Eric Myers Jazz

LOUDMOUTH ARTICLES & REVIEWS 2022-

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.

FESTIVAL’S END: THE WANGARATTA FESTIVAL OF JAZZ AND BLUES CALLS IT A DAY

by Andra Jackson

Loudmouth, September 1, 2023

The jazz community has been left to ponder why a festival once considered Australia’s premier jazz event, is to be wound up this year. The board of the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues announced last week that it was pulling the plug on the award-winning regional festival, on what would have been its 34th year. In a statement emailed to patrons, the board cited “continuing financial constraints” and  “diminished resourcing” was a driving factor behind its decision to wind up the festival. Its other consideration was “a shifting and uncertain outlook for music festivals generally across Australia”…

FLORA CARBO & WILBUR WHITTA OPEN THE WOMEN’S JAZZ FESTIVAL

Reviewed by Eric Myers

Loudmouth, November 5, 2023

The opening concert of the Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival took place in a plush room on level 4 of the Women’s Club, engendering a real sense of occasion.  Before a small audience – maybe 40 in a room which would comfortably accommodate about 50 people - it featured two relatively young, highly talented jazz musicians, Flora Carbo (alto saxophone) and Wilbur Whitta (piano). Before they were introduced, welcoming speeches were given by the club’s CEO Danielle Asciak, the festival’s artistic director Zoe Hauptmann, and Alex Raupach, who’d arrived in Sydney that day from Canberra, to take up his new position as CEO of SIMA. I attended this concert for the simple reason that, in past years, it was my custom to review the opening concert of the festival…

GREGG ARTHUR IN FOUNDRY 616: ANOTHER TOUR DE FORCE

Reviewed by Eric Myers

Foundry 616, January 11, 2024

As usual Gregg Arthur’s concert at Foundry 616, on this occasion sub-titled “Sinatra – The Early Years” was sold out, confirming that this great singer has unusual drawing-power for a jazz artist in the city where he is based. These days I attend performances only intermittently, so have no idea how large normal audiences are at Foundry but the only comparable packed house I have previously experienced there, other than Arthur’s fairly regular gigs, which I try not to miss, was that given by Australia’s leading drawcard James Morrison in April, 2023. So, at least at the jazz club level, one has to assume that Arthur’s drawing-power is considerable indeed…