MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
Latest editorial
Conversations with past and present
LIAM NOBLE talks to Chris Searle about his new album The Long Game
Mr Versatility: Liam Noble
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
OF ALL British jazz pianists, Liam Noble is perhaps the most versatile. I’ve heard him play brilliantly reinvented solo versions of Wouldn’t It be Loverly? and Body and Soul and soon after performing in free-wheeling gigs with some of the most avant-garde improvisers.
Lambeth-born, he started piano lessons at seven and after “hacking” through Beethoven “and thereby ruining some of my favourite music,” he discovered Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Earl Hines and Duke Ellington, who opened up the world of jazz to him.
More from this author
CHRIS SEARLE wallows in an evening of high class improvised jazz, and recommends upcoming highlights in May
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to drummer Steve Noble
CHRIS SEARLE interviews saxophonist Chris Williams about the extraordinary electro-acoustic album LEDLEY - a bold fusion of Jazz, football, and community spirit
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Rwanda-born jazz vocalist INEZA
