120 articles
Brian Morton
Brian Morton was born in Paisley and raised in Argyll on the Clyde coast. He studied English and pure maths at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a First in 1972. He did PhD research at the University of East Anglia; taught there, at the University of Tromso in Norway, University of Pau in France, and at other institutions. He spent ten years at the Times Higher Education Supplement as features, then literary editor, with secondments to the Times and Sunday Times. Freelance from 1992. Presented jazz and classical music on BBC Radio 3, 1988 to 2007. Returned to Scotland, 1994. Presented many programmes on BBC Scotland, including The Usual Suspects which became the Brian Morton Show in 1998 and ran daily, 48 weeks a year, until 2002. Left the BBC in disgust and returned to freelance writing and crofting on the West of Scotland, first near Dunoon, now in Kintyre, within view of his ancestral Ireland. Married to photographer and former broadcaster Sarah MacDonald. Lots of children, strangely spaced out with seven years between each of the younger ones. Plays saxophone still; not like Bird, but to the birds.
Roberto Bonati Chironomic Orchestra: Whirling Leaves
“Improvised chironomy” is Bonati’s term, respectful of copyright, for what Butch Morris called “conduction”. The word itself refers to the science of gesture. The...
Cecilie Grundt: Order And Chaos
Superior modern jazz from the saxophonist, making her second appearance as leader on CD. She grew up in Stavanger and came to jazz the...
Ronnie’s: Ronnie Scott and His World-Famous Jazz Club
Ronnie Scott was, as someone once put it, a very interesting bunch of guys and Oliver Murray has got together a very interesting bunch...
Jamil Sheriff: The Ilkley Suite
Going hatless on Ilkley Moor can be a bracing experience, or a fatal one, if you know the song, and if you’re from Yorkshire...
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Gospel Truth / Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Until Mahalia Jackson came along, Rosetta Tharpe was the voice of gospel, though some of the black churches shunned her after she played in...
Nicholas Brust: Frozen In Time
Time slows down with the absence of heat. You have this direct from the great physicist Carlo Rovelli, but it’s one of the ideas...
Craig Green: Love Notes In Binary Code
This couldn’t have been a moment longer and preserved its fragile beauty. If 25 minutes sounds like short commons, it’s pretty much perfect and...
Meson, Archer: 288 – The Idiolect Twixt Goethe And Rasputin / A Horizontal Babel
The title will already have frightened off all those who habitually bleat “Can’t they just play Sweet Sue, It’s You?”, but it’s not meant...
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Roberto Magris: Suite!
Magris continues on his warmly imperious way. There are few more exciting and satisfying composers around at the moment and it’s a measure of...
Sean Noonan, Alex Ward: Noonward
Alex Ward emerged out of the Derek Bailey circle as a free improviser of pleasingly other-worldly aspect, and it was something of a surprise...
Sean Noonan: Drumavox
Noonan prefers to call himself a “rhythmic storyteller” rather than drummer or percussionist, and he has frequently in the past narrated the back-stories of...
Freelektron: Live At Tenho
Notoriously, Jimi Tenor took his working name from the youngest Osmond, not from Hendrix, but the man born Lassi O. T. Lehto hasn’t been...
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