ALBUM REVIEWS IN THE AUSTRALIAN
In September, 2017, Eric Myers commenced reviewing jazz albums in the Review supplement of The Weekend Australian. All reviews in this folder are written by Myers. As from October 21, 2025, the magazine Review was replaced by another magazine entitled Culture. From that date reviews by Eric Myers appeared either online in The Weekend Australian or as Album of The Week in the magazine Culture.
JAZZ
Soul Journey by Chris McNulty
Pearl Coast Jazz
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Published online in the Weekend Australian’s Culture magazine on July 18, 2026.
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Only a highly accomplished jazz singer produces an album like Soul Journey. In fact there’s so much to praise that I need more space to adequately cover all the plaudits necessary. Chris McNulty’s voice is blessed with impeccable sound quality and a lovely vibrato; she’s a superb exponent of the wordless vocal; her compositional skills, particularly as a lyricist, are formidable; and brilliant jazz musicians, both local and international, are on hand to accompany her. There are 13 tracks here, including seven McNulty originals, and six by other composers, the highlights of which are arguably the Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart classic It Never Entered My Mind, and Jimmy van Heusen’s All My Tomorrows. After a lovely version of the latter, McNulty closes the album with a tour de force of two ballads: Anthony Newley’s There’s No Such Thing As Love, and the Hal David/Burt Bacharach classic Alfie, so beautifully sung that the listener is taken to another place. This album is testimony to how well McNulty developed her artistry during 30 years in New York, before her welcome return to Australia in 2015.
★★★★★
Eric Myers
JAZZ
Blues for Bob by Rodric White
Newmarket Music Australia
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Published online in the Weekend Australian’s Culture magazine on July 25, 2026.
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This album features three great Australian musicians playing under the leadership of the excellent pianist Rodric White. It’s a tribute to legendary Sydney pianist Bobby Gebert who, in his career, pushed the boundaries of the music as a player and composer. Now 82, he’s no longer playing. It’s appropriate that Jonathan Zwartz (bass) & Andrew Dickeson (drums) are present, for two reasons: one, they ensure that the rhythm section is flying throughout; and two, they both played on the Bobby Gebert Trio’s classic album The Sculptor, nominated for the 1995 ARIA Award for best jazz album. Completing the quartet is saxophonist Dale Barlow, one of a rare breed, an Australian who was truly successful in New York. His familiar tenor provides one of the signature sounds in Australian jazz. There are ten tracks here, with Barlow and White each providing two originals. Otherwise the repertoire includes jazz standards by composers such as Ray Brown, George Cables and McCoy Tyner, plus two tunes from the Great American Songbook. Not all the album’s highlights can be mentioned in a thumbnail review, but one is Bass Blues In E, featuring Zwartz & Dickeson; another is White’s solo piano version of Monk’s beautiful composition Pannonica.
★★★★
Eric Myers
JAZZ
Skydancer by The Vampires
Earshift Music
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Published online in the Weekend Australian’s Culture magazine on August 8, 2026.
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This is the eighth album from The Vampires, a quartet now celebrating 20 years together as one of Australia’s most creative and internationally recognised jazz groups. They include Jeremy Rose (tenor sax, bass clarinet, synthesisers), Nick Garbett (trumpet), Noel Mason (bass) and Alex Masso (drums). Skydancer follows up their ARIA Award-winning 2023 album, Nightjar, which featured The Necks’ pianist Chris Abrahams. There are 11 tracks here, including seven compositions by Rose, three by Garbett, and one by Mason. The group’s infectious Garbett/Rose interaction survives as always, atop the groove-based time-feels which are laid down in masterly fashion by Mason and Masso. If there’s an evolution in the latter, it’s perhaps that there are more backbeats than in previous albums. Importantly, The Vampires appear to be widening their vocabulary. In his liner notes, Rose puts it this way: “Each of us recorded additional parts, layering horns, synths and percussion, but always with restraint. The challenge was to create new worlds without losing the immediacy that defines the band”. I feel that the band’s fans around the world are likely to agree.
★★★★½
Eric Myers