MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long
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‘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
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
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.
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