My offering for this month is for establishments whose menus are designed to challenge their diners just a little and therefore whose musical selections might also match, whist at the same time being perfectly accessible and highly rewarding.
The album is the debut by Australian modern jazz sextet Wanderlust, however since this release the band has followed through with three more.
Starting with the lively and driving Bronte Café, the selection continues with the ethereal and hypnotic Dakar, which demonstrates influences of music from all over the world, as indeed do all the tracks. This is a world music album. There are seven more excellent tracks.
Instruments include trumpet and flugelhorn (both played by Miroslav Bukovsky, who wrote seven of the nine compositions on the album), alto sax, clarinet, trombone, didgeridoo, double bass, drums and percussion, keyboards, guitar and voice.
One of the most impressionable things about Wanderlust is the extremely high quality of playing and the beautiful freedom and space within the ensemble playing, whilst still retaining complete tightness and direction.
First published in Restaurant and Catering Magazine, April 2001
