John Shand | Music & Other Spheres Posts

June 2, 2017 / Features - Archive

Bill Frisell speaks with such child-like wonder of his delight in making music that it’s more like we’re chatting about building sand-castles. So it’s no wonder he delves back into his childhood for inspiration; back to his early memories of surf music and jazz, or, as with his current project,…

June 1, 2017 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Concert Hall, April 19 Reviewed by John Shand 6.5/10 Amid the massed “rationalising” of publicly owned assets, the Opera House’s Concert Hall could be sold off as a pub. Lower the ceiling, rip out the seats, install a bar, punch holes in the sails for upstairs accommodation, et voila! The…

May 30, 2017 / Features - Archive

Two days after the release of Blackstar in January 2016 David Bowie was dead. But what was Bowie’s artistic last will and testament proved a new dawn for Donny McCaslin, the New York jazz saxophonist whose group backed Bowie on the album. Suddenly he and his band were catapulted to…