Verbrugghen Hall, June 3 Whether in politics, broadcasting, plays, films or music, we live in an era where bluster, gaucheness and antagonism trump subtlety, nuance and simple beauty. But Gretchen Parlato is fighting back. Well, not exactly fighting. She’s showing that there’s another way. Rather than trying to make herself…
John Shand | Music & Other Spheres Posts
URGENCY! (Kimnara) 8/10 Most people use language lazily, in pre-fabricated modules, whether speaking or writing. Musicians can also be snared, regurgitating pre-digested patterns, whether composing or improvising. Rare ones devise the actual language: its syntax, vocabulary and potential for expressing the new. This is what drummer Simon Barker does on…
The purists were probably sharpening their knives. Here, after all, was Jim White, famed Australian rock drummer, taking the traditional music of Crete back to Greece, and, being one half of just a duo with George Xylouris’s laouto and baritone voice, there was nowhere to hide. “I was apprehensive,” White…