JAZZ 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.
JAZZ
ASTROLABE
CHRIS CODY
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Independent
Four stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, April 11, 2020
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Astrolabe is a 66-minute suite inspired by 18th century French navigator/explorer Jean-Francois de La Pérouse, who sailed into Botany Bay on January 24, 1788 shortly after the First Fleet. The narrative spoken by an actor in the original theatre production, which gave the music a fascinating context, is missing, so the music is in a sense orphaned. Still, composer/pianist Chris Cody aims, not to write a travelogue, but “to capture some of the colours and emotions” he felt after reading La Pérouse’s journal. Detailed liner notes provide context, and the album works very well as stand-alone music. The ensemble is a standard jazz sextet, plus violin and accordion, allowing Cody to construct an exotic soundscape. Astrolabe features eight leading Sydney musicians, but is mostly a showcase for the exceedingly gifted Paul Cutlan on flute, clarinet, bass clarinet and tenor saxophone.
Eric Myers
[Eric Myers writes: Subsequent to the publication of this review I was made aware that I was in error in assuming that the narration, which was an important part of the theatre production, was part of Chris Cody’s original concept. I now know that the music was written and performed first as a jazz suite, before the theatre production was conceived. The narration which Cody translated from the ship journal, and which was read by an actor in the theatre, and the videos made with a videographer, were added in order to provide a dramatic context for the music in the theatre.]
JAZZ
FROM THIS PLACE
PAT METHENY
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Warner Music Group
Four-and-a-half stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, April 25, 2020
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American guitarist Pat Metheny believes his latest album, his first in five years, is unlike any of his others, a claim well justified. There are several reasons for this, not least being the superb playing of probably his best band ever, now road-tested over hundreds of live performances: UK pianist Gwilym Sincock, Australian bassist Linda May Han Oh, and Mexican-American drummer Antonio Sanchez. To create the music here Metheny emulated Miles Davis, who would take his band on tour and play, not new music, but the standard repertoire, thus enabling the musicians to develop a code through playing familiar music night after night. Then, he would take the battle-hardened band into the studio and, without rehearsal, apply the code to fresh compositions. Metheny has duplicated this model with considerable success. “Record first, orchestrate later” was another technique borrowed from the past. The orchestral arrangements by Alan Broadbent and Gil Goldstein, and played by the Hollywood Studio Symphony, are obviously suggested by the musicians’ improvisations, thus giving Metheny a larger platform for what he considers his most significant music. There are several high-energy jazz/rock tunes on this album, which will sound familiar to Metheny fans, but the highlights are two ruminative tracks featuring guest artists. Donald Trump was elected US President on November 8, 2016. The following morning Metheny wrote From This Place, the album’s title track. Beautifully sung by Meshell Ndegeocello with lyrics by her partner Alison Riley, this moving composition contains the album’s key message: “Here I stand with thee; until hearts are truly free.” The other stand-out track The Past In Us, is a gentle waltz, featuring Swiss-born Grégoire Maret. His beautiful harmonica solo, dripping with nostalgia, reveals Maret as a worthy heir to two past great harmonica players, Belgian Toots Thielemans and American Stevie Wonder. Metheny is a consummate guitarist, with a great sound and unlimited ability as a convincing improviser. What distinguishes him from other fusion exponents however is his imagination as a composer. This may well explain the conundrum at the heart of the Metheny phenomenon: how he is able to combine artistic acceptance by hardcore jazz fans, and popularity with music lovers otherwise uninterested in jazz. This great album provides the essential clues.
Eric Myers
JAZZ
NOTHING REMAINS UNCHANGED
ROSS McHENRY
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First Word Records
Four stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, May 2, 2020
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This new album from electric bassist Ross McHenry, originally from Adelaide but now active internationally, is possibly more earnest than his 2017 trio album The Outsiders. It’s a high-energy exploration of nine compositions in the jazz/rock fusion idiom, where McHenry is creating his own oeuvre. The brilliant pianist Matthew Sheens, also from Adelaide but now resident in New York, survives, and the current quartet includes Canadian saxophonist Ben Wendel and US drummer Eric Harland, both internationally celebrated musicians. Overall the music is intense, rhythmically complex, and played with a sense of urgency. There is much brilliance in abundance here, and Wendel is sometimes straining to express himself over the unremitting power and virtuosity of the rhythm section. Recorded in New York in September 2018, the music occasionally erupts into mayhem, appropriately foreshadowing the current plight of that great city.
Eric Myers