MATT KEEGAN TRIO – LIVE

It begins with layers of mournful, elegaic sax.  Enter a skittering ride cymbal, and then thrumming, propulsive bass, glancing off the main melody like hail off a basalt monolith. Clouds of steam, lichen on black rock, boulder-strewn hillsides. You might associate this kind of aural landscape painting with the ECM label, with John Surman,  or Terje Rypdal perhaps. But no, this is local tenor saxophonist Matt Keegan and his cohorts Cameron Undy (electric bass) and David Goodman (drums), recorded live at the Excelsior Hotel in Surry Hills, and the piece is Ambiguous.  The Trio is equally adept at evoking cityscapes (Half Full has the kind of hangdog sexiness that makes for a great cop show theme) and all-out weirdness. Toplepsey begins with a creepy descending bass figure, rim-shots, and gnarly, twisting double-tracked sax – Keegan works a mean FX pedal – before falling apart in a clattering heap, and regrouping like a King Crimson out-take from 1975.  Blood-Let features spindly, helix-like melodies . An invigorating set of originals played by musicians who won’t let purism stand in the way of good music.
***1/2