Preferable to Starmer he may be, but there is scant sign of a sharp political break in Burnham’s policies so far — while left challenges aren’t making much of a running either, finds ANDREW MURRAY. How can socialism be put back on the map?
“AT any moment, this music will raise numerous questions. Is it Vietnamese? Or jazz? Or traditional music, blues, African, Indian … is it written — or is it improvised?”
These questions are asked by the guitarist Nguyen Le within the sleeve notes of his extraordinary album with the “traditional” musician also from Vietnam, Ngo Hong Quang.
Le was born in Paris in 1959 of Vietnamese parents and has spent a jazz life within two often powerfully contesting traditions.
CHRIS SEARLE urges you to listen to two new albums by the US Indian pianist VIJAY IYER
New releases by Porridge Radio, The Cribs, and Bjorn Meyer
As part of the 2025 London Jazz Festival Rich Mix offered intriguing sessions titled 'Persian Jazz,' CHRIS SEARLE was there
KEVAN NELSON reports back from a delegation to the epic celebrations for the anniversary of Vietnam’s 1945 revolution, where British communists found a thriving, prosperous socialist country, brimming with ambition and well-earned national pride



