Category: Features – Archive

August 12, 2016 / Features - Archive

At first it was a form of light relief: someone to sing a few songs and break up the real business of playing jazz. Then it became the fashion, so every band in the 1930s – the swing era’s heyday – suddenly had to have a singer. For women it…

June 25, 2016 / Features - Archive

He always thought differently. At high school he wrote “Mr Weird” on his clarinet case. No one argued. Wayne Shorter’s verbalised thoughts come out like his saxophone lines: squalls of rapid–fire ideas, some cryptic asides, and big pools of lucid silence while he lets what he’s said sink in. His…

March 9, 2016 / Features - Archive

Bryce Rohde and Jack Brokensha arrived in Canada in 1953 filled with optimism about pursuing their musical careers in the Americas. The first music they heard, however, was the sound of a cell door slamming, having been jailed for landing with neither funds nor means of support. They were bailed…