Magic Music review – jazz, Japanese and Iranian music combine at Phoenix Central Park

Magic Music performed at Phoenix Central Park, on Gadigal land, on Thursday 27 March. 

Any gig at Phoenix Central Park is a safe bet. It’s a building you want to be inside. Like a mansion on a hill. It feels exclusive. It is exclusive. No tickets are sold. They’re only distributed by ballot. The guestlists fill up in a hurry and the shows begin at 7pm on the dot.

Magic Music is an act I’d never heard of, but jazz saxophone, Japanese koto and traditional Persian percussion? I honestly couldn’t think of a better venue-to-music match.

We were some of the last to arrive, which meant we had to poke our heads between those of the people standing in front of us to get a view of Satsuki Odamura’s two whale-length kotos and Sohrab Kolahdooz’s goblet and frame drums. But there are no bad spots in Phoenix Central Park.

The four members of Magic Music set up on the floor, which is below street level. Some people sat down in front of them, no more than a metre or two away. The rest of us filled the ascending, U-shaped ramp that’s like an arm hugging the venue from within.

Everything about the room is bespoke. The curved ceiling reminds me of what I imagine lungs to look like when holding your breath underwater. At any moment, it feels like the building might exhale and the walls billow upwards. But the unusual contours enhance the sound rather than detract from it.

Sandy Evans, a local jazz luminary, played flowing sax melodies over Odamura’s vigorous and percussive koto playing. Odamura grabbed and pulled the strings of the two Japanese zithers with the intensity of a driver changing gears before accelerating up a steep rise.

Steve Elphick, who’s been working with Evans since the 1980s, made his double bass sound like mud. But in a good way. “How’s he making that sound?” my friend asked. “I don’t know,” I said, rising to my tiptoes to take a look. “He’s just using his hands?”

Kolahdooz’s percussion was a highlight. The third composition was couched in Eastern harmony before the band dropped out and Kolahdooz launched into a lengthy drum solo. He picked up such lively momentum on his tombak – an Iranian goblet drum – that I half expected the band to break out into a salsa.