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"... This little grandmother's boy with the taped-up alto had beady, glittering eyes; small, crooked feet; spindly legs; and he hopped and flopped with his horn and threw his feet around and kept his eyes fixed on the audience, and he never stopped. He was very simple in his ideas. What he liked was the surprise of a new simple variation of a chorus. He'd go from "ta-tup-tader-rara... ta-tup-tader-rara," repeated and hopping to it and kissing and smiling into his horn, to "ta-tup-EE-da-de-dera-UP! ta-tup-EE-da-de-dera-RUP!" and it was moments of laughter and understanding for him and everyone else who heard. His tone was clear as a bell, high, pure, and blew straight in our faces from two feet away. Dean stood in front of him, oblivious to everything else in the world, with his head bowed, his hands socking in together, his whole body jumping on his heels and the sweat, always the sweat, pouring and splashing down his tormented collar to lie actually in a pool at his feet... Everything swirled around him like a cloud. And that little grandmother's alto, that little Carlo Marx, hopped and monkey-danced with his magic horn and blew two hundred choruses of blues, each one more frantic than the other, and no signs of failing energy or willingness to call anything a day. The whole room shivered." On The Road - Jack Kerouac.
Kerouac's classic Beat Generation novel describes more than just the footloose adventures of his beatnik characters; it gives insight to the "spiritual" journey, the quest, of jazz musicians. From its inception in post-boom New Orleans the purpose of jazz, like the blues, was to help the soul to find release from the hell of poverty and the legacy of slavery and to lift it to a more positive mood. It was, and is, self-help therapy. Jazz improvisation is a release valve that enables pent-up troubles to be channelled and neutralised. Like a mystical system, jazz has complicated rules and rites that must be learned in order to successfully reach the trance-like state where the soul can be uplifted. Many people wrongly assume that to improvise, a musician throws away music theory and does what he likes. On the contrary, a master improviser, like a master mystic, knows his theory and instrument so well that improvising is second nature. A jazz master's intimate knowledge of music forms a shaft that enables him to reach down deep into his soul to dig out the suffering that has, through the constant pressures of life, been transformed into diamonds. His fingers cut and polish with his instrument as the raw emotion is fashioned into a multi-faceted aural gem.
But there is a social dimension to jazz too and the "whiteness" of Kerouac's book is obvious. The only real jazz musician he identifies by name in the book is George Shearing the blind white pianist from London, but no one can deny, jazz is an Afro-American artform. Jazz documents black America's history and aspirations in the 20th Century. Until the late 60s, when in the wake of the civil rights riots black Americans were finally able to enter the mainstream, jazz musician was virtually the only high-end intellectual occupation black Americans not only had unrestricted access to, but were dominant in. It's no wonder that in an intellectual arms race jazz went through ever more complicated incarnations as black artists tried to stay one step ahead and retain ownership of their voice, culminating in what many critics (and fans) believed to be its technical peak with Coltrane in the 60s. Sociologically, it could be argued that "freedom" ultimately brought an end to the jazz era, as once African-Americans entered the mainstream the need to prove their intellectual prowess through jazz faded. Of course nothing is ever so simple, and jazz is still around, indeed the jazz scene (in the UK at least) is stronger today than it has been for decades. That said, the originators of jazz never excluded white musicians totally, and whites who could master the technical shibboleths were generally welcomed. So it was in the jazz bands that blacks and whites first worked together on the same stage. A radical concept that was a challenge to the white "oligarchy" right up to the seventies. Even today the jazz world is much more racially integrated than either the rock or "R & B" scenes; indeed these terms are more or less synonymous with white and black music (with a few obvious exceptions).
So, to make a case for listening to jazz today, the four element to listen for are: · The personal artistry and emotional statements of the performers · The intellectualism of its creators (musicians, composer, arrangers) · The social and political history enshrined in its traditions · The spirit of unity and the blurring of racial boundaries.
