Crossing Roper Bar in The New York City Jazz Record’s “Best of 2011”

The prestigious New York City Jazz Record has listed the Crossing Roper Bar CD – a collaboration between the Australian Art Orchestra and the Young Wagilak Group – among the best releases for 2011 internationally.

In reviewing the CD in its January 2012 edition, Donald Elfman writes “… it’s as if this world is being born … The song cycle from this remote part of the world is one of the oldest musical forms in existence and, in collaboration with what can be called free jazz improvisation, seems not only to stay alive but also, amazingly, to grow and thrive.” The full review is below.

The Australian Art Orchestra’s Artistic Director, Paul Grabowsky, said they have also been invited to present Crossing Roper Bar at the London Jazz Festival in November. “Crossing Roper Bar continues to develop with new recordings made in 2011 indicating a deepening of the musical and cultural dialogue,” he said.

The CD can be purchased here.

Crossing Roper Bar by Donald Elfman, The New York City Jazz Record, January 2012

The exchange between the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO) and the aboriginal singing of the Young Wagilak Group has been described as a marriage of the very old with the very new. It’s essentially a celebration of the country and its people and about using music as a way to link cultures through time and space. The Roper is a river that passes through the town of Ngukurr and leads us to the Wagilak group and their powerful song.

This is music that sounds, on this recording, as if it’s growing and evolving out of the earth. Though much of this music is arranged – both orchestrally and in the vocals – it sounds truly spontaneous, free and improvised. From the outset we’re in what feels like an unexplored area. Viola, percussion and other assorted instruments create a terrain out of which slowly emerge the voices of the Wagilaks and it’s as if this world is being born. The sounds of the instruments – as they appear and fade only to reappear – complement the wailings of the singers and the whole thing works in a mysterious, dreamlike fashion.

These are all accomplished performers yet this is never about anything but coming together to tell a story that has not really been told to us before. There are brief instrumental sections in which individual players or groups of players solo, but the giving tradition is what’s being expressed. The song cycle from this remote part of the world is one of the oldest musical forms in existence and, in collaboration with what can be called free jazz improvisation, seems not only to stay alive but also, amazingly, to grow and thrive. Special kudos must go to Paul Grabowsky, the leader of AAO, and Benjamin Wilfred, leader of the Young Wagilak, for finding a way of keeping all of these sounds vital.