John Shand Posts

July 22, 2016 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Ensemble Theatre, July 21 7/10 Harold Pinter wrote Betrayal with almost Shakespearian detachment. Despite all three lead characters betraying at least one of the others, no one’s behaviour is portrayed as villainous and no one is even deemed to be at fault. Perhaps this detachment is unsurprising, given that Pinter…

July 20, 2016 / Album Reviews - Archive

LEFT HAND PATH (Downstream) 9/10 When the clarinet faded from favour as a front-line jazz instrument (in favour of the saxophone and or sometimes the bass clarinet) the music lost a singularly expressive array of colours. These colours and effects did not need to be restricted to the leaping, pert…

July 13, 2016 / Album Reviews - Archive

DISTRICT SIX (Losen/Birdland) 7/10 Among all the indigenous idioms with which jazz has intermingled the music of South Africa has been an especially natural fit. Such rainbow nation musicians as Abdullah Ibrahim, Dudu Pukwana and Louis Moholo have been responsible for some of the most distinctive and ebullient jazz ever…