New music
CD: Jon Allen - Deep RiverSaturday, 05 July 2014
If you're not familiar with Jon Allen, here's a few facts: he possesses a fine gravelly voice, and nimble fingers. More than anything, though, Allen has an uncanny knack for penning a good tune. He learnt his craft while sequestered up in a woodland... Read more... |
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, BarbicanThursday, 03 July 2014
If, like Wynton Marsalis, you’re a gatekeeper of the jazz tradition, there’s little you’ll defend more staunchly than the Blue Note back catalogue. With the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, in London on a short tour, he presented a glossy and... Read more... |
theartsdesk at Glastonbury Festival 2014Thursday, 03 July 2014
PrologueOn Thursday 26 June I arrive at a cloudy but warm Glastonbury Festival, set up camp, eat sausages, chase after DJ Richie Hawtin for an interview that never happens, then acclimatise, settle, let this hedonist Mecca do its work on me…Friday... Read more... |
CD: Pulcinella - BestioleThursday, 03 July 2014
French band Pulcinella is little known over here, but the release of their third album Bestiole (meaning nothing more ribald than “tiny creatures”, apparently), coincides with a brief UK tour, and is looking like the beginnings of a breakthrough. A... Read more... |
Maria Gadu, BarbicanWednesday, 02 July 2014
Admired by Brazilian musical royalty like Milton Nascimento and Caetano Veloso, Maria Gadú, at the age of 27, already has four platinum albums to her credit, not to mention a couple of Latin Grammys. Her music blends the urban chaotic modernity of... Read more... |
CD: Sia - 1000 Forms of FearWednesday, 02 July 2014
Sia Furler is a fascinating phenomenon – after all, you don't really expect Australian sidepersons for midranking trip-hop acts to go on to be multi-trillionaire pop overlords, on the whole. But yes, the former Zero 7 singer has, via a quietly... Read more... |
Calling Festival, Clapham CommonMonday, 30 June 2014
First there was Hyde Park Calling, then it was Hard Rock Calling and now, re-located in Clapham, it’s just the Calling Festival (presumably the organisers thought Clapham Common Calling carried too many connotations). The venue may have... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the 2014 Glasgow Jazz FestivalMonday, 30 June 2014
Saturday commuters sprinting for the 17.33 to Ardrossan find themselves dodging an obstacle course of swing-dancing young couples, soundtracked by a pensionable trad jazz band. A shifting crowd of about 100 pause in their journeys at Glasgow Central... Read more... |
CD: Old 97's - Most Messed UpMonday, 30 June 2014
It feels as if the life-on-the-road song has become a rite of passage for those rock bands that manage to clock up enough years together, but after 20 years in the business Texan alt-country rockers Old 97’s probably have more of a claim to it than... Read more... |
Bobby Womack: It's All Over NowSunday, 29 June 2014
It’s presumably just a freak of scheduling that on the night the Rolling Stones threw up the bunting across town, an artist to whom they owe a whole heap of thanks was hosting a party of his own. Bobby Womack was the songsmith who co-supplied the... Read more... |
CD: Riff Raff - Neon IconSunday, 29 June 2014
Over the last few years, Riff Raff's rise – from ambitious, driven Houston rap scenester to reality-show opportunist to the alleged inspiration for James Franco's sleazily OTT white rapper in Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers – has been fascinating... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Fes: A world music festival that's a beacon of toleranceSunday, 29 June 2014
You are or maybe wish you were at Glastonbury this weekend. Not me. I last went six years ago and it’s just too big for me. And you need about four different passes to get backstage should you have a good or a bad reason to get there. Too... Read more... |
