Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, January 14 6/10 Hailu Mergia’s star waxed in the 1970s, when his Walias Band stampeded its way to being the first Ethiopian band to tour the US. Mergia stayed on to escape the military dictatorship that was driving music underground, but ended up driving cabs rather than…
Category: Concert Reviews
City Recital Hall, January 9 6.5/10 Finally Sydney Festival returned Australia’s improvising musicians to its program. Ignoring the musical treasures in its own back yard has been a monumental failure of knowledge, taste, programming and balance. That it was Stu Hunter who broke the drought was heart-warming. The pianist’s first…
1 Eric Harland’s Voyager 505, June 3 Eric Harland’s daring music was like a glimpse of jazz circa 2020. A once-in-a-generation drummer, he is also a composer of sufficient breadth to transcend idiom, presenting his collaborators with diverse challenges and distinctive fields upon which to loose their highly focused improvising.…