John Shand Posts

April 9, 2018 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Concert Hall, March 28 7/10 Youssou Ndour promised a party and most members of the audience would probably say he delivered. It’s just that aiming for a party may have been to set the bar too low when another level was possible: a plane on which exuberance and joy sometimes…

April 6, 2018 / Album Reviews - Archive

BOTH SIDES OF THE SKY (Legacy) 9/10 Jimi Hendrix snuck up on the blues from behind, popped a hallucinogen in its mouth, clamped shut its jaws and waited for the gulp. Where his contemporaries Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck (all born within 28 months of each other) aspired to some…

April 5, 2018 / Features - Archive

Years after he had a hit with a bossa nova version of Paul McCartney’s song The Fool on the Hill, Sergio Mendes received a letter from the Beatle thanking him for his interpretation. Burt Bacharach was similarly appreciative of what Mendes did with The Look of Love. In the late…