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.

POSH: SWINGING TRIO WITH SYDNEY FEEL

by Eric Myers

The Australian, March 9, 1984

It’s entirely appropriate that Posh is an acronym for People Of Sydney Harbor. There could hardly be a better example, than this group, of the cosmopolitan nature of musical life in Sydney. To be categorical, Posh consists of a classical flautist (Jane Rutter), a hot singer-guitarist (John Huie) and a jazz double-bassist (Hugh Fraser). Yet, at the level of brilliance which this trio effortlessly achieves, the existence of separate music idioms seems irrelevant. They traverse the idioms with ease, producing music which is an eclectic mixture of influences but succeeds well on its own terms...

TRIO OF MASTERS RISE ABOVE DEAFENING VOLUME

by Eric Myers

The Australian, June 7, 1984

The visit to Australia of the bassists Stanley Clarke and Miroslav Vitous with the guitarist Larry Coryell continues a trend, in major concerts, of presenting individual jazz virtuosos in a chamber music setting, rather than with their normal groups. This means that such artists, alone on the stage, and amplified through huge sound systems, are mercilessly exposed, with every aspect of their playing virtually under the microscope…

DON BURROWS, BOB BARNARD, GALAPAGOS DUCK: THE SOUND JUST RIGHT

by Eric Myers

The Australian, June 11, 1984

I will remember this highly successful concert as the first time, since Count Basie's appearance in 1979, that a major jazz concert in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House achieved good sound balance, giving an audience of over 2,500 a fighting chance to hear jazz as it is usually played. My hat goes off to those in the ABC who were able to assemble the expertise necessary to bring off such a venture. The evening featured the three groups who are widely regarded as the most "popular" in Australian jazz…