MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long
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‘The music of human flesh’
CHRIS SEARLE talks with the Moscow-born Israeli saxophonist Lena Bloch about the release of and inspirations behind her album Rose of Lifta
SUPPORT FOR PALESTINE: Lena Bloch
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PAUL DONOVAN recommends three new books that explore the human relationship with nature
Doomed adolescents, when the missing person is you, classic whodunnit, and an anti-capitalist eco-thriller
WILL STONE takes a ticket to indie disco heaven, but misses the rarely performed tunes
Reviews of new releases by Jens Lekman, Big Thief, and Christian McBride Big Band
TOM PIERSCIONEK recommends a remarkable series of interviews with those few and brave Israeli citizens who refuse to do military service
JAZZ and poetry have always been comrades of culture. Remember Charles Mingus’s collaborations with Langston Hughes, Mike Westbrook’s versions of Blake or Evan Parker’s evocations of William Morris on his solo album Winn’s Win.
But the momentous beauty of tenor saxophonist Lena Bloch’s album Rose of Lifta and its kinship with the Palestinian laureate Mahmoud Darwish creates a sound both unique and an expression of what Darwish called “the music of human flesh.”
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CHRIS SEARLE encourages you to go hear a landmark performance, and introduces some of the musicians
CHRIS SEARLE hears the ordeal of the Palestinian people in the improvised musicianship of a UK jazz trio
Reviews of the Neil Charles Quartet, the Freddie Hubbard Quintet, and the Olie Brice Quartet
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Chris Laurence, bassist and bandmate of saxophonist TONY COE