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Recently, I was fortunate enough to interview one of my jazz heroes for an article I was writing on jazz-reggae fusion, Monty Alexander's quotes were only a fraction of that article so I thought I'd publish the main parts of the interview here. Monty is a Jamaican born jazz pianist who, although starting his recording career in the reggae studios of Kingston before moving to the States in his teens, has recorded mostly straightahead jazz. Since the mid-90s Monty has worked on a number of jazz-reggae collaborations, and is now considered, along with jazz guitarist Ernest Ranglin, one of the grandfathers of the genre. This interview was focused on his fusion work, but perhaps I will get an opportunity to interview him on his straight jazz work at a later date. Monty is a regular performer at Ronnie Scott's with his jazz trio, and indeed he had the honour of playing at the re-opening on the 26th June 2006 (Ronnie's had been closed for re-furbishment). More information about him can be found on Monty's site at: MontyAlexander.com
FNA: From what I understand, it seems that many, if not most sessionmen, particularly with Coxone Dodd [a jazz loving reggae producer] in the early days of ska/rocksteady were jazz musicians, do you think this infused what was to become reggae with a spirit of jazz?
MA: In the early days most of the musicians' real goal was to be 'qualified' in jazz, and they would have been happy to just play bebop to themselves all day. But Coxone says "no man, put some beat 'pon it." His aim was to make the people dance, but there was certainly a jazz essence.
FNA: Stories abound about how when you got started you bunked school to hang out at Studio One with people like Jackie Mittoo, they must have been exciting times...
MA: No, Jackie Mittoo came later, after me, my mentor was Aubrey Adams. I had been playing boogie woogie till then, but we had no school for jazz, we just listened and tried to copy what we heard.
FNA: You have been quoted (in an interview on Amazon.com) as saying you would like to do some big band/ large ensemble work, have you considered a collaboration with Gary Crosby's Jazz Jamaica?
MA: For a pianist working with a big band is actually very difficult, because as a pianist I am my own big band [laughs]. But I'd love to do something with Jazz Jamaica - actually, we have been discussing a project but nothing is finalised.
FNA: Your new CD is another album of Bob Marley tunes, do you think Marley's music lends itself readily to a jazz interpretation, or is the choice more about what you feel the audience can relate too?
MA: Bob was unique, very spiritual, there is a spiritual element to his music that is similar to Bach or hymms, and like Coltrane every note was a thanks-giving. Bob's music works in jazz because of this spirituality, jazz comes from the soul.
FNA: Do you feel your are introducing reggae to wider jazz audience who might otherwise not listen to reggae? Or are you bringing jazz to reggae audience, like some sort of Ambassador?
MA: Very probably, [laughs] in fact, the Jamaican government gave me the Order of Distinction, for promoting Jamaican culture. These days, I live in Manhattan and don't get to Jamaican as often as I used to, it's a love-hate relationship, Jamaica has many problems, but I miss the trees, the country. But what I am doing is integrating, I am merging cultures not just musical styles. And as a multifaceted musician I love all styles, so I don't want to be pigeon-holed. There is a lot of personal satisfaction in blending these cultures, bringing together human beings, like the motto of Jamaica says "from many, one people."
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Everyone knows Billie Holiday's version of Strange Fruit, don't they? Indeed few other singers have been brave enough to cover the song, for to do so is to invite comparisons with the great Lady Day. Of those who dared, many regretted it. Dee Dee Bridgewater decided never to sing the song again after breaking down in tears at the end of one performance, and Cassandra Wilson described it as too emotionally taxing. Nina Simone was probably the most successful contender, with her eccentric dynamics emphasizing different aspects of the poetic structure. Ultimately though, Billie's version stands supreme, an enduring monument to the unknown African.
Despite being projected into the public airspace by a lady who famously sang the blues, Strange Fruit isn't a blues. Maybe Billie did tap the collective memory and recall the suffering of 13 million kidnapped African souls as she sang those 91 words, but written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish teacher from the Bronx, Strange Fruit was more of a minor key lament. Meeropol first published it as a poem titled Bitter Fruit in a 1937 teacher's union publication under the pseudonym Lewis Allan. He later set it to music and had it sung in communist party meetings before offering to Billie. Had she composed the music, as claimed in her autobiography, it might have had a jazz blues form, but as it stands it's reharmonised folksong.
The gravitas of Strange Fruit is not simply Meeropol's songwriting and Billie's performance but its historical positioning. In 1939 when Billie recorded the song, the days of Jim Crow might have been over according to US federal law, but facts on the ground were different, racism was still considered normal. Jim Crow (segregation) laws were still enacted in the Southern States right up to the '60s and the news of another lynching, while becoming rarer, did not yet elicit shock. Jovial Rednecks and their families were still getting their photographs taken standing proudly next to swinging black corpses, like fishermen posing around large marlin or tuna wrestled from the sea. Enterprising photographers made the pictures into postcards and sold them openly. It was one such photograph, of the murders of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in 1930, which drove Meeropol to write Strange Fruit.
