John Shand | Music & Other Spheres Posts

November 29, 2016 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Foundry 616, November 3 8.5/10 Here was an inspired pairing on the part of the Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival. Sophisticated compositions, open-ended improvising, rampant imagination and gritty emotions defined this collaboration between Canada’s Jensen sisters – Ingrid (trumpet) and Christine (saxophones) – and Sydney’s Mike Nock Trio. Although learning…

November 28, 2016 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Foundry 616, November 2 6.5/10 Where did that come from? This concert had been cruising along agreeably enough, with several highs, some flatter stretches and no real gullies, until the final Dewey’s Tune, one of the late Dewey Redman’s vibrant but rarely heard compositions. Suddenly tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana was…

November 24, 2016 / Features - Archive

As a girl Ingrid Jensen desperately wanted to be a singer, but she was too shy. Not wanting to give up on music altogether, her solution was to aim to be another kind of vocalist, via an instrument. Eventually she tried the trumpet. “Oh!” she recalls thinking. “You can combine…