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

Wednesday, 31 January 2018 10:53

Wearing Civil Rights militancy on record sleeves

Written by Phil Brett

in Music

To mark the anniversary of the birthday of Rosa Parks, Phil Brett examines the impact of Civil Rights militancy on the sleeves of soul and funk albums. In Wearing Their Politics on Their Sleeves we looked at how the growing Civil Rights Movement in the USA had influenced the design…

Supremes Marvin Gaye Curtis Mayfield Stevie Wonder Fatback Band Rosa Parks

Friday, 12 January 2018 15:50

Sidney Finkelstein: an appreciation of the great Marxist cultural critic

Written by Daniel Rosenberg

in Music

Dan Rosenberg offers an appreciation of Sidney Finkelstein, who died on 14 January 1974. Out Jumped Sidney The Marxist cultural critic Sidney Finkelstein lived in a suitcase in my mother’s closet. My parents never used the suitcase in question for travel. When I was around 13, in 1966, I asked…

Charlie Parker Lester Young John Coltrane

Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturian

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 04 January 2018 10:44

A wave of creativity: music and the Russian Revolution

in Music

Written by Sabby Sagall

Sabby Sagall describes the wave of creativity unleashed by the Russian Revolution, altering the course of twentieth century classical music. The carnage and brutality of World War One had punctured the balloon of late nineteeth-century optimism and established that the industrial and scientific progress of capitalism had not led to…

Proletkult Stravinsky prokofiev Shostakovich

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 15 November 2017 09:15

JD Meatyard

in Music

Written by Chris Guiton

Chris Guiton interviews jd meatyard, who describes himself as a left field artist much favoured in his Levellers 5 and Calvin Party days by the late great John Peel, with albums such as ‘Lies Lies & Government’ and songs such as ‘Tell Me About Poverty’. June 2017 saw the release of…

music songwriter

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 10 November 2017 11:27

The Bread and Roses Songwriting and Spoken Word Award

in Music

Written by Chris Guiton

Closing date extended to 23 February 2018 The Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Culture Matters are pleased to announce a new Songwriting and Spoken Word Award. The Award is now open for submissions. The purpose of the new Award is to encourage songwriters and spoken word performers to write material meaningful…

music Songwriting Spoken Word Bread and Roses

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Sunday, 29 October 2017 21:57

Lankum

in Music

Written by Mike Quille

Mike Quille interviews Ian Lynch from the four-piece traditional Irish folk group Lankum, formerly known as Lynched, who are currently on tour. Mike: I appreciate you must get asked this all the time, but can you tell us why you changed name, from Lynched to Lankum? Ian: The bottom line…

Tuesday, 17 October 2017 16:03

Singing for Peace and Socialism: Birmingham's Clarion Singers

Written by Graham Stevenson

in Music

Graham Stevenson reports on the recent concert. Birmingham's Clarion Singers, 77 years young this year, recently celebrated with an Autumn Concert with a full programme of songs at All Saints Centre, in Kings Heath, Birmingham. The 25-strong amateur choir – women dressed in red, men in black – led with…

Funeral March Scarecrow John Ball Pete Seeger Song of Peace Ode to Joy

Monday, 09 October 2017 09:56

Accessible, Educational, Radical: The Communist Composer Alan Bush

Written by Andy Croft

in Music

Andy Croft reviews a new book out about the communist composer Alan Bush. The composer Alan Bush (1900-95) is usually described as a man of unresolved contradictions, an Establishment figure who was also a dissident, the outsider who enjoyed the comfortable life of the insider. Bush was Professor of Harmony and…

Alan Bush People's Festival of Music

Tuesday, 19 September 2017 05:52

A Manifesto for a Choir

Written by Boff Whalley

in Music

Boff Whalley from the Commoners Choir was interviewed recently in the Morning Star. Here, he describes the background to the choir's manifesto. ‘Surrealism asserts our complete nonconformism clearly enough so that there can be no question of translating it, at the trial of the real world, as evidence for the…

Tuesday, 22 August 2017 21:08

Coltrane's revolutionary musical journey

Written by Greg Godels

in Music

Greg Godels traces John Coltrane's revolutionary music against its 60s background of class conflict and Black liberation struggles. John Coltrane died fifty years ago this past July. In 1967, his death, like his music, passed largely unnoticed by most people. Today, his name is part of music lore in the…

John Coltrane Charlie Parker Dizzy Gillespie Miles Davis Thelonious Monk