Latest editorial
GORDON PARSONS recommends an entertaining account of the years between Germany’s defeat in WWI and Hitler’s seizure of power
Astonishing resurrection of jazz great
Chris Searle admires Barbara Frenz’s Music to Silence to Music: A Biography of Henry Grimes (Northway Publications, £20)
MIGUEL YOSHIDA explains the evolution and influence of the Cuban Casa De Las Americas in joining culture to the revolutionary struggle
ANDY HEDGECOCK is charmed by a skilful adaptation of Tove Jansson’s lyrical portrait of three generations of a family, overcoming grief
ALEX HALL treads warily through a messy, dialectical struggle fought in the mundane machinery of driving licences, criminal law, and birth registries
MICHAL BONCZA, FIONA O’CONNOR, JAMES WALSH and ANGUS REID review Atlas of Disappearance, Love Me Tender, Bouchra, and This Tempting Madness
Flitting between myth and the modern world, Medusa is determined to steer clear of human affairs. When her resolve crumbles, the result is petrifying in every sense
JAZZ is a music of stories and the story of the pioneering free bassist Henry Grimes defies all expectations and predictabilities, just like his astonishing musicianship.
In this biography, Swiss jazz historian Barbara Frenz divides Grimes’s life into three dramatic phases. In his twenties, he became one of the prime bassists of his era after a Philadelphia boyhood when he was a school companion of Archie Shepp, Lee Morgan and Ted Curson.
He played and recorded with Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry and Sonny Rollins — who said of him that “he has always been a serious, intense and fearless musician,” — and was heralded as one of the founders of the avant-garde in jazz with his 1965 album The Call considered as one of his most potent achievements.
Similar stories
CHRIS SEARLE waxes lyrical over Alan Skidmore’s tenor-tonic, Jeremy Pelt, and the Yusef Lateef Quartet
Chris Searle speaks to British pianist ZOE RAHMAN
CHRIS SEARLE urges you to listen to two new albums by the US Indian pianist VIJAY IYER
CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician