RITA DI SANTO draws attention to a new film that features Ken Loach and Jeremy Corbyn, and their personal experience of media misrepresentation
Latest editorial
Gripping account of pianist Stan Tracey's long voyage of jazz discovery
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson
KEN COCKBURN guides us through a survey of Chekov’s early short fiction, and the groundwork it laid for his later masterpieces
ANDY HEDGECOCK revels in a hugely enjoyable but deadly serious examination of the 1930s, that is an indictment of our own era
The bard distills our hellish times into fiery words
The Godfather of British Jazz: The Life and Music of Stan Tracey
by Clark Tracey
(Equinox, £39.95)
IN HIS 80th year, Britain's greatest jazz pianist Stan Tracey described his life in music as “one long voyage of discovery” and this biography by his son Clark, who played regularly with his father as a drummer from 1978 to 2013, is a profoundly engaging account of that journey.
Tracey, born in South London, grew up “between Tooting and Brixton” and Clark relies on his father's diaries to describe his boyhood as an accordionist before becoming a pianist and his launch into professional music with Tony Hancock's comedy tours and as a member of the RAF Gang Show touring Palestine and Egypt.
Similar stories
Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
JOHN GREEN surveys the remarkable career of screenwriter Malcolm Hulke and the essential part played by his membership of the Communist Party
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement