ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
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'A model for an equal society, in miniature'
FRODE GJERSTAD talks to Chris Searle about the outcome of his collaboration with two jazz greats
Internationalist: Frode Gjerstad in 2008
[Michael Hoefner/Wikicommons]
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
“WE FELT our mix of nations was a strong message to apartheid and towards Thatcher too,” says veteran Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad.
“We played totally improvised music without a leader. We did things together and trusted each other, mixing our instruments so you hear them all at the same time — a model for an equal society, in miniature.”
The “we” he’s talking about is the trio Detail, of which he’s the sole surviving member, formed with the British drummer John Stevens and bassist Johnny Mbizo Dyani of East London, South Africa, who had been the pulse of the Blue Notes exiles from apartheid in 1963.
New Detail album Day Two, never before released, has just been issued on the NoBusiness label, and Gjerstad plays tribute to the inspirational Stevens, a founder of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, whom he worked with over the years.
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