John Shand Posts

June 28, 2020 / Album Reviews - Archive

THE EARLY BIRD GETS (Aerophonic/Birdland) 9/10 It’s like a blade – not so much a scalpel and as scythe, hewing its way straight into your central nervous system. I first heard it soon after a general anaesthetic, and I swear hospitals could use Dave Rempis’s alto sound to clear their…

June 27, 2020 / Features - Archive

It was almost as though she had emerged from the womb fully formed. In her 20s she was already feted, adored and even worshipped. Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald were freakish enough, needing only a couple of years to rise from showing promise to embodying supreme artistry. Sarah Vaughan skipped…

June 26, 2020 / Concert Reviews - Archive

These Digital Times, May 30 Streaming just doesn’t quite cut it, does it? When Gretchen Parlato performed in the cavernous Verbrugghen Hall two years ago, I suggested that, given her work’s smaller-than-life ethos, a more appropriate venue may have been a living room. Well, here she was streaming from her…