John Shand Posts

March 27, 2014 / Album Reviews - Archive

This Is Always (lionsharecords)  A tenor saxophone making gentle, sensuous jazz is a grand tradition, like paddle-steamers cruising on wide, slow rivers. Ben Webster Plays Ballads remains one of jazz’s must-have recordings, and now Julien Wilson eases his own tenor into that tradition, in the process creating one of the…

March 18, 2014 / Concert Reviews - Archive

The Basement, March 12  Everything was a dialogue: between idioms, between players, between virtuosity and heart. The reward for a nightmare trip to town (following the Barangaroo fire) was hearing one of the great bands, Roberto Fonseca’s quintet having few peers for scope, power, beauty and cohesion . Since his…

March 8, 2014 / Concert Reviews - Archive

City Recital Hall, March 5  There are only two types of singers: the fakes and the real ones, and those wretched TV talent quests have only served to widen the gap. Buika is about as real as you can get. There is no assumed persona; no desire to impress; no…