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
Time Passes by Jones Robertson Gould
ABC Jazz
____________________
Published online in the Weekend Australian’s Culture magazine on March 21, 2026
____________________
Time Passes is only 41 minutes long, but it’s a gem from three giants of Australian music: pianist Tony Gould, bassist Ben Robertson and percussionist David Jones. Its ten tracks are mostly spontaneous compositions in the studio. Sometimes they feature all musicians together, or duos in various combinations, or solos. Highlights include two written pieces: The Rambler, a lovely original from Colin Hopkins; and Charlie Chaplin’s Smile, where Gould begins in two different keys, an idea beloved by American composer Charles Ives, to whom the piece is dedicated. Gould’s intensely beautiful Divination, which he created on the spot, takes spontaneous creation to high art. This trio has a distinctive approach to the free improvisation genre without undermining those elements we know and love in the piano trio tradition, such as harmony, lyricism and delicacy. On the contrary, those qualities are spectacularly enhanced. Jones’s choice of brushes throughout is masterly, and on Murmuration he plays the African kalimba beautifully. This trio has been playing together since time immemorial, so it’s no surprise that the music reeks of empathy between these three superb musicians.
★★★★½
Eric Myers