Eric Myers Jazz

ERIC MYERS REVIEWS 1980-87

Eric Myers was the Sydney Morning Herald’s inaugural jazz critic, his first review appearing on February 2, 1980. This folder contains reviews and articles written by Myers up to his resignation in 1982. Text published in the newspaper is reproduced here, with the addition of photographs which may or may not have appeared in the newspaper. In 1983 Myers moved to The Australian, where he was that paper’s jazz critic, until he resigned towards the end of 1987.  His reviews for that newspaper appear also in this folder. Articles which appeared in other publications are included here, if they serve to document the performances of Australian jazz musicians. Readers can click on the INDEX button for a list of reviews or articles in this folder.

JOACHIM KUHN: THE FASTEST PIANO IN THE WEST?

by Eric Myers

Sydney Morning Herald, January 24, 1981

On Thursday night a sizeable audience reacted wildly to the second performance by the German solo artist who is reputed to be one of the fastest pianists since the great American Art Tatum. The man in question, Joachim Kuhn, must also be one of the heaviest. Nevertheless, his prodigious technique was undoubted, as he worked his way through a thunderous one-and-a-half hours at the piano…

DIZZY GILLESPIE: ELDER STATESMAN OF JAZZ

by Eric Myers

Sydney Morning Herald, January 26, 1981

John Birks (Dizzy) Gillespie, 63, is one of the most creative musicians of the twentieth century, as important to jazz as, say, Stravinsky or Ravel were to classical music. Yet he is disarmingly modest about the famous bebop period of the 1940s, when he and the alto saxophonist Charlie Parker brought into the music the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic complexities now fundamental to modern jazz as we know it. “I don't dwell too much on those days,” he said on Saturday, speaking from New Zealand. “But the most enjoyable period of my life was playing with Charlie Parker...”

DIZZY GILLESPIE: ENOUGH OLD MAGIC LEFT

by Eric Myers

Sydney Morning Herald, January 28, 1981

The opening night of the Sydney International Music Festival on Monday night was a splendid affair with a real sense of occasion. An eight-piece group, the New Reunion Jazz Band, opened the concert. This band is composed mainly of upper middle-class Americans who have their professions outside music. They first played jazz together at college nearly 20 years ago and now rendezvous for occasional engagements at various places around the world, usually as a promotional vehicle for Pan American Airlines…