John Shand Posts

August 19, 2016 / Album Reviews - Archive

BIRDWATCHING (ECM) 8.5/10 Anat Fort calls the longest piece here Not the Perfect Storm. She could have left off the “not” because, beginning with Roland Schneider’s ominous tom-tom rolls, it is a perfect marriage of visceral drama and a profound, almost ancient-sounding sadness. While Fort’s piano, Schneider’s drums and Gary…

August 17, 2016 / Album Reviews - Archive

EVOLVING (http://francescaprihasti.com.au) 7/10 There’s an optimism at work here that is contagious. Rather than being garishly ebullient, however, it is quietly contemplative. The music is also often delicate to the point of fragility, as befits what is loosely a programmatic depiction of the lifecycle of the caterpillar/butterfly. This is the…

August 15, 2016 / Features - Archive

Heard any Bach on a banjo lately? If that conjures up a tinny twanging to drive you screaming from the room try a dose of Bela Fleck. Who else uses the much-maligned instrument to play Bach and Bartok, to duet with jazz maestro Chick Corea or to colour the desert-tinged…