STEVE JOHNSON recommends a protest album with a harder edge than many in the genre
Trevor Watts at 80, Cafe Oto London
Veteran saxophonist defies the years with a fiery performance
Blowing up a storm: Trevor Watts
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DENNIS BROE finds much to praise in the new South African Netflix series, but wonders why it feels forced to sell out its heroine
CARL DEATH introduces a new book which explores how African science fiction is addressing climate change
In his second round-up, EWAN CAMERON picks excellent solo shows that deal with Scottishness, Englishness and race as highlights
Fiery words from the Bard in Blackpool and Edinburgh, and Evidence Based Punk Rock from The Protest Family
MATTHEW HAWKINS is mesmerised by a performance that dissolves the line between audience and performer
MATTHEW SHARPE recommends the essays of a Renaissance politician that instruct and unnerve after 400 years
PLAYING his alto and soprano saxophones with a rampant, joyous attack like a contemporary Sidney Bechet, from the very first notes Trevor Watts defies his advancing age.
The 80-year-old, a veteran of revolutionary bands like Spontaneous Music Ensemble and Amalgam from the 1960s and 1970s, rises to a seething ascent as he kicks backwards on reaching each sonic summit.
Veryan Weston’s chiming, intricate piano and the artistry of John Edwards’s bass and the mallets of the subtle, ever-inventive drummer Mark Sanders beat out a thunderous salute to Watts’s eight decades.
More from this author
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Chris Laurence, bassist and bandmate of saxophonist TONY COE
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to vocalist Jacqui Dankworth
CHRIS SEARLE pays tribute to the late South African percussionist, Louis Moholo-Moholo
Re-releases from Bobby Wellins/Kenny Wheeler Quintet, Larry Stabbins/Keith Tippet/Louis Moholo-Moholo, and Charles Mingus Quintet
