ESSAYS

This section includes essays on various jazz subjects, written by a number of writers. Contributions are welcome. Writers interested in contributing are welcome to contact the editor by filling out the form in the CONTACT tab. Photographs to illustrate those essays are welcome. Readers can click on the INDEX button for a list of articles in this folder.

JAMES MULLER

Interviewed by Eric Myers

JazzChord, Apr/May, 2002

Since arriving in Sydney from Adelaide in 1996, the guitarist James Muller, now 27 in 2002, has had an enormous impact on the jazz audience and critics in this city. In this interview he says “I wasn't confident about anything when I first moved to Sydney. I was a nervous wreck for almost two years, but it's ended up great. I've been really lucky to play with all the best players doing lots of the best gigs. For me it's been vibrant definitely… I've got to play with all of my teen idols like Dale Barlow, Andrew Gander, Vince Jones, James Morrison, Chad Wackerman, Mark Isaacs, Mike Nock, Bernie McGann, etc - plus the young guys that I hadn't heard of like Matt McMahon, Phil Slater, Sean Wayland, Barney McAll, Scott Tinkler, and lots of others…

JAMES MULLER WITH THE EXHIBITS AT JAZZLAB

Reviewed by Ian Muldoon

April 24, 2025

The word was out: James Muller at Jazzlab. But it was a Tuesday and the first day after a long weekend so let’s not get carried away. There’ll be plenty of seats. Yet here we were at a packed Jazzlab on Tuesday April 22, 2025 waiting excitedly for one of the most talented guitar players on the planet. Lots of chit chat, clinking glasses and laughter all disappeared at 7.26pm when feet were seen descending the stairs from the upstairs musicians’ backstage area. It was a striking silence for such a big crowd. No introduction and into the music. It was a new Muller composition, second time played, up-tempo, jaunty, contrapuntal with a rock beat. It was called No Clouds…

CHRIS CODY AND THE UNIVERSAL

by Ian Muldoon

May 16, 2025

When I got Chris Cody’s album Mountain to Sea (CCM 014, 2024), held it, looked at its design and art, listened once to it, I was triggered like a 19-year-old university student set afire by something in Moby Dick or Merchant of Venice. This was not outraged negative triggering. It was of rapture, gratitude and it was in some Leavisite sense, morally uplifting. Mountain to Sea is also the name of the quartet giving life to the programme of 11 originals. The artists are: Chris Cody, composer, producer, piano, arranger; Sandy Evans, soprano and tenor saxophones; Tessie Overmyer, alto saxophone; and Lloyd Swanton, contrabass…