Articles by Barry O'Sullivan
Max Alduca: Monastery
by Barry O'Sullivan
Max Alduca is an Australian in-demand bassist who regularly tours nationally and internationally. On this debut album as a leader, he draws inspiration from a personal journey through music, reflecting themes of interconnectedness, trust and hope while paying homage to his teachers and collaborators. It is a culmination of his experiences touring Scandinavia with a Danish band and living in Stockholm for some time. After returning from intensive study in New York City in 2022, he began weaving elements of ...
Continue ReadingPat Metheny At The Sydney Opera House
by Barry O'Sullivan
Pat Metheny Sydney Opera House Vivid LIVESydney, Australia June 1, 2025 Pat Metheny once again took the stage at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall for Vivid LIVE. However, unlike his previous performance in Sydney in 2020 at the State Theatre this show was to be a one-man band. This solo appearance filtered out some of the die-hard fans who would have come for the pyrotechnics of a Metheny Group performance and ...
Continue ReadingMike Nock: Hearing
by Barry O'Sullivan
Mike Nock has had a varied sixty-five-year musical journey, receiving many awards and honours. It has been thirty years since he released his celebrated solo piano album Touch, recorded at the Australian Broadcasting Commission's Eugene Goossens Hall in Sydney in 1993. Hearing has him returning to the same hall for another solo album and, as the title indicates, it is all about the facility of perceiving sounds aptly and interpreting them in a particular way on a range of his ...
Continue ReadingVanessa Perica Orchestra: The Eye is the First Circle
by Barry O'Sullivan
The music on The Eye is the First Circle is undeniably outstandingly composed and arranged by Vanessa Perica. Her second outing--following Love is A Temporary Madness (Self released, 2020)--with another supersonic ensemble, it was superbly recorded at the Sing Sing East Studios in Melbourne, showcasing numerous flawlessly performed solos by some of Australia's best improvising musicians. The bandleader, composer and arranger has created explosively expressionistic charts which would bring out the best in any orchestra. Perica utilises the chosen voices ...
Continue ReadingZela Margossian Quintet: The Road
by Barry O'Sullivan
The Road is the extremely dexterous pianist Zela Margossian's much anticipated second album. It follows her critically acclaimed and ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) nominated debut album, Transition (Art As Catharsis, 2018), and once again delivers rich instrumental textures, a distinct compositional voice, and the narrative and thematic depth that Margossian is now known for. The Beirut-born pianist draws upon her Armenian heritage and classical music training to create a variety of moods, by blending folk-inspired and jazz-influenced ...
Continue ReadingQuentin Bryan Angus: In Stride
by Barry O'Sullivan
Keeping 'in stride' on his journey from Eden Valley, South Australia, guitarist/composer Quentin Angus hasn't batted an eyelid since arriving in the world's Mecca for jazz in 2010. Angus is an Associate Professor of Music for the City University of New York, teaches several courses at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and holds a PhD (Phrasing and Polyrhythm in Contemporary Jazz Guitar), plus a Master of Music Degree in Jazz Performance.He has also received national and international recognition ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Butt Trio +: Blueberry Ash
by Barry O'Sullivan
Blueberry Ash is predominantly an album of original compositions by Australian based saxophonist Andrew Butt. Pleasingly, it contains one added gem--"Love Song From Apache" written by David Raskin and Johnny Mercer, a rarely recorded tune that was a favourite of the great Coleman Hawkins, whose rendition on his album Today and Now is a true masterpiece in jazz history, and may have inspired Andrew Butt to include it here. He certainly does it justice; and so he should. Andrew is ...
Continue ReadingSandy Evans: Rock Pool Mirror
by Barry O'Sullivan
Composed and led by saxophonist /composer Sandy Evans (OAM) this album of ambient landscapes is a musical response to photographer Belinda Webster's Shoalhaven Gorge series of photographic images which traverse the tranquility of rock formations reflected in still waters at dawn, to the darkness of chasms and rock formations in an area of unique and pristine natural Australian bushland. The music is a series of duets with Evans by numerous musical contributors interspersed with tracks featuring drummer/composer Alon ...
Continue ReadingIngrid James and Alexis Tcholakian Trio: Trajectoire
by Barry O'Sullivan
Trajectorie is a collaboration between the French pianist composer Alexis Tcholakian and the Queensland based vocalist Ingrid James. Their paths crossed in France when she was performing in a Paris jazz club when he approached her to write lyrics to some of his melodies as part of a vocal project with other singers in France. After completion of several songs together it felt right for them to do an album and in June 2014 Trajectorie was recorded in Paris.
Continue ReadingJAZZ: NOW Festival 2008, Sydney, Australia
by Barry O'Sullivan
JAZZ: NOW Festival Sydney Opera HouseSydney, Australia September 11, 2008Programmed by SIMA (Sydney Improvised Music Association) and the Jazzgroove Association and now in its fifth year, the JAZZ: NOW 2008 Festival purports to be a snapshot of “the best" in modern jazz sounds this country has to offer, with four nights of unique concert experiences (read “a crash course in today's coolest sounds of today's vanguard and tomorrow's brightest stars").
With less than ...
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