John Shand Posts

June 25, 2016 / Features - Archive

He always thought differently. At high school he wrote “Mr Weird” on his clarinet case. No one argued. Wayne Shorter’s verbalised thoughts come out like his saxophone lines: squalls of rapid–fire ideas, some cryptic asides, and big pools of lucid silence while he lets what he’s said sink in. His…

June 22, 2016 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Joan Sutherland Theatre, June 4 6/10 No show has had a high-contrast beginning, middle and end quite like this. Of course it’s not often one’s middle name becomes the catalyst not just for a new persona, but for a whole body of work. Esperanza Spalding took time out from her…

June 15, 2016 / Album Reviews - Archive

RATJA YALIYALI (CAAMA Music) 8/10 We Johnny-come-lately settlers seem to have built a wall around indigenous culture, not to protect it, but to isolate it. We can squat here for a lifetime, flitting overseas for “culture hits” and never engaging with what is in our backyards, let alone beginning to…