STEVE ANDREW enjoys an account of the many communities that flourished independently of and in resistance to the empires of old
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'A model for an equal society, in miniature'
FRODE GJERSTAD talks to Chris Searle about the outcome of his collaboration with two jazz greats
Internationalist: Frode Gjerstad in 2008
[Michael Hoefner/Wikicommons]
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“WE FELT our mix of nations was a strong message to apartheid and towards Thatcher too,” says veteran Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad.
“We played totally improvised music without a leader. We did things together and trusted each other, mixing our instruments so you hear them all at the same time — a model for an equal society, in miniature.”
The “we” he’s talking about is the trio Detail, of which he’s the sole surviving member, formed with the British drummer John Stevens and bassist Johnny Mbizo Dyani of East London, South Africa, who had been the pulse of the Blue Notes exiles from apartheid in 1963.
New Detail album Day Two, never before released, has just been issued on the NoBusiness label, and Gjerstad plays tribute to the inspirational Stevens, a founder of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, whom he worked with over the years.
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