John Shand Posts

June 1, 2020 / Features - Archive

Charlie never had to wonder what he would be. When aged two he was already singing on the radio every day: Little Charlie, the Yodelling Cowboy, held up to the microphone by his mother. The youngest member of Carl Haden and the Haden Family, his world was alive with harmonies,…

May 27, 2020 / Album Reviews - Archive

HERE NOW HEAR (FMR) 8.5/10 Monash Art Ensemble reaches ever higher and farther afield for imagination-stretching material. Directed by Paul Grabowsky, this combination of students and professionals moves well beyond the jazz big-band mentality on this double album, taking listeners on the genre-crossing journeys of eight composers, deep into the…

May 24, 2020 / Concert Reviews - Archive

April 30 8/10 International Jazz Day (April 30) has celebrated jazz’s role in helping unite people the world over since 2011. This year, when the host nation was to have been South Africa, it was, instead, another reminder of a community splintered into an epidemic of isolation. But, thanks to…