Various Artists: It Takes Two to Tango (W&W/Birdland) Paul Motian: Standards Plus One (W&W/Birdland) Various Artists: Introducing M-Base (W&W/Birdland) Reijseger/Fraanje/Sylla: Count Till Zen (W&W/Birdland) Record companies are routinely depicted as the music business’s evil exploiters, the tales of rip-offs, mismanagement, bullying and cocaine being legion. Thankfully there are also many…
John Shand Posts
The Voyage of Mary and William (PathsAndStreams) Like Paul Grabowsky, Matt McMahon waited decades before recording his first album of solo piano. You can hear that distillation of ideas: a certain clarity of intent, without compromising the spontaneity that lies at the heart of McMahon’s art, for the 12 pieces…
Playhouse, August 21 John Bell leaves the company he founded on a high. Here was a Tempest in which he restored the play’s often-lost lightness, and rediscovered the comedy that exists outside of the marauding drunkenness of Stephano and Trinculo. Refreshingly for one of Shakespeare’s most imposed-upon works Bell has…