tue 26/11/2024

gospel

The Globe Mysteries, Shakespeare's Globe

From 69 hours of King James Bible reading over Easter Week to this racy evening of adapted medieval pith as we head towards Assumption Day, the word they tell us is God moves in fluid if not necessarily mysterious ways around the Globe. “Mysteries”...

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RIP house music singer Darryl Pandy

A still from the 'Love Can't Turn Around' video

The house music of Chicago, led by producers and DJs, has long had a tendency to feature the greatest vocals of any genre yet not make stars of its singers. And for most of his working life, Darryl Pandy, who died yesterday aged 48, was not the star...

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CD: Paul Simon - So Beautiful or So What

It's a long way from 'Mrs Robinson', but Paul Simon hasn't run out of things to say

"How terribly strange to be 70", sang Simon and Garfunkel in "Old Friends", back in 1968. Paul Simon will be 70 in October, so this isn't a bad time for him to be taking a panoramic look at life, love, loss and the universe in this latest set of...

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Perspectives: Hugh Laurie Down by the River, ITV1/ Operation Crossbow, BBC Two

America has been very good to Hugh Laurie. His starring role as Dr Gregory House has shot him to the top of the earnings tree in US television, while comprehensively demolishing existing preconceptions of him as the blissfully idiotic Bertie Wooster...

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The Creole Choir of Cuba, Barbican

The Creole Choir of Cuba burning brightly on behalf of their ancestors

As a world music critic one gets used to the stream of superlatives that generally arrive in the wake of whatever big new act is being plugged. World music promoters have a particularly hard job because they don’t just want to preach to the...

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The Godmother of Rock'n'Roll, BBC Four

Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Bob Dylan called her 'sublime and splendid' and without her there might have been no Elvis

Question: which American star had their third wedding in the Griffith Stadium, Washington in front of more than 25,000 paying fans and recorded the whole thing for release as an album? If you’re wondering how you could have missed hearing about such...

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Mavis Staples, Jazz Café

Mavis Staples: 'I ain't tired yet'

When Mavis Staples opens her mouth, remarkable things happen. She hollers, she sobs, she moans, she swoops, she rasps, she croons, she shudders. Not since I last saw Al Green have I seen such a bravura display of vocal prowess. On a rainy night in...

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Al Green & Michael McDonald, O2 Arena

The Reverend Al Green, displaying full cheesy charm (and sparkler)

Looked at from a certain angle, Michael McDonald, who supported Al Green at the O2 on Sunday, couldn't be cooler. A key part of Steely Dan's notoriously virtuosic circle of session musicians, the man who turned the Doobie Brothers from hoary rockers...

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