Meeropol's explicit approach didn't go down well with everyone, and Billie Holiday upset many when she sang Strange Fruit in the clubs. Even her record company, Columbia, refused to release the song for fear of a boycott; fortunately they did permit Billie to record it for another label. She got verbal, psychological, and even physical abuse for singing the song, but her high public profile probably saved her from violent attacks. Strange Fruit polarised opinion, people either supported its message or they hated it for threatening the status quo, but it didn't let listeners sit on the fence. Many jazz "purists" had a dilemma, being neither a blues nor in American popular song format it seemed to be outside the tradition. So on one hand they leaned towards rejection, but on the other they couldn't disagree with the message. Jazz is, after all, the intellectual voice of the African American struggle for justice and freedom.
Others were challenged by the song in a different way; while they had no problem with a black woman singing her personal blues - they could relate to that - it was harder to relate to victims a racist lynch mob. And they didn't want to face the possibility that a woman could sing the blues because not only was her man gone, but his tortured body may be swinging from a tree someplace. That was too much reality, and to many fans, jazz was mistakenly seen as goodtime party music played to make people forget their problems. But the truth is, if different musical genres are filters enabling you to see the world from other perspectives, then jazz is a filter that lets you see the colour of the bloodstained earth while giving you the strength not to faint while wading through the horror of the red, red mud. Strange Fruit exposes this horror explicitly, but when sung by Billie Holiday, it also implies the message "despite this, we survive."
A sentiment that both Jews and African Americans can relate to, ironic then that Meeropol should write this song about the suffering of African Americans on the eve of Jewish history's darkest chapter.
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(Published on the BBC Radio3 London Jazz Festival website.)
The small club in the heart of town is about as authentic a smoky basement jazz club as you are likely to get in these air-conditioned anti-smoking days. The audience was generally mixed (racially and age-wise), and crammed round tables even tighter than in Ronnie's.
Gary Crosby's Nu-Troop represent Dune Records, the home of some of the finest jazz talent in the country, and the theme for the night was Wynton Marsalis' seminal Black Codes (from the Underground) album. What could be more inspiring than great musicians playing great music? It promised to be an excellent gig and it didn't disappoint!
Abram Wilson, with his black-metal trumpet, took the first solo of the night; stunning! Wilson's powerful solo was followed by Denys Baptiste (tenor and soprano) on soprano sax, coming in gently with long sustained notes bending slowly upwards before breaking into breathtaking runs. Both continued to provide kick-ass solos all through the evening.
Andrew McCormack, on piano, produced both solid comping and excellent solos, and drummer Rod Young brought some incredible polyrhythms to the proceedings, along with some agonising facial contortions and impressive left-hand independence. Gary Crosby's spider-like precision fingering looked rock steady while sounding smoothly fluid.
The second set started with a beautifully mellow trumpet and bass duo on a twelve bar form, and stayed with the blues through to the last number, Drifter, composed by Abram Wilson. This tune, which was "definitely influenced by [Wilson's] New Orleans background" according to Crosby, really rocked, topping off a brilliantly tight session by some of the most competent, creative, and passionate young musicians on the scene.
Forget the hype about the F-ire Collective, if you want to know where the real heart, soul and energy of the resurgent UK jazz scene is, look no further than Gary Crosby's Dune crew.
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(Published on the BBC Radio3 London Jazz Festival website.)
The slight, exotically dressed figure alone in the center-stage spotlight exuded warmth and charisma. She bobbed and weaved, ducked and dived, and screwed up her face expressively as she sang her first number a cappella. Mina Agossi loves to perform, but she wants, nay demurely demands, something in return, and she gets it: her audience loves her.
Ms Agossi puts on a unique and entertaining show, but is she really as good as the hype?
For the second number she was joined on stage by Remy Chaudagne on bass and Ichiro Onoe, who played his first number with just the palms of his hands, on drums. Despite the minimalist line-up, the band delivers.
