Music

An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times. I think that is true of painters, sculptors, poets, musicians. How can you be an artist and not reflect the times? That to me is the definition of an artist.

Nina Simone

Sunday, 06 March 2016 18:17

Wearing their politics on their sleeves: Civil Rights and the art of the jazz album cover

Written by Phil Brett

in Music

The cultural struggle takes many forms, says Phil Brett, and shows us the aesthetically beautiful and politically challenging art to be found on the sleeves of albums made by black jazz musicians.. A journalist from the New Yorker, who was writing a piece on Duke Ellington, heard a white New…

civil rights cultural struggle black music

Monday, 01 February 2016 21:32

Book Review: Ronnie Gilbert, A Radical Life in Song

Written by Steve Johnson

in Music

Steve Johnson reviews Ronnie Gilbert: A Radical Life in Song, by Holly Near and Ronnie Gilbert. Those interested in the idea of music acting as an instrument for social change suffered a sad loss last year with the death of Ronnie Gilbert at the age of 88. As the woman…

Robeson radical songs

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 27 January 2016 18:34

Rock 'n Roll Royalty

in Music

Written by Ross Bradshaw

Ross Bradshaw reviews M Train and finds out he's been wearing the same headgear as Patti Smith. For some people in Aberdeen sometime in the 70s, their introduction to Patti Smith was a large graffito saying “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine”, painted up on the back wall…

Patti Smith rock 'n roll

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 27 January 2016 14:34

Long Live Palestine! Long Live Scotland!

in Music

Written by Chris Bartter

After a long night at a Celtic Connections concert in Glasgow, Chris Barrter introduces us to Burns the internationalist. Robert Burns’ birthday (25 January) always falls during the period of Glasgow’s Celtic Connections (CC) Festival. As the major Scottish folk song festival, it is really incumbent on them to mark that…

celtic connections Burns

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 22 January 2016 23:01

Paul Robeson: The Artist As Revolutionary

in Music

Written by Gerald Horne

Paul Robeson died 40 years ago this month. Gerald Horne writes about the great singer, actor and communist, victimised by McCarthyism and the US apartheid system.......and what 'the tallest tree in our forest' would make of the Oscars today….. A major ritual takes places annually in the USA: the nomination and…

Robeson socialism blacklist McCarthyism

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 17 December 2015 15:02

Blood and Roses: The concert marking the centennial of Ewan MacColl

in Music

Written by Gerry Cordon

‘The world that I knew, it has vanished and gone,’ sang Eliza Carthy during Blood and Roses: The Songs of Ewan MacColl, a special concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic this week that marked the centennial of the songwriter and Communist activist’s birth. It was a marvellous evening of passionate songs…

Tuesday, 15 December 2015 19:16

Dylan Goes Electric

Written by Steve Johnson

in Music

50 years after Dylan went electric, controversy still rages about Bob Dylan's politics. Steve Johnson reviews the debates. On 25th July 1965 Bob Dylan went on stage at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. It was not his first time at the festival. In 1963 he was greeted as…

Dylan protest music folk tradition

Thursday, 10 December 2015 23:20

Socialism of the Heart: an interview with Billy Bragg

Written by Mike Quille

in Music

How did the last tour go, did you enjoy it? You had to put on extra dates, what were the audiences like? Do you think you're tapping into a new radical mood among young people, the same mood that got Corbyn elected? The tour's just finished, it was great. I…

socialism music jeremy corbyn protest music

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