John Shand Posts

November 3, 2017 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Venue 505, September 2 8/10 When it’s like this it rearranges your very molecules for you. You walk in from a world defined by time, cost and practicalities, and suddenly all priorities are reset. Jay Rodriguez’s huge sound on a tenor saxophone immediately declares – insists! – that this being…

October 29, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

NOT EVERYTHING BUT ENOUGH (Alister Spence Music) 8/10 There are two types of artist: those who spend entire careers replicating an approach, and those who keep reaching for the new. Across its two-decade career the Alister Spence Trio has continued to evolve from a relatively conventional piano/bass/drums jazz band into…

October 28, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

HARMONY OF DIFFERENCE (Young Turks/Remote Control) 7/10 It could almost seem like a wry joke. How do you follow up a three-hour album? Make one that lasts for 42 minutes. Kamasi Washington’s response to 2015’s monumental The Epic is so short by comparison that it’s being called an EP, when…