Trombonist Shannon Barnett’s composition and performance work Dead Weight is a highly imaginative and inspired work that takes the audience into an unusual aural realm. It combines composed music and jazz improvisation with the sounds of a gymnasium.

Barnett was on hand to oversee its staging at Melbourne’s City Baths on Tuesday night as part of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. It was previously premiered in Cologne, Germany where the trombonist is based and plays as a member of the WDR Big Band.

Barnett explained that she has always been fascinated by the parallels between music and sport and the idea for the work arose from a conversation with a gym instructor.

Dead Weight at Melbourne City Baths. Photo © William Hamilton-Coates

It is an ambitious work that drew a large curious audience – one that was divided into three groups. Each group was assigned a guide and led in three different directions, alternatively moving between three rooms where performances were stage. The three groups met up in a fourth room for the final performance. All the while, the gym facilities and pools were in use.

The group I was assigned to...