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
THE ROAD
ZELA MARGOSSIAN QUINTET
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Ropeadope
Four-and-a-half stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, May 14, 2022
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Following this group’s impressive 2018 album Transition, nominated for an ARIA, The Road is further evidence of the main influences which impel Zela Margossian’s music: jazz rhythms and harmonies; the discipline of classical music; and Middle Eastern folk melodies. The group’s main strengths are Margossian’s rare talent as a pianist/composer; its formidable rhythm section, with Jacques Emery (double bass), Adem Yilmaz (percussion), and Alexander Inman-Hislop (drums); and the authoritative interpretations of her music by Stuart Vandegraaff (saxophones & clarinet). This album showcases eight Margossian compositions which are melodic and easy on the ear, while cleverly disguising rhythmic complexity. The album’s title track, for example, has a recurring pattern of one bar of 4/4, two bars of 3/4 and one bar of 5/8. As Margossian’s music has demonstrable appeal to the average listener, it has been marketed misleadingly as something other than jazz. However I feel it is the illustrious broad church of jazz where Margossian’s excellent music most authentically finds its home.
Eric Myers
JAZZ
BETWEEN PANIC & PEACE
ANDREA KELLER SHANNON BARNETT SAM ANNING
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Independent
Four stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, May 28, 2022
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In early 2020 I was present when this brilliant trio performed live in Sydney, so this lovely album is a welcome reminder of what was an exquisite listening experience. Whereas some Australian jazz albums being released these days can be somewhat strident, this album is full of soft subtleties and extreme thoughtfulness. Eight original compositions are featured, four by pianist Keller, and two each from trombonist Barnett and double bassist Anning. They include two extraordinary compositions recycled from previous recordings: Anning’s Urkraft and Keller’s Life is Brut[if]al, treated here differently but still revitalized into moving new versions. It is perhaps appropriate that this album was recorded in the Brian Brown Studio at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, a reminder that Brown, the renowned Melbourne musician/educator, very much provided the template in Australian jazz for creative musicians to find their own voice rather than copy other models. Were he alive today, I feel that Brown would be immensely proud of an album like this, its originality exemplifying his musical philosophy.
Eric Myers
[Eric Myers writes: The performance by this trio, then called the Shannon Barnett Trio, took place on International Women’s Day in Sydney on Sunday, March 8, 2020. My review, entitled “Shannon Barnett Trio on Song for SIMA” appeared in The Australian on March 11, 2020. It can be read on this site at https://ericmyersjazz.com/theaustralian-2015-16.]
JAZZ
GHOST FREQUENCY
CAMERON UNDY
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Earshift Music
Five stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, June 11, 2022
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Few Australian jazz musicians would possess more depth of talent than Sydney’s Cameron Undy. A serious bass virtuoso (both double and electric), he is on solo guitar here engaged in a fascinating exercise: attempting to distill rhythms which he hears in many forms of contemporary music but which he says have evolved over thousands of years via the African diaspora. Initially I thought that perhaps only a musicologist could do justice to such a noble undertaking but, significantly, Undy says that the listener should not expect to identify specific ancient rhythms in the eight original compositions he is presenting. Undy is exercising his right as an artist to create reality according to his own imaginative vision and is therefore creating what he describes as “geometric distortions of the original archetypes” or, in other words, reflections or shadows of “ghostly artefacts”. Hence the album title Ghost Frequency. My sense is that this thoroughly intriguing and unprecedented album is a major achievement.
Eric Myers