• LIFE

  Seen and heard

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 11/10/2022

  » It has been nearly 30 years since Dr Grace Nono released her first album on a new label, Tao Music, which she set up with her late partner, producer and guitarist Bob Aves. With her musical collaborator, she set about searching for her musical identity.

• LIFE

  Rediscovering the mastery of Masekela

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 12/12/2017

  » South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela has been playing music for over 70 years and is about to release his 44th album, No Borders (Universal), a particularly apt title in these days of rising nationalism. He told City Press of Capetown recently that his new album has "an international diaspora kind of feel … So that people can see we're all the same".

• LIFE

  That's entertainment

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 28/01/2020

  » When we invoke the term "Jazz Age", we tend to think of the US in the 1920s and 1930s. But while its impact was felt most keenly Stateside, this major cultural movement was a global phenomenon.

• LIFE

  A tribute to Manu Dibango

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 31/03/2020

  » Just after the World War II, in 1948, a gangly youth arrived in Strasbourg, France, after a long trip from Douala in Cameroon. He had 3kg of coffee in his luggage and a burning desire to be a saxophonist like Lester Young (later he would don a Young-esque pork pie hat and blow smoke rings like the acclaimed master). His name was Manu Dibango. Sadly, this veteran musician died last week of complications from the Covid-19 virus. He was 86 years old.

• LIFE

  Motown memories

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 22/10/2019

  » Songwriters pen the hits but the singers or bands are the big stars, and sometimes the producers are the ones who get the credit. I grew up with the Great American Songbook or "American Standards" at home, played on the piano by my father while we sang the lyrics. These were the songs that featured in Broadway theatre and in Hollywood musicals. What are now known as standards were crafted by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer and Richard Rogers.

• LIFE

  Northeastern grooves by way of Amsterdam

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 24/09/2019

  » Apichat Pakwan, a fusion or hybrid music collective from Isan and the Netherlands, will release their first album, Esantronics, at the end of October. The band released an EP in 2017 but this will be their full-length debut and fans of Isan and electronic music will be delighted.

• LIFE

  Revolutionary's road

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 02/04/2019

  » Poet, novelist, piano player. And that was before Gil Scott-Heron had reached 20. He wrote and recorded his best known song, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, in 1971, and from then on produced a unique and polemical body of prose, poetry and music that led him to be dubbed the "Father of Political Rap", the originator of "nu soul" and many more titles. He preferred being called a "bluesologist".

• LIFE

  Joy to the world of music

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 25/12/2018

  » It's been a busy year for "World Music" fans. There have been some fabulous new releases from artists across the globe, and compilations of music that might easily have gone unnoticed. But while we are celebrating new music and golden hits from the past, some musical giants have left us for the great stage in the sky.

• LIFE

  Sounds of the Hmong

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 18/04/2017

  » Chiang Mai archivist and musician Victoria Vorreiter published a book on tribal music, Songs Of Memory: Traditional Music Of The Golden Triangle, in 2009. Since then she has been busy travelling, researching and recording music from the tribal peoples of the mountains, and for the past six years her focus has been on Hmong music, mainly from tribal groups living in Thailand and Laos.

• LIFE

  Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll!

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 21/03/2017

  » The headlines in the media have been dominated by politics for what seems like an age but suddenly changed a couple of days ago when the sad news that the "King of Rock'n'Roll" Chuck Berry had died at his Missouri home. He was 90 years old and, supported by some of his children, had just recorded his first studio album for 38 years; the album, simply called Chuck will be released later this year.

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