sydney arts guide
This folder contains reviews written by Eric Myers for the Sydney Arts Guide, edited by David Kary. Readers can click on the INDEX button for a list of reviews or articles in this folder.
Andrew Scott
THE POCKET TRIO PLUS FOUR VOCALISTS AT CAMELOT LOUNGE
Reviewed by Eric Myers
Sydney Arts Guide, February 17, 2026
I’ve already waxed lyrical about the new Pocket Trio album Something Borrowed Something Blue in a review published in AJAZZ, the magazine of the Australian Jazz Museum. But I don’t feel I’m duplicating my thoughts in that review in applauding the trio’s performance at Camelot Lounge on February 12, 2026. A packed, apparently sold-out, audience attended; Andrew Scott (piano), Max Alduca (double bass) and Tim Geldens (drums) confirmed their mastery as a jazz trio; and the four vocalists featured on their recent album performed brilliantly in a performance that more or less brought the house down. Such a triumphant evening deserves to be thoroughly documented, and I’ll do my best to summarise what took place at this unforgettable gig…
The Necks
THE NECKS AT CITY RECITAL HALL
Reviewed by Eric Myers
Sydney Arts Guide, March 6, 2026
In August 2018, shortly after succeeding the late John McBeath as The Australian’s jazz reviewer, I reviewed The Necks’ album Body, the group’s 20th album. In an ideal world, I should have been familiar with the preceding 19 albums but of course that’s not a realistic possibility. I suffer from the reviewer’s curse in that writing for a weekly music reviews page, there’s time enough only to become an instant expert on a solitary album, although I daresay it would have been enjoyable to have had the time to listen to all the music on The Necks’ interesting and prolific albums. Soon after I reviewed two subsequent Necks albums: Three in February, 2020, and Bleed in February, 2025…
Tchaikovsky
LISTEN TO THIS: DISCOVER TCHAIKOVSKY
Reviewed by Eric Myers
Sydney Arts Guide, March 13, 2026
This concert on March 10, 2026, featuring Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 5, was part of a new concept, utilising a different format to the SSO’s usual concerts. This was the “Listen To This” series which, I understood, would be “part-performance, part-guided tour”, with the conductor chatting about the music throughout. When I first heard this I felt a tinge of alarm as, under normal circumstances, I like to immerse myself in an orchestral work and often resent my concentration being interrupted; it’s bad enough having to cope with the occasional advertisements which automatically appear on YouTube, which we have to skip over. However, I needn’t have worried. This splendid presentation by the personable conductor Benjamin Northey was informative, educational and thoroughly enjoyable…