John Shand Posts

December 26, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

 BLUE MAQAMS (ECM) 9.5/10 Is this the year’s finest release? It is two decades since the great Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem last collaborated with jazz musicians on the timeless Thimar. That was with John Surman and Dave Holland, and now Holland returns to the fold in company with drummer…

December 25, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

All artists are poachers, thieves and cannibals. They pinch ideas, polish up different facets and call them their own. The malaise into which music of all stripes has been sliding for 30 years is that cannibalising what has gone before is now just about all that happens, with precious few…

December 23, 2017 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Camelot Lounge, December 8 8.5/10 In 2007 Dweezil Zappa brought out a star-spangled band called Zappa Plays Zappa that paid tribute to the genius of his late father, Frank. As good as it was, however, the performance was overly po-faced where it should have been irreverent, if not downright zany.…