The ABC’s slightly controversial and mostly meaningless Top100 poll is done. (Meaningless in that it tried to cover all styles of international jazz over a 100 year period. But I guess meaningful in that it represented a massive selection of “wartime” swing bands, which may tell us something about the demographic and taste of ABCJazz’s audience – for those among us who use data mining...
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I feel compelled to put this out there. So here it is. I’m a white Australian jazz musician. My whole career is based on and indebted to black American music and the people who created (and continue to create) it under unbearable systematic oppression. When I first saw the saxophone at high school it was indelibly linked with American jazz music and that’s when I knew what I had to do with my...
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I’ve decided to add a blog to this news feed as somewhere to share and keep some (mostly music related) thoughts, away from Social Media. As many of you are no doubt aware, Facebook is not a healthy place for me. Many of the friendships are great, but I get super depressed when I go on there. The constant news cycle sends me batty, and often quickly results in me being angry and...
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I tried to explain the Bandcamp VS Spotify scenario a few weeks ago on an Instagram post and made it more confusing than it should have been. Maybe it always will be because it’s more involved than my simple rule: If it pays, it stays If it blows, it goes. Some people seemed to thing the pics I posted (like this one) were streaming figures. They’re not. This is a screenshot from the Bandcamp...
Read MoreBarney McAll review: The year’s most exhilarating night of music John Shand Published: July 26, 2015 Barney McAll’s ASIO 505, July 25 Duke Ellington wrote compositions with specific members of his magnificent orchestra in mind and Thelonious Monk wrote to suit his singular approach to the piano. Given that the jazz composer’s job is to inspire improvisers, Barney McAll has...
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