John Shand Posts

November 18, 2017 / Concert Reviews - Archive

The Studio, October 30 7.5/10 This could be cast as a win for composition over improvisation, although one could attend Freedman Jazz happily oblivious to its being a competition at all, and simply enjoy a celebration of creative music. This 15th edition again emphasised the diversity of music performed under…

November 17, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

NAT KING COLE & ME (Blue Note) 7.5/10 It takes a certain vocal quality to even attempt this. Choose your own metaphor: whether velvet, honey or melted chocolate, lushness is mandatory, as is the ability to soothe. Nat “King” Cole was a primary influence on the young Gregory Porter, and…

November 15, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

MY NAME IS NOBODY (mynameisnobody.com.au) 9/10 There’s a sense of space here: vast vistas that can replenish the soul with their sprawling beauty, or unsettle it because of that very same expansiveness. Most of us, after all, cling with our fingernails to this continent’s seaboard, our backs to a desert…