye. The Sam Anning Quintet is simple proof that the U.S. can never take for granted nor fully claim geographical musical dominance. Knowing that something musically different and interesting from outside normal influences is always around the corner, I look forward to being taken down a variety of different paths. Indeed, the fact that the Sam Anning Quintet IS Australian is interesting in itself as it is those cultural differences that stimulate this group’s approach to playing, writing and interpreting jazz music.

“RE-turning Point” contains an enthusiastic range of compositions: from the avant garde in tune number two, “Time Travels,” to tune number 5, “One Day, Without You,” with its third-stream jazz flavor of the late 50s and early 60s, through the powerful aggressiveness of tune number six, “Hone Heke.” The CD ends with a exquisitely beautiful and fragile classical interpretation of Tom Wait’s tune “Johnsberg, Illinois,” arranged for the cello section and altoist Carl Mackey.

This tour de force of masterful inventions is rhythmically, melodically and texturally different, yet at the same time encompasses a subtle but coincidental relationship between each of the tunes. The CD has a nice symmetry in that it begins with an arrangement for cellos and alto and leaves with one. I like this CD, and I think you will too.

- Rick Culver (JazzRadio247)

 

 

 

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