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
ANOTHER DANCE
THIS WORLD
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Lionsharecords
Four-and-a-half stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, April 23, 2022
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Mike Nock (piano), Jonathan Zwartz (double bass), Julien Wilson (tenor sax) and Hamish Stuart (drums) recently named their band This World, the title of their celebrated 2019 debut album. Other than a brief session for ABC Jazz, now largely forgotten, Another Dance is their second album, and it’s more of the same: eight compositions from four great musicians who’ve shown that, as composers, each produces highly distinctive works. The result is an album of diversity and contrast. Other than beautiful improvisations, that diversity includes episodes of solo piano, where Nock is a master; the unusually sensitive drumming of Stuart; the huge sound and mellifluous playing of Wilson on tenor; and the full-toned brilliance of bassist Zwartz. An unusual innovation here in the composition Headlands is Stuart’s use of the ocean drum, a circular, double-sided drum filled with small metal beads, producing the restful sound of waves. This band, one of the most impressive Australian all-star quartets in living memory, is an irresistible combination of four renowned musicians.
Eric Myers
JAZZ
SONGS FOR HABITUAL PEOPLE
INLAY ENSEMBLE
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Creative Sources Recordings
Four stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, April 30, 2022
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This is an unusual, but very interesting album, from brilliant double bassist Elsen Price, leading a string trio including himself, Susie Bishop (violin) and Carl St Jacques (viola). It features 11 Price compositions, most with inscrutable one-word titles such as Gratuitous, Frivolous and Abating. With this instrumentation much of the music necessarily has the sound of classical music, but there is a strong jazz sensibility in operation. Each composition is based on a brief written motif, and created through what Price calls ‘modal improvisation’. Expecting the music to be difficult to comprehend, I listened to this album many times over several weeks and found the music growing on me, and to be pleasingly melodic. There is a yearning quality in the music, which overall is atmospheric and infectious. A variety of moods is captured: Ingeminated, for example, is very moving; Importunated is jolly and rollicking; Aciculate is very sad; and so on. Note the exceedingly resonant sound of Price’s bowed double bass, highly reminiscent of the iconic didgeridoo.
Eric Myers
JAZZ
PRECIOUS ENERGY
BARNEY McALL
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Extra Celestial Arts
Four-and-a-half stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, May 7, 2022
Four recent Barney McAll albums were listening highlights: Hearing The Blood (2017); Zephyrix (2018); Global Intimacy (2019); and Transitive Cycles (2021). Unique works, they were quite unlike each other. McAll’s marvellous new album of eight vocal tracks arguably continues what he achieved with Global Intimacy: utilising pop music conventions creatively in order to realise a broad artistic vision. A cavalcade of Australian and international musicians contribute to this gorgeous album, luxuriating in the sounds of African American soul music. They include vocalists Rita Satch, Jace XL, and Bell Bangard, vocalist/guitarist Laneous, members of Hiatus Kaiyote, and others. Two remarkable jazz saxophonists are strongly featured, the Australian Julien Wilson and the American Gary Bartz. McAll says he wishes to recreate in sound the sensations he experienced as a child while swimming at Mt Martha and Silverleaves, beaches to the south of Melbourne, when he was fascinated by the essence of nature. “As every wave is unique”, he writes, “I wish to be relieved of the bondage of self”.
Eric Myers