Skip to main content
The Morning Star Shop
‘Jazz has always been a music of resistance in the way it reacts to the turbulence of its times’
CHRIS SEARLE in conversation with jazz guitar maestro Rob Luft

ROB LUFT is a brilliant young Sidcup-born jazz guitarist who proudly told me: “I share my birthday with Jimi Hendrix!” He began learning guitar at six and as a boy was immersed in an eclectic storm of music. “I loved the 1990s grunge rock bands like Nirvana, yet very early on I was playing the blues of Robert Johnson and John Lee Hooker.”

His guitar teacher took him to hear his first jazz gig, with the Allan Holdsworth Trio: “I'll never forget hearing Holdsworth's virtuosity right up close at such a young age,” he remembered.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
themen
Interview / 18 June 2025
18 June 2025

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to saxophonist and retired NHS orthopaedic surgeon ART THEMEN

xhosa
Interview / 21 May 2025
21 May 2025

Chris Searle speaks to saxophonist XHOSA COLE and US tap-dancer LIBERTY STYLES

Peter Somuah
Interview / 5 February 2025
5 February 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Ghanaian trumpeter PETER SOMUAH
Roella Oloro, 2021
Interview / 22 January 2025
22 January 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to British Nigerian/Jamaican pianist ROELLA OLORO