John Shand Posts

February 2, 2013 / Features - Archive

When music is banned in the north of your country, and those who persist in making it are threatened with having their fingers amputated, the stakes of being a musician have just been raised. But, as Rokia Traore knows, the stakes were always high in Mali, the epicentre of African…

January 31, 2013 / Concert Reviews - Archive

City Recital Hall, January 15, 2013  This was as close as Sydney will come to hearing Robert Wyatt in person. His disembodied voice was in the room, as were his songs. France’s young Orchestre National de Jazz performed material from its Around Robert Wyatt album, containing reinventions of the intrepid…

January 31, 2013 / Features - Archive

Were Robert Wyatt your only source of Robert Wyatt information you’d conclude he was the most useless scrub ever to presume to make records. Repeatedly during our hour-long telephone chat he refers to himself as “rubbish”, insists how little he knows about music, or deflects questions by discussing someone else.…