Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
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A palaver of great musical intensity
CHRIS SEARLE reviews Loaded Basses by Joe Fonda’s Bottoms Out (CIMP 343)
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
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NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
“I’D BEEN hearing this music in my head for low instruments over years. I can tell you, as a composer, when the music comes to me without being at a piano, bass or guitar, it’s the best and most powerful music that I have and it doesn’t happen that often but when it does, it’s powerful.”
This was the prime bassist Joe Fonda (born in Amsterdam, New York, in 1954) talking about his tunes on a proposed album on the Creative Improvised Music Projects (CIMP) label in 2005, as he assembled an extraordinary band of “low instrument” musicians to complement his bass.
New Yorkers Claire Daly and Joe Daley blowing their baritone saxophone and tuba respectively; Michael Rabinowitz and his bassoon with drummer Gerry Hemingway, both from New Haven, Connecticut, plus the German bass clarinet virtuoso Gebhard Ullmann.
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