In interview, Mina has said she performs better live than in the studio, however, the live version of Hendrix's Third Stone From The Sun fell short of the performance on her CD Zaboum! - on stage, she played safe, barely venturing away from the written melody. There's no doubt she can sing and she's an excellent mimic, one moment imitating Hendrix's guitar, another sax or trumpet, even Satchmo's distinctive growl. Her fourth song, Laundromat, was a blues sung slightly behind the beat, suggestive of Billie Holiday's style.
The voice and bass combination is stark, and the subsequent lack of harmonic development suggests much of Mina's potential may yet be unexplored. At times the bassist thickened the harmonic texture by creating ostinatos with a sampler and playing over them, but that only served to whet the appetite for greater harmonic depth. And one is left feeling not quite satiated.
Mina Agossi loves to perform and she performs well, she clearly enjoys herself and the enjoyment is infectious. Despite this writer's reservation about the sound, few people will fail to be entertained at a Mina Agossi show. Go, see, enjoy!
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Bleak concrete concert halls, orchestras, and Cornish artists' colonies must be as far from field hollas, the blues, and New Orleans funeral parades as it's possible to get and still be on the same planet. Surely, when the Duke dreamed of putting jazz in the concert halls, he didn't mean this...
Uri Caine's trio tried to swing but (as a friend noted) you can't swing a string orchestra. The result felt awkward. Caine also tried to grab some street-cred with "Dubya at war," which climaxed with flailing percussion imitating shock and awe, but his agitprop lacked cool. Save some inspired moments, Caine's compositions resembled patchwork, with his finale referencing everyone from Keith Jarrett to Mozart, via Tchaikovsky and Copeland.
John Surman improvised over a drum-free orchestral arrangement of his originally improvised Road to St. Ives. The opening solo sax brought to mind Neil Ardley's Kaleidoscope of Rainbows and that whole '70s UK jazz trip. Predictable chord sequences and arpeggiated synthesizer riffs transcribed for flute and oboe only strengthened the dated vibe. Surman's finale almost saved the day with its bluesy feel, but the whole set felt like a relaxation CD minus the whale song.
On a continuum between jazz and 'classical' there must be a point where the fusion shifts from being classical influenced jazz to jazz influenced classical, and in these compositions the classical outweighed the jazz. That's not to say the pieces were unpleasant, on the contrary, viewed as classical they were fine.
Hearing no link to the 'aural' traditions of black America beyond harmonic structure, a cynic might wonder what the purpose of this concert was. Certainly those who forged jazz with blood, sweat and tears, to bear their suffering souls, got barely even a hat-tip in their direction. As Gil Scott-Heron once said "what it has will surely last, but is that jazz?"
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(Dune DUNECD012, 2005)
Dune records is the home of some of the best young black jazz talent in country, and the Jazz Jamaica project gives them chance to show off their large ensemble arranging skills and party down a little too. Previous CDs from this ensemble have concentrated on arrangements of Jamaican music given the big band treatment and jazz numbers given Jamaican styling, but this one takes classic Motown soul songs and applies both to create a three-way fusion.
My only complaint of this record is that the vocal parts are too extensive and too much like the originals. I can understand why they do it if the idea is to include a wider audience and to turn them on to jazz, but the counter-effect is that one has to wade through an unnecessary amount of unoriginal vocals to get to the gems. The highlights are the instrumental versions of I Want you Back, My Girl, and I Heard it Through the Grapevine. But there are some excellent moments to look out for in the vocal songs too, like the break-down in the middle of Tears of a Clown, the ad lib ending of What's Going On and the free jazz elements of War which literally fight with each other and the vocals creating the impression of battlefield chaos.
It's not Jazz Jamaica's best album to date, but despite the overabundance of vocals this is an excellent album.
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(Dune DUNECD011, 2004)
Abram Wilson, an ex-pat American from New Orleans, is rightly hailed as one of the leading young trumpet players on the resurgent London jazz scene. He is also hailed as a rising star in terms of his composition; then there is his singing.
I was slightly disappointed with this offering, I've seen him play live and I agree whole heartedly with the hype about his trumpet playing, his composition skills are also a cut above the average, but I'm sorry, his vocals do not impress me. There is nothing amiss with his vocals, but unlike his trumpet playing, there is nothing particularly noteworthy about them either. His rendition of Stevie Wonder's Golden Lady is so close to the original you wonder whether the purpose is just to pay homage or actually add something to the tune, if the latter, it fails.
Vocals aside, there is some great jazz on this CD, particularly in the horn playing, composition and arrangements.
