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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Luminous sounds from 7 prolific warriors of jazz
A line-up of legends have distilled their best work from the last 50 years into one record. CHRIS SEARLE is sold from the first note.
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
Special report by PEOPLE’S WORLD
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
Warriors (JLP 1001009)
The Cookers
WHAT a band! The pick of the post-bop brilliance, all of the septet are leaders in their own right and veterans of many a prime session. “The Cookers” is right: their sound is the food of jazz tastiness from many a context over the past five decades. For between them are over 250 years of luminous musicianship and more than 1,000 recordings.
First the horns: Billy Harper, born in Houston in 1943, he arrived in The Apple with his tenor in 1966, found work with Art Blakey, Max Roach and Gil Evans and soon became famed for his harsh, gospel-rooted Texan sound. His long-time bandmate, the crackling Eddie Henderson (born 1940), combines his trumpet power with psychiatry and owes his birth on the horn to a stay Miles Davis made at his parents’ house in the 1950s, and much of his early exposure to his work with the Herbie Hancock Sextet of the early 1970s.
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