Steve Elphick
Steve Elphick’s double bass gives contemporary jazz its earth and its pulse. With Sandy Evans and GEST8 he locks African-tinged grooves, opens sparse landscape duets, and helps shape music where koto, electronics and free invention meet.
In GEST8 he anchors a potent engine room with Simon Barker, the bass sumptuously recorded as the band swings from Japanese-flavoured abstraction and drone to funky expanded tonality and Giant Steps harmony. Ethnic rhythms sit cleanly under his hands; he holds the centre while koto, clarinet, trumpet and computer pull the colours wide. On RockPoolMirror his duets with Evans answer Shoalhaven Gorge photographs with haunting, faultlessly earthy lines that leave room for stillness, rock and reflected light. He also writes, sharing credit on collective pieces that keep the music conversational rather than hierarchical.
Performing as GEST8
Kaleidoscope
GEST8, the brainchild of Sandy Evans and Tony Gorman, extends their search for new colours in improvisation and jazz. Kaleidoscope is the band’s debut recording.
Composer
Steve Elphick also appears on
RockPoolMirror
Sandy Evans loved Belinda Webster’s dawn photographs of Shoalhaven Gorge from the early 2000s. A Tasmanian supporter funded the project; Evans wrote music to be heard with the images; and an eclectic circle of friends agreed to play and record it.