John Shand Posts

July 30, 2020 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Old Fitz Theatre, June 29 9/10 Thom Paine is a paradox wrapped in an accident that may happen again while we’re watching. That’s the wonder of US playwright Will Eno’s hour-long one-hander: it stays dangerous even when you know the play; never sheds its unpredictability. You can test that theory,…

July 29, 2020 / Album Reviews - Archive

FREYA (Edition/Planet) 8/10 Initially the rhythm stumbles with the broken motion of a leg in a splint, while the alto skates blithely by, before drummer Dan Weiss starts treating the thrumming insistence of Matthew Brewer’s bass as something to be tamed rather than healed. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi has already cauterised…

July 27, 2020 / Features - Archive

For a portrait of the artist as a child who never grew up, look at Dexter Gordon’s smile: the gummy grin of a six-year-old, even when he was ravaged by ill health. Dexter compensated by growing up vertically, standing 196 centimetres in his socks, his massive hands making a tenor…