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.

INDRA LESMANA AT FOUNDRY 616

Reviewed by Eric Myers

Loudmouth, February 1, 2025

In 2024 I was delighted to hear from Indra Lesmana, asking me to write the liner notes for his new album Sydney Reunion, which he recorded with three leading Australian musicians: saxophonist Dale Barlow, electric bassist Steve Hunter, and drummer Andy Gander. In ensuing correspondence I was made aware that, following his return to Indonesia in 1984, after five years in Australia, Indra kept alive his connections with Australian jazz to the extent that, in 1987, his jazz quartet toured Indonesia playing mostly his original music featuring saxophonist Barlow once again, in the company of bassist Steve Elphick and drummer Tony Buck. Still, 1987 is a long time ago and, even though memories of the 1980s feel like only yesterday in my mind, it was sobering to realise that Indra is now a middle-aged man of 58. Naturally I was wondering if the magic in his playing as a young man has survived to this day. Of course, when I heard the Sydney Reunion album, I found abundant evidence of that magic, but the opportunity to hear him play again in live performance in the company of the three Australian musicians who played on Sydney Reunion was an opportunity I could not miss. It took place at Foundry 616 on December 19, 2024…

DALE BARLOW: JAZZ SAXOPHONIST, FLAUTIST, IMPROVISER & COMPOSER

Interviewed by Eric Myers

Loudmouth, February 1, 2025

Jazz saxophonist, flute player and composer Dale Barlow was born in Sydney, Australia, on December 25, 1959. He has a Masters of Music degree begun at City College New York under Ron Carter and completed at ANU Canberra. He has received a number of ARIA awards or nominations for Album of the Year/ Jazz performer of the year/ International Artist of the Year/ Bicentennial Artist of the Year, four Mo Awards and a number of Australia Council grants. Barlow briefly studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s he moved to New York, where he was based for some years, and was to become a member of two iconic groups led by African Americans, the Cedar Walton Quartet and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. He studied saxophone with George Coleman and Dave Liebman, piano with Barry Harris, and Hal Galper, and won a BMI scholarship to study at the Jazz Composers Workshop with Bob Brookmeyer and Manny Albam…