John Shand Posts

July 19, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

ARGENTINOSAURUS (Newvelle) 8.5/10 Few albums contains such diverse music from a piano/bass/ drums trio. But then this diversity is partly a reflection of the players involved. Leo Genovese, the brilliant Argentinean pianist, thinks wildly different sorts of thoughts when composing and playing, from the tightest song formats to the loosest…

July 17, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

EAST WEST MOON (Rattle/Birdland) 9/10 This is the second time that New Zealand pianist Jonathan Crayford has teamed up with the stellar New York rhythm section of bassist Ben Street and drummer Dan Weiss. But Crayford is well clear of the mentality of using Big Apple musicians as a proving…

July 15, 2017 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Roslyn Packer Theatre, June 29 7/10 At the risk of sounding like a goon from Pyongyang or Guantanamo Bay, let’s do the torture first. Advance publicity that the torment of Winston Smith was excessively confronting proved something of an alternative fact. More troubling than the implied violence was that the…