ANDY HEDGECOCK is entertained by a playful novel that embeds a fictional game at its heart
FORMER Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith presents an unusual musical spectacle. He plays guitar flat on his lap, either patting and rubbing its strings with what looks like a clothes brush and an empty tuna tin or with a bow or a towel laid along its length.
He’s accompanied by Lotte Anker from Copenhagen, who plays caustic notes on a rasping soprano saxophone, and drummer Samuel Duhsler. He creates tinny sounds on his cymbals or what resembles the griddle of a barbecue and drums a long chain that he has dropped onto his snares.
The sounds seethe in front of Heike Liss’s fluid, improvised visuals of daybreak, dissolving mists and snowstorms at sea.
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Filipino-US saxophonist JON IRABAGON about the threat of AI in the time of Musk and Trump, and how an artist can respond
As part of the 2025 London Jazz Festival Rich Mix offered intriguing sessions titled 'Persian Jazz,' CHRIS SEARLE was there
Re-releases from Bobby Wellins/Kenny Wheeler Quintet, Larry Stabbins/Keith Tippet/Louis Moholo-Moholo, and Charles Mingus Quintet
Chris Searle speaks to saxophonist XHOSA COLE and US tap-dancer LIBERTY STYLES



