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.
Peter Brendlé & Ray Charles
PETER BRENDLÉ: A MAN BEHIND THE MUSIC
by Eric Myers
Encore Magazine, March, 1981
Peter Brendlé's skills are in the areas of promotion, publicity and administration – areas which are peripheral to music itself, but which, many would argue, are an essential part of the music industry. In fact, the greatest weakness of jazz artists in Australia is probably their lack of ability to promote themselves in the marketplace, and publicise their art in the media. Among most musicians, there is a trenchant dislike of promotional activity or commercialisation – it is, after all, not very "hip"…
Dave Brubeck
DAVE BRUBECK AT 61: STILL FIGHTING
by Eric Myers
Sydney Morning Herald, March 7, 1981
A glance at Dave Brubeck's career reveals an impressive array of milestones. He was on the cover of Time magazine in 1956; his album Time Out, which included the famous tune Take Five, was the first jazz record to sell a million copies; and he was one of the first two jazz musicians (the other was Louis Armstrong) to be elected to the Playboy Hall of Fame. He was also the first musician in modern jazz to bring complex time signatures into the music; the first to issue "live" recordings, which are now commonplace; and the first jazz musician in modern times to win popularity outside the hard-core of jazz buffs and reach a mass audience around the world…
Charlie Haden, Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, Ed Blackwell
OLD AND NEW DREAMS: MUSIC TO NOT TAP YOUR FEET
by Eric Myers
Sydney Morning Herald, March 11, 1981
The concert given last night by the American group Old and New Dreams provided a beautiful evening of so-called free jazz. It could not have been a better demonstration of the kind of assault that this music has made on the conventional expectations of orthodox jazz buffs, saturated as most of us are by the Western musical structures that underpinned jazz until about 1965…