GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes a bold feminist subversion of classic folktales that are ubiquitous in the Irish imagination
Conversations with past and present
LIAM NOBLE talks to Chris Searle about his new album The Long Game
Mr Versatility: Liam Noble
A novel by Mexican Juan Pablo Villalobos, poetry by Mexican Ingrid Bringas, and a biography by Argentinian Mercedes Halfon
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an entertaining dramatisation of the famous dispute that gives insight into the struggle, and Murdoch’s unscrupulous mendacity
ELLIS RAE is disappointed by the revival of a nihilistic play that fails to offer alternatives for social change
STEVE JOHNSON recommends an exceptional album that explores the narrative folk tradition often with a strong political message
JOHN GREEN appreciates an informative and readable account of the nation state and its current dilemmas, but doubts the solutions this author has to offer
OF ALL British jazz pianists, Liam Noble is perhaps the most versatile. I’ve heard him play brilliantly reinvented solo versions of Wouldn’t It be Loverly? and Body and Soul and soon after performing in free-wheeling gigs with some of the most avant-garde improvisers.
Lambeth-born, he started piano lessons at seven and after “hacking” through Beethoven “and thereby ruining some of my favourite music,” he discovered Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Earl Hines and Duke Ellington, who opened up the world of jazz to him.
Similar stories
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to saxophonist and retired NHS orthopaedic surgeon ART THEMEN
Chris Searle speaks to saxophonist XHOSA COLE and US tap-dancer LIBERTY STYLES
CHRIS SEARLE wallows in an evening of high class improvised jazz, and recommends upcoming highlights in May
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to drummer Steve Noble