MISCELLANEOUS POSTINGS

This folder includes miscellaneous articles on jazz subjects, including performance and album reviews, written by Eric Myers, which may or may not have been published elsewhere. Readers can click on the INDEX button to peruse a list of contents in this folder.

ANDREW DICKESON ALBUM “GROOVE!”

Reviewed by Eric Myers

AJAZZ 85, February 2020, magazine of the Australian Jazz Museum

In a recent radio interview Sydney drummer Andrew Dickeson described Wayne Kelly as an “undiscovered genius.” While that may be an overstatement, Kelly is certainly a very fine jazz pianist, tucked away in Canberra, out of the limelight. On the evidence of his recorded work I wish his playing could be heard more in Sydney. If he were playing at a nearby jazz club, I’d be there with enthusiasm, expecting the bop idiom to be given a solid workout…

SOME COMMENTS ON SCAT SINGING

by Eric Myers

Musica Viva program for Australian tour of the New Swingle Singers, August, 1981

Scat-singing is generally considered an instrumental-style solo performed by the voice to vocables, or nonsense syllables. It has also been described, more recently, as the "wordless vocal". This type of wordless singing is probably as old as language itself but, in the jazz idiom, it has an identifiable beginning with Louis Armstrong's 1926 recording of the tune Heebie Jeebies. It is often thought that Armstrong invented scat-singing when, during the recording of this tune, he either dropped the song sheet, or forgot the lyrics while singing. His biographer Hugues Panassié, however, suggests that Armstrong was, by this time, freely using the device in live theatre performances. Whether Louis Armstrong actually invented scat-singing remains a moot point…

GEORGIE FAME: SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE MUSICIANS CLUB

by Eric Myers

Encore magazine, May 1977

It was a pleasure to hear Georgie Fame on Sunday night, 20th March, at the Musicians Club. The previous Tuesday night, I had seen the Roberta Flack concert at the Hordern Pavilion, and it proved to be a disappointment, indeed an exercise in how the public can be ripped off. The sound was awful, with a huge hum coming through the sound system, and Roberta's voice was distorted and deafening whenever she sang in the high registers. I understand, from one of the musicians with the support act Ross Ryan, that the sound gear was unloaded just before the concert and there was no time for a sound check…