Eric Myers Jazz

LOUDMOUTH ARTICLES & REVIEWS

This folder contains reviews and articles written by various authors for the Music Trust’s e-zine Loudmouth. Readers can click on the INDEX button for a list of reviews or articles in this folder.

JUDY BAILEY’S ANOTHER JOURNEY: MUSIC FOR SYMPHONY AND JAZZ ORCHESTRAS

Reviewed by Eric Myers

Music Trust’s E-Zine Loudmouth, March 1, 2018

One has to admire Judy Bailey’s music here. So much intelligent  thought has gone into this music over many years, and I strongly believe that these compositions are a real work of the imagination. Another Journey feels to me like the crowning achievement of a lifetime in jazz..

SOUND BALANCE IN JAZZ: A VEXED QUESTION

by Eric Myers

Loudmouth, October, 2019

This article was prompted by a discussion that came about following my review, published in The Australian, of the September 8 concert in The Studio of the Sydney Opera House, when three finalists competed for the $20,000 Music Trust Freedman Jazz Fellowship. They were vocalist Elly Hoyt and pianists Novak Manojlovic and Harry Sutherland, each performing for about half-an-hour with their own small ensembles. There were relatively minor sound problems on the night, which in my view were avoidable, given what we now know about the presentation of jazz in such concert halls, which are purpose-built primarily for classical music, and do not suit normal jazz instrumentation. In such venues much care needs to be taken to ensure that the sound is well-balanced and delivered to the audience so that the beauty of jazz can be fully experienced…

JOHN CLARE: 1940-2020

A personal memoir by Eric Myers

Loudmouth, January 29, 2021

For me John Clare’s death on December 24, 2020, signified the end of an era. Although I did not know him well – we were acquaintances rather than friends – he was a constant presence in my mind since the mid-70s. I considered him the most interesting writer on jazz in this country. In later years, as I became more aware of his vast output as a writer, it became clear that he was not merely a so-called “jazz writer”. He is better considered as a creative writer who happened to write on jazz, amongst other topics. He once said that his prime inspirations were music, painting and the ocean, but in fact he wrote beautifully on any subject under the sun…