Latest editorial
by Nana Backland, Merseyside Morning Star Readers & Supporters Group
The Tories introduced the 50% strike ballot threshold to make industrial action harder. MATT WRACK argues that a Labour government has no justification for leaving it on the statute book
In the wake of Ann Widdecombe’s murder, JOHN GREEN wonders whether the government will really get to grips with the root cause of these attacks on our MPs
The new PM’s opening addresses offered hope, council homes and reform — but little detail on how any of it will be delivered, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE
Nature as well as society works dialectically, asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School
Wadada Leo Smith
Kulture Jazz (ECM 1507), Saturn, Conjunct the Grand Canyon in a Sweet Embrace (Pi P110), The Year of the Elephant (Pi P104) and Wisdom in Time (Intakt CD 128).
WHEN I first heard the glory of Wadada Leo Smith’s trumpet ringing through Conway Hall in 2010, blowing at the Freedom of the City festival of improvised music with two powerful drummers, Steve Noble and Louis Moholo-Moholo, it was as if breath itself had become a messenger of hope and beauty.
Smith was born in Leland, Mississippi, in 1941 and took up drums, French horn and mellophone as a boy before settling on trumpet. He played in R’n’B groups before becoming an early member of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), then formed the Creative Construction Company while sojourning in Paris with revolutionary musical confreres, violinist Leroy Jenkins and saxophonist Anthony Braxton.
CHRIS SEARLE urges you to listen to two new albums by the US Indian pianist VIJAY IYER
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to US saxophonist CAROLINE KRAABEL
CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
As part of the 2025 London Jazz Festival Rich Mix offered intriguing sessions titled 'Persian Jazz,' CHRIS SEARLE was there