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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Schneider’s big band sound evokes country childhood
The award-winning female jazz composer paints a picture of the Minnesota prairies with this cool breeze of an album, writes CHRIS SEARLE
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Maria Schneider
The Thompson Fields
(ArtistShare)
IN HER album The Thompson Fields band leader Maria Schneider contemplates and expresses her deep love for the countryside of south-west Minnesota and its people, and the farms and prairies of her childhood, in a most moving and unusual jazz achievement.
“When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect,” wrote Schneider’s friend Aldo Leopold, and The Thompson Fields — remembering her neighbour’s farm where she spent so much time in her early years — expresses the truth of humanity as an integral part of the natural world, with a profound beauty and wisdom and with a sonic reach as wide as the globe.
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