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
NORTHERN RHAPSODY
EISHAN ENSEMBLE
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ACEL Productions, France
Four-and-a-half stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, August 9, 2025
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This beautiful album is from a quartet led by Persian-Australian tar virtuoso Hamed Sadeghi. Its title Northern Rhapsody refers to the northern part of NSW where most of Sadeghi’s seven compositions were developed, a reminder that, in touring regional areas of the state, he found what he describes as “love and beauty” in the vast landscapes he experienced, which were so different to what he knew in Iran. Accordingly the compositions are often spacious, but they are certainly not languid. They’re played strongly by Michael Avgenicos (saxophone), Max Alduca (double bass) and Adem Yilmaz (percussion), three full-blooded musicians who bring Sadeghi’s compositions to life with vigour and enthusiasm. Sadeghi came to this country in 2013, aged 29. In many ways his is a remarkable success story in Australian multiculturalism: a migrant from a Middle Eastern country who fell in love with this country and found an alternate home here. There’s little wonder that, while Iran is still in his blood, Sadeghi says “I could never have made this album in Tehran”.
Eric Myers
JAZZ
ALONE TOGETHER
STATES OF CHAOS
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Independent
Four-and-a-half stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, August 16, 2025
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The trio States of Chaos, formed in 2010, includes Casey Golden (piano), Bill Williams (bass), and Ed Rodrigues (drums). Alone Together is their first album with music not composed by themselves. It has eight tracks, featuring somewhat unusual compositions which probably would be best-known only to core jazz enthusiasts: three Wayne Shorter pieces, one each from Miles Davis & Horace Silver, and three standards from the Great American Songbook. It’s the sort of repertoire which sends a reviewer back to the original versions in order to fully appreciate how conversant the musicians are with these esoteric, but extremely interesting, compositions. Williams was moving out of Sydney so, in order to document their playing, the trio went into the studio with a minimum of preparation and spontaneously recorded tunes they’d long been playing at gigs. The result is a beautiful album, mostly consisting of first takes. I have reviewed here a number of outstanding piano jazz trios over the past eight years; States of Chaos is certainly up there with the best of them.
Eric Myers