GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
Archie Shepp Quartet, Ronnie Scott’s, London
Tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp has lost none of his fiery commitment
Insurrectionary: Archie Shepp
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PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis
PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.
RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger
ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs
JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey
AS OCTOGENARIAN Archie Shepp plays Wise One by his old Philadelphia confrere John Coltrane, the decades melt away.
His moving horn eulogy, with drummer Steve McCraven’s flashing silver brushes and Darryl Hall’s plunging bass, deepen the sense of the long-time loss of a genius.
He begins the set with Elmo Hope’s Hope Two and that surly, gruff-noted yet astonishingly fluid tone suddenly lightens with an allusion to Softly, as a Morning Sunrise, as if every conceivable melody is stored in his horn and could be let loose at any moment.
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