The headline event at the inaugural Brisbane Valley Jazz Festival (March 23 - 29, 2004) featured the Sandy Evans Trio (Sydney) with the James Sherlock Trio as the opener. The Judith Wright Centre has an acoustically excellent performance space for this sort of show, small enough to be intimate while large enough to accommodate a good size crowd.

The pairing of these two groups made for an evening full of musical variety and excellence, as thie repertoires and approaches to it are very different, yet satisfying in their own way.

Guitarist Sherlock played a mixed program of originals and standards with bassist Brett Hirst (Sydney) and drummer Dave Saunders (Byron Bay). Sherlock's originals are notable for their strong melodies and rich harmonic textures, as well as their unpredictability: Land Mullet is in alternating bars of 6 and 5. Not surprisingly, melodic, harmonically rich and full of surprises also describe his improvising. But the most exciting aspect of Sherlock's playing is his strong rhythmic sense. Not only does he really swing, he uses block chords in polyrhythmic figures to create a deep level of interaction with the drums. Dave Saunders is a perfect sparring partner as he deftly matches Sherlock's ideas with his own, all in an understated and dynamically sensitive fashion.

A highlight of the set, which included Willow Weep for Me in 7/4, Monk's Dream and Sherlock's Foil, was the straight-ahead It Could Happen to You. Brett Hirst demonstrated in his solo a swing feel which one would rightly expect to find in a bass player of twice his age and experience.