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(Dune DUNECD010, 2003)
No beating around the bush here, I love this album. For me, it has the right balance of everything, and in four extended tracks it covers the whole gamut of jazz styles from New Orleans to fusion, via swing, bebop, and free-jazz.
Of course it's not as simple as one track for each of those styles, that would be too easy, no, the music morphs and twists and blends and merges, taking you on an incredible journey through the collective imagination of the band as they interpret Baptiste's compositions.
The album also has the right balance between radicalism and accessibilty, some might consider this to be "radical-lite," but to me it shows a maturity which acknkowledges that to communicate a message you need to engage your audience. Baptiste draws on the militancy of the 60s and 70s and updates it for the new millenium. The tracks titles - I have a Dream, With This Faith, Let Freedom Ring! and Free At Last - clearly show where this album is coming from.
The featured musicians include the usual Dune crew (Wilson, McCormack, Crosby, Youngs, etc) plus Omar Puente on violin, Jenny Adejayan on cello, Adam Goldsmith on guitar (who plays some wonderful guitar on track 1) and a guest appearance by author Ben Okri who reads extracts from his epic poem Mental Fight.
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(Dune DUNECD013, 2006)
The piano trio line-up of McCormack (piano) Tom Herbert (bass) and Tom Skinner (drums) produces some classic jazz moments. Live, McCormack is a very understated player; very cool, collected, and unassuming, but the sound he produces is anything but ordinary. He has no need to resort to the tigger-like antics of showman pianists like Jamie Cullum, he lets his fingers do the talking, and dancing.
Great compositions, original styling, and tight trio playing: a great CD. McCormack will, I think, eventually be recognised as one of the great new Brit-jazzers, although in the short-term his understated character might work against him.
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(EMI 009463 54117 2 0, 2006)
Ah, Corinne Bailey-Rae, seductive pop idol or frustrated jazz singer? She is certainly, to my mind, more jazz than other recent pop singers who have been marketed as jazz - e.g. Amy Winehouse, Katie Melua, et al. But only time will tell as to whether EMI will force her to tone down the jazz elements in favour of a more soul-pop sound, or allow her to further explore the jazz she clearly loves.
Bailey-Rae sings slightly behind the beat and with a drawl and glissando that is reminiscent of the great Lady Day, let's hope she never has to suffer the same problems in her life. Her style is smooth without being too glossy, yet her voice retains a roughness that gives it a honest edge. As you would expect from a major label, the production is slick and the string arrangements are lush (and therein lies my worry that EMI might push in a more soul-pop direction). The horns are tight and there is a couple of excellent horn solos from Malcolm Strachan (any relation, Glen? :-) on trumpet.
Yes, it's pop, but jazz is a strong influence on Corinne Bailey-Rae who used to work in the jazz clubs of Leeds.
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(Honest Jons HJRCD4, 2003)
This compilation of rare tracks from influencial Jamaican sax player Brooks, is taken from his three 70s albums which are now virtually impossible to get. Brooks worked the US jazz circuit from the mid 60s to the early 70s where he came under, and absorbed, the influence of Sun-Ra. On his return to Jamaica in the 70s he set about starting projects which built on the Sun-Ra Afro-centric ethos viewed through a Jamaican prism. His first project was The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari with Count Ossie, a Rastafarian spiritual leader and drum master, which blended a jazz horn section with Rastafarian chants and drumming. When this became too constricting Brooks left and eventually started the Light of Saba project.
The Light of Saba was more than just a band, it was troupe, including dancers and various entertainers like story-tellers and poets. With the Light of Saba Brooks continued developing the sound he had started to work on in the Count Ossie project but he also included more diverse influences like Jamaican mento folk music, dub, funk, and Afro-Cuban/Latin.
Brooks, like Sun-Ra, exploited the rich seam of creativity from across the whole of the African diaspora without prejudice. This collection of Brooks' eclectic blend of styles is an object lesson in the inter-connectedness of all things Afro. In true Jamaican style the production and some of the playing is, to put it mildly, raw. But what is lacking in polish is made up for in spirit, and some of these tracks will have you windin' up yo waist - if tracks like Salt Lane Rock, Sly Mongoose, and Africa (somewhere between James Brown and Fela Kuti) don't make you want to flex your joints, nothing will.
