The unfolding drama of the Labour Party leadership contest provides a sorry spectacle of a beleaguered organisation suffering the additional indignities of infighting and disunity at the very moment when a show of solidarity is most needed. The history of the Labour Party is roughly contemporaneous with that of the many-faceted music identified as […]
The Goldberg Variations August approaches heralding scenes of frantic activity as all manner of desk-jockeys and freelancers belabour their computer keyboards to try and meet their deadlines before the start of the holiday season. It’s an equivocal season for jazz musicians; gig attendances may fall as jazz clubs struggle to compete with […]
Eddie Myer in conversation with Barney Dufton from Neapolitan, the production team behind the Love Supreme Festival. SJM So… Love Supreme is a greenfield jazz festival… who conceived of this idea in the first place? BD The idea came from Ciro Romano who’s our festival director. He’s been involved in music for years […]
Last issue’s column touched upon the meeting between enigmatic jazz innovator Ornette Coleman and controversial deconstructionist Jaques Derrida, and how the potentially seminal discussion between them had to be abandoned due to the intemperate heckling from the audience, much to the retiring philosopher’s dismay. Coleman’s reaction to the event is not recorded, but one […]
The Eye of the Tiger April 30th is doubly significant for our loyal readers, marking not only the 40th virtual issue of the Sussex Jazz Magazine but also the triumphant return of International Jazz Day, modestly billed on its own Facebook page as ‘The Greatest Day in Jazz History’. We’re aware that some […]
The unexpected cancellation of The Orient House Ensemble’s March 5th gig at the Royal Northern College of Music provoked a spectrum of reactions, all duly registered across social-media land. Jazz gigs are sadly prone to cancellations due to poor pre-sales or the vagaries of promoters and venue owners, but this was a rather […]
We live in a world of ever increasing connectivity, where ever faster, more mobile data services are able to deluge us with an unending stream of cultural, technical, frivolous or salacious information wherever we may find ourselves. You can watch a movie on a mountainside, read up on the latest jargon from deep within […]
If you haven’t seen Whiplash yet, we strongly urge you to do so, if only to furnish yourself with an opinion to add to the already heated discussion that the movie has provoked amid fans and practitioners of jazz-and-related-music. We’ll avoid any spoilers by saying merely that it’s a fictional account of the […]
Holiday season can present both the jazz musician and the jazz enthusiast with a bit of a dilemma. For the self-employed musician, the nagging realisation that family or romantic commitments have obliged them to take ‘quality time’ off during the busiest gigging season of the year can be enough to put them in a […]
This week saw the passing of one of the colossi of jazz, Charlie Haden. All the major papers carried glowing obituaries, paying their respects to the man and his music. Bass players are seldom so eulogised; jazz bass players even less so, and despite having earned the universal respect and admiration justly accorded to […]