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.

POCKET TRIO ALBUM “ALL AT ONCE”

Reviewed by Eric Myers

AJAZZ 90, August, 2021

In Sydney it is rare to hear a group which more exemplifies the piano/bass/drums tradition in the jazz canon than the Pocket Trio. Pianist Andrew Scott, bassist Maximillian Alduca and drummer Tim Geldens are three relatively young, highly brilliant musicians who’ve been performing every Tuesday night at Moya’s Juniper Lounge in Redfern for over four years. The result is the creation of an unusually well-rehearsed and well-integrated  trio, with all players showing a virtuosic knowledge of the inner structures of the tunes in their repertoire…

GUS FENWICK ALBUM “ORVIETO”

Reviewed by Eric Myers

AJAZZ 90, August, 2021

This outstanding album results from sessions at Jim Kelly’s Tone Ranger studio near Lismore, NSW. Two quintets with overlapping personnel were recorded: the January band with leader Gus Fenwick (bass); Kerry Jacobson (drums); Jim Kelly (electric & acoustic guitars); Wil Sargisson (piano, organ, clavinet, strings); and Scott Hills (percussion); and  the November band, with three personnel changes: Doug Gallacher (drums), Louie Shelton (guitar) and Brendan St Ledger (piano, organ, Wurlitzer). Additional guests, each on one track, are Mal Logan (keyboards), Michel Rose (pedal steel) and Shannon Marshall (trumpet). If forced (reluctantly) to categorise this music I would have to call it R & B. However, given the splendid improvisations from the guitarists and keyboardists, much of the music sounds to me like straight-ahead jazz, underlining the fact that of course R & B and jazz are closely related genres…

THE HEADS: THE PUSSYCAT TAPES VOL 1

Reviewed by Eric Myers

AJAZZ 91, November, 2021

Coming simultaneously with the release of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme Live in Seattle, a jazz club performance recorded in 1965, this album from The Heads, The Pussycat Tapes Vol 1, recorded the previous year in 1964, is comparable, and equally as important. Both gigs were recorded by amateur enthusiasts, using a tape recorder and a couple of microphones, and bring to light the playing of musicians who are important to jazz history in both the USA and Australia. The Heads, a quartet of out-of-town musicians led by the then 24-year-old alto saxophonist Bernie McGann, was at a small jazz club in Melbourne, the Fat Black Pussycat, doing four nights a week…