One thing though, if you get this album - and I recommend it for its educational value if nothing else - make a copy of it the first time you play it, the CD pressing is cheap and the CDs have a tendancy to play somewhat erratically.
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(Epic 82876736362, 2005)
A little jazzy, a little quirky, and quite extraordinary. Influences of Joni Mitchell and Macy Gray perculate through, as do weirder flavours like Lori Anderson. And something about Fiona Apple's music reminds me of hippie-jazz bands like Gong, perhaps it's the eclectic mix of genres and the freedom with which she approaches her music, but maybe it's just her eccentricity.
This is singer/songwriter Apple's third album and apparently it was a difficult record to make, however the results are fascinating. If only all pop music were this original and creative. From the dixieland-esque title track to the dub influenced Tymps, via the simple piano accompanyment of Parting Gift or the Joan Armatrading references in Not About Love, this album impresses.
(Published by Newsquest Media Group newspapers in West Yorkshire)
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(Reprise records, 2006)
It's reassuring that some things remain constant, like the sun rising every morning, but change is also necessary and the excitement of the new spices our lives. Sadly the excitement of receiving this new album by Donald Fagen was short lived: despite the digital production, this album could have been made by Steely Dan circa 1974. Same vocal harmonies, same phrasing, same piano sound.
That said, the songs are well written, well performed and well produced - Brite Nitegown is particularly funky. The horn arrangements are especially nice, as are the sax solos by Walt Weiskopf and trumpet solos by Marvin Stamm. Steely Dan fans will love this album, but I can't see it winning any converts for the Fagen sound.
(Published by Newsquest Media Group newspapers in West Yorkshire)
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Warner Bros, 9362-48802-2, 2006
Nu Soul with instrumental arrangements referencing the classic Motown and Philly sounds. But this is 2006 and it is almost obligatory today to include a whole bunch of rapping, Jaheim doesn't dare buck the trend. Nevertheless, mercifully rap is kept to minimum and there are some beautiful lead and harmony vocals here (although the harmony vocals are too loud in the mix at times).
Luther Vandross is clearly an influence for Jaheim, to the extent that in the excellent track Like a DJ he even sneaks in a classic Vandross signature riff for Luther fans. Despite the bling image this is a great modern soul album and if you like Luther Vandross or Teddy Pendergrass you will definitely like this CD.
(Published by Newsquest Media Group newspapers in West Yorkshire)
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(Phoenix, 2006)
Hugh Thomas's monumental work is perhaps the closest thing to a definitive account of this inhuman business yet written. Though, at over 850 pages of densely packed, and sometimes overwhelming facts, just picking it up is a daunting task. But persistance pays, and the understanding gained about this despicable trade and the hell African slaves encountered is well worth the effort.
Thomas begins with the old-world Mediterranean slave trade fed by trans-Saharan caravans. Then traces the development of European slaving for the New World slave markets and the struggle for abolition. Using contempory documentation as his primary source throughout, he concludes with the illegal post-abolition trade. Emancipation and the legacy of slavery are, however, beyond the scope of this book.
(Published by Newsquest Media Group newspapers in West Yorkshire)
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(Phoenix, 2006)
What is music and why does it have such an effect upon us? And why, despite songbirds, whalesong and the singing gelada monkeys of Ethiopia, is music, like language, unique to humans?
In 1997, the influencial linguist Steven Pinker, dismissed music as being "useless" in evolutionary terms, a mere by-product of evolution: that premise triggered this book. Mithen argues that music was not only 'useful,' it was vital for human evolution. Mithen is an anthropologist and along side reviewing the paleoarcheological record he draws on many areas of science, from neurology to musicology, to refute Pinker. In the process he demolishes Pinker, and shows convincingly that music is as fundamental to the human condition as language. An absolutely brilliant book!
(Published by Newsquest Media Group newspapers in West Yorkshire)
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(Haus Publishing, 2003)
A short but thoroughly enjoyable and informative book charting the life of Louis Armstrong. At only 170 smaller-than-A5 pages this book can be easily read in a single day. Despite it's size Bradbury captures the salient points of Satchmo's life and by using informative 'call-outs' to detail background information he places the main events in historical context. A chronology is also provided to place Satchmo's life in the wider global context.
Bradbury writes with warmth and humour, and yet with a gravitas appropriate to the political reality surrounding African-American life during the greater part of the 20th Century while retaining his focus on Armstrong.
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