Bertles remains imposing, and perhaps it was always a big man’s absence of timidity – a crash or crash through mentality – that made his playing so compelling
Author: John Shand
John Shand is a playwright, author, journalist, critic and musician. He began writing about jazz in 1981, and has been The Sydney Morning Herald’s critic for over 21 years. He edited Jazz’n’Blues magazine and the 24 Hours Essential Guide to Jazz, contributed to The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz and wrote Jazz – The Australian Accent (UNSW Press).
Milman’s pieces tend to ride on slippery Afro and Latin grooves, have inbuilt airiness and be laced with lyrical melodies. Who better to breathe life into such material than Bukovsky (trumpet, flugelhorn), James Greening (trombone, trumpet, pocket trumpet), Jeremy Sawkins (guitars), Alister Spence (piano) and Fabian Hevia (drums, percussion)?
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He went backstage at a Miles Davis gig in LA to say hello to Dave Holland and Chick Corea. When they started talking about Scientology to him, he had Miles Davis wink at him and say to the others, ‘You’re not telling a grown man that shit, are you?!’
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Rivett has broken cover not with yet another musical artefact from a schooled and accomplished improvising musician, but with a true work of the imagination.
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Few players besides Pochée have been members of six pivotal Australian jazz bands: in the ’60s the Heads (subsequently the Bernie McGann Quartet); in the ’70s the Judy Bailey Quartet and the Last Straw (which continued into this century); in the ’80s the Bernie McGann Trio (and Quartet, both also running into this century) and Ten Part Invention (ditto); in the ’90s the Engine Room. Furthermore Pochée led the Straw, the Engine Room and Ten Part, the latter involving the Herculean task of keeping a 10-piece band together for three decades.
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‘…cued by Komunyakaa’s use of multiple voices, Evans assembled discrete bands for each piece, including no less than 11 different lead singers, plus Michael Edwards-Stevens reading some poems as spoken word with musical accompaniment.’
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Eicher was neither interfering nor austere. The mood he created was one of encouragement and calm professionalism. ‘It was very inspiring to be in that presence,’ Grigoryan says, ‘and to have four nights of being together and talking and learning.’
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‘… a mood of striking conviviality.’
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‘You can tell that Oh is abuzz with ideas. The diversity of her compositions and her eagerness to work with different players on each disc shouts as much…’
