JAZZ ALBUM REVIEWS IN THE AUSTRALIAN
In September, 2017 Eric Myers commenced reviewing jazz albums in the Review supplement of The Weekend Australian. All reviews in this folder are written by Myers.
JAZZ
KEVIN HUNT TRIO
HOTHOUSE LIVE 2018
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ABC Jazz
Four stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, February 1, 2020
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This is a swashbuckling effort from pianist Kevin Hunt’s Sydney trio. Hunt is an evergreen whose odyssey through various groups over many years includes a 10-year stint with Don Burrows’ duo. His vast experience shows here. Recorded live, Hunt and his cohorts Karl Dunnicliff (bass) and Dave Goodman (drums) rip through interesting arrangements of jazz standards, including works by Monk, Ellington and Tadd Dameron. The approach is devil-may-care. The repertoire is spiced up with Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales No 1, reimagined through a jazz lens, and a piece called Things Ain’t, inspired by an Aboriginal chant ‘Barrabul-la’ and Mercer Ellington’s Things Ain’t What They Used To Be. This album has a big sound with all three musicians highly expressive, playing without a care in the world. The result is an explosive and high-energy document, which captures this trio’s unusually powerful approach.
Eric Myers
JAZZ
MONASH ART ENSEMBLE
HERE NOW HEAR
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FMR Records
Four stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, February 8, 2020
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Monash Art Ensemble exists in a university setting, and many students from the music school play in the ensemble aggregations, but this is not music by fledgling students. Eight works over two-and-a-half hours are from arguably Australia’s most established composers in the area of improvised music, five of whom are Sandy Evans, Paul Grabowsky, Marc Hannaford, Rob Burke and Paul Williamson. The classical composer Andrew Ford provides his first work for improvising ensemble. The music here is full of new sounds, suggesting that Monash is a hotbed of exploratory music. There is also much ensemble writing and improvisations which consolidate past achievements, not only in the previous works of these composers, but also in the American jazz canon, where many insights are reflected in these new works. Potential listeners will be comforted that the music on this fascinating double-album combines innovation with tradition.
Eric Myers
JAZZ
JAMES MORRISON & JEFF CLAYTON
BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP
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Long Player Records/Universal
Four stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, February 15, 2020
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Australia’s James Morrison and American Jeff Clayton met in the Philip Morris Superband in 1989, and toured the world together. This spirited 2012 session displays their friendship and empathy. Clayton comes across as a joyful preacher on the alto saxophone, in the mould of Cannonball Adderley. As always Morrison (trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone) produces brilliant, melodic improvisations, always on the cusp of exercising his prodigious technique. Half of the ten tracks feature Clayton compositions, while others include unusual, refreshing versions of well-known standards: Ellington’s Don’t Get Around Much Anymore as a slow, sensitive ballad; a Latin version of Cole Porter’s I Love You alternating between differing time-feels. A luminous presence throughout is the Perth pianist Konrad Paszkudzki, momentarily back from the US, where he was then hitting the big time. Others, playing beautifully, are Brett Hirst or Phil Stack (bass) and drummer Gordon Rytmeister.
Eric Myers