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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.

Mike Westbrook: Love And Understanding – Citadel / Room 315 Sweden ’74

It’s probably anathema to say that I prefer this version to the issued studio recording with British musicians. The Swedish Radio Jazz Group play...

Ville Herrala: Pu:

Finland has had a rich supply of creative bass players. One thinks of Teppo Hauta-aho and Uffe Krokfors just for starters. Herrala isn’t that...

Ephemerals: The Third Eye

Ephemerals went through an early phase as an out-there soul band before exploring Alice Coltrane’s legacy and then re-emerging as a highly eclectic outfit,...

Omer Avital: New York Paradox

Avital was born in Israel of North African and Yemeni stock. His music, which is intriguingly of a piece, reflects that complex heritage. He’s...
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Mezcla: Shoot The Moon

This is my favourite Scottish group since Head, and that’s saying a bundle. The aesthetic is broadly the same: a mix of fusion, sometimes...

Joseph Jarman: Black Case Volume I & II: Return From Exile

Who was the “real” leader of the Art Ensemble of Chicago? As missing-the-point questions go, it’s a good one. Lester Bowie’s “is there a...

Alt. takes 05/20

One informal theme of this recently rather irregular column – for which, apologies – is misremembering or sometimes downright forgetting. I’ve recently been involved...

Kazuki Yamanaka: Dancer In Nirvana

There’s a tendency to assume that all Japanese alto players have to sound like either Kaoru Abe or Sadao Watanabe, either all-in screamers or...
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Daniel Schenker Quintet, feat. Chris Cheek: Times Of Innocence

Schenker has been around for some time on the Swiss scene. He’s also an information technology expert. This might tempt the unwary into thinking...

Obituary: Wallace Roney

Though Miles Davis didn’t give lessons to young trumpeters, he made an exception for Wallace Roney, a talented young man from Philadelphia, gifted with...

Giorgi Mikadze: Georgian Mikrojamz

Exactly a hundred years ago, the world was being remade following the peace treaties that followed the First World War (and ’flu was stalking...

According To The Sound: Prism-A-Ning

It’s not very often that you hear making a record likened to the writing of a novel. Usually painting or sculpture or sometimes dance...
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