ALAN McGUIRE welcomes the complete poems of Seamus Heaney for the unmistakeable memory of colonialism that they carry
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‘I aim for a sound that conjures up vistas of sunrises and wide open landscapes’
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to self-taught tenor saxophonist Nat Birchall
Tenor saxophonist Nat Birchell and the Unity Ensemble
[Richard Kaby]
GORDON PARSONS is fascinated by a musical — and questioning — survey of Shakespeare’s attitude to women
MATTHEW HAWKINS enjoys the work of reading the essays of a rigorous and leading London/Caribbean cultural participant
ALEX HALL appreciates the history of a famous shoot-out that is sourced from diaries, letters, and newspapers of the time
MARIA DUARTE recommends an extraordinary film that explores an absent father’s attempt to make up to his sons
JOHN GREEN, MARIA DUARTE and LEO BOIX review The Shepherd and the Bear, Hamlet, Twinless, and 100 Nights of Hero
WHEN Chorley, Lancashire-born tenor saxophonist Nat Birchall brought his septet, the Unity Ensemble, to the Cafe Oto in the teeming, cosmopolitan heart of Hackney, it was as if he had brought the ancient majesty and mystery of the Pennines in the beauty of his horn, so much is the rural north of England endemic to his sound.
With fellow Coltrane-loving veteran hornman Alan Skidmore supplementing pianist Adam Fairhall, thunderous drummer Paul Hession, bassist Michael Bardon and percussionists Mark Wastell and Lascelle Gordon, they played live the music on their serene, almost hymnal new album, New World, to hugely receptive London listeners.
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