MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long

Winds Of Change
Progressive Sounds Of 1973
Esoteric
★★★★
ANOTHER four-CD set when album-oriented rock dominated record sales, with legions of gig-goers, dedicated radio shows like Sounds Of The Seventies, pre-punk Top Gear, TV’s Whistle Test and record companies ran progressive labels such as Vertigo, Harvest, Charisma and Deram.
But it wasn’t all Spinal Tap-styled pomp-rock with semi-orchestral music such as ELP’s Jerusalem or ELO’s In Old England Town or even winsome, trippy numbers.

TONY BURKE explains how an internationally significant breakthrough for workers’ organisation and recognition against two notoriously anti-union global mega corporations has been finally achieved in Canada

TONY BURKE revels in the publication of previously unreleased tracks by the great US folksinger

This is a remarkable set of hop hip, salsa, reggae, soul, cumbia and traditional Mexican music finds TONY BURKE

New releases from Madalitso Band, Gabriel da Rosa, and Femi Kuti