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
TORQUE
TOURISMO
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ABC Jazz
Five stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, January 13, 2023
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Two extraordinary musicians won the prestigious National Jazz Awards competition at Wangaratta: drummer Alex Hirlian (2018); and pianist Matt Thomson (2021). Their brilliant quintet Tourismo features Michael Avgenicos (tenor saxophone), Josh Meader (guitar) and Nick Henderson (double bass), playing eight compositions, mostly written by the two co-bandleaders. Even if their time-feels suggest a rock approach, the presence of acoustic bass and grand piano in the soundscape results in authentic jazz, full of knowledge and beauty. The flowering of jazz in this country, reflected on this page over several years, is arguably the outcome of unique qualities in Australian cultural life, and contiguously the influence of those musicians who’ve studied at the source in the USA. On Torque, the US pianist Jason Moran — with whom Thomson studied in Boston — identifies a “movement” that is brewing amongst the current generation of Australian jazz musicians, the advanced nature of which is now coming to be appreciated. This movement is a significant Australian phenomenon, and I feel that Tourismo is unquestionably in its vanguard.
Eric Myers
JAZZ
COMPOSERS PLUS VOL 3 LIVE AT THE JAZZLAB
ATM15 BIG BAND
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Independent
Four-and-a-half stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, January 20, 2023
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If you wish to traverse the sounds that are possible in Australian big band jazz, look no further than the mastery of Melbourne’s composer/arranger Andrew Murray. This is the third and final instalment in his series Composers Plus Live At The Jazzlab, recorded February 7, 2019. Five saxophones, four trumpets, and four trombones are atop his usual great rhythm section, Darrin Archer (piano), Tamara Murphy (bass) and Hugh Harvey (drums). Three new compositions/arrangements from James Bowers, Scott van Gemert and Eugene Ball are showcased, covering many bases, from the traditional and melodic to the cacophonic avant-garde. Murray beautifully redefines two standards, and arranges a rather abstract Paul Williamson composition Talking in Pictures. Along the way some of Melbourne’s most distinguished improvisers are featured, including Ball (trumpet), Julien Wilson (tenor sax), Jordan Murray (trombone), Tim Wilson (alto sax) and others. An interesting inclusion is Sydney’s talented Jade MacRae singing a spirited version of Perfect Stranger, arranged by the American Bobby Watson, but transcribed by Murray from a Kerrie Biddell TV performance.
Eric Myers
JAZZ
I TOLD THE OCEAN YOUR NAME
DIANNE CRIPPS
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Independent
Four stars
Published in the Weekend Australian, January 20, 2023
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Singer Dianne Cripps, originally from Virginia USA but now in Australia, has released an impressive debut album with eight tracks. She’s co-written five originals with the talented Matt Thomson, who won the 2021 Wangaratta piano competition, and assembled a formidable backing quartet: Casey Golden (piano), Felix Lalanne (guitars), Elsen Price (double bass) and Ed Rodrigues (drums & percussion). Flautist Keyna Wilkins is on one track. Cripps’s songs are mainly about love and its familiar bittersweet vicissitudes, while their harmonic changes are gorgeously attractive, the product of a real jazz sensibility. The three non-original compositions are strong redefinitions of great tunes: Sting’s Roxanne; Neil Young’s classic Old Man; and I’ll Fly Away, a 1930s-era gospel hymn transformed here into jazz. All tracks have distinctive, clever time-feels, maximising the possibilities in Cripps’s music. Intensely beautiful solos are played throughout. In Roxanne for example note Price’s haunting bowed bass improvisation, followed by Lalanne’s singing guitar solo, and on I’ll Fly Away listen for Golden’s great piano solo; he is flying too.
Eric Myers