Stravinsky is the second album for Sherlock Hanlon, a Melbourne-based duo comprising James Sherlock (jazz guitar) and Ben Hanlon (double bass). Their 2018 self-titled first album featured jazz arrangements of pieces by Massenet, Chopin and Schubert in addition to works by jazz pianist Jimmy Rowles and tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins. 

Here, as the title suggests, Sherlock Hanlon turn their attention to Igor Stravinsky, continuing a long-standing fascination with his works among jazz musicians including Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman and Alice Coltrane. Considering Stravinsky’s boundary-pushing harmonics, experiments with pulsating rhythms and roots in folk musical and dance traditions, it’s not hard to see the appeal, especially for The Rite of Spring, which premiered as jazz was emerging as a musical form. Sherlock and Hanlon present three excerpts from The Rite of Spring and four from Petrushka, which are no mean feat to arrange for guitar and double bass. In fact, it’s more productive to think of them as meditations that use these thematic motifs as starting points for modal explorations. 

There’s some fine playing...