GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
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Mature mastery in east London
CHRIS SEARLE hears two veteran jazz groups roll back the years
The Mike Westbrook Trio
Vout-O-Renee’s London E1
5/5
Strata East Live
Barbican Centre
London EC2
5/5
DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
MIKE and Kate Westbrook last played east London 40 years ago when, as members of the Westbrook Brass Band and part of a quasi-Salvation Army unit, they performed at Stepney’s E1 Festival.
This time round, along with brilliant saxophonist Chris Biscoe, they welcome in Spring in the basement of the English Martyrs Church in Whitechapel, now the astonishing Vout-O-Renee’s club.
They’re running through A Foggy Day in London Town as I arrive, with Mike’s founding piano notes and Biscoe’s winnowing soprano horn to the fore.
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