black culture
Porgy and Bess, Regent's Park Open Air TheatreTuesday, 29 July 2014
It should work as pure musical theatre. Yet what precisely is Gershwin’s - or rather “The Gershwins’”, as this title frames it, though Ira wasn’t quite Gilbert or Brecht - Porgy and Bess? An opera? Trevor Nunn made the three-hour-plus score, much... Read more... |
Intimate Apparel, Park TheatreMonday, 14 July 2014
As far as essential female experiences go, Esther Mills hasn't had many. A 35-year-old virgin living in New York City in 1905, she is destined to go down in history as an "unidentified negro seamstress", to cite the caption on the projected image of... Read more... |
Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards 2014, KokoMonday, 20 January 2014
In a world where everyone is expected to be a “brand”, Gilles Peterson sets some very interesting precedents. Probably best known as a radio DJ – currently on BBC 6 Music, plus his globally syndicated Worldwide show – he also remains as in demand to... Read more... |
CD: Tinie Tempah - DemonstrationThursday, 31 October 2013
Oh dear, there it is – the career-plateau pot-shot at “journalists” and “critics”. It comes about halfway through the album, on the otherwise really good 1970s blues-rock-sampling “Looking Down the Barrel”, and it cements a sad feeling that's been... Read more... |
The Scottsboro Boys, Young VicMonday, 28 October 2013
Forever breaking into song and dance, musicals are fun, fun, fun. They are primarily what folks go to for uplifting entertainment, are they not? Actually, many of the best aren't anything like that simplistic. Opening at the Young Vic last night,... Read more... |
A Season in the Congo, Young VicWednesday, 17 July 2013
No theatre in London, surely, has offered us more miracles of transformed space than the Young Vic. Small it may be, but its productions often feel big in every way, and none more so than Joe Wright’s total-theatre take on Aimé Césaire’s A Season in... Read more... |
DVD: The Birth of a NationTuesday, 16 July 2013
How do you solve a problem like The Birth of a Nation? Do you admire the first part and turn away from the second (after all, the Germans screened The Sound of Music for years in a Nazi-free version ending with the marriage of Maria and Captain von... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Gil Scott-Heron, K.T. Oslin, Motorpsycho, Feeling HighSunday, 23 December 2012
Gil Scott-Heron: The Revolution Begins – The Flying Dutchman MastersKieron TylerThis fine box set has a cuckoo in its nest which has to be dealt with instantly. Like Eric Clapton’s 1976 declaration of support for Enoch Powell, Scott-Heron’s “The... Read more... |
Black Top #5, Café OtoTuesday, 13 November 2012
For the way it combined mercurial, on-the-fly interplay, seismic textural shifts and listening of the highest order, this gig was remarkable. In the space of two continuous sets there wasn't a longueur to be found, such was the incredible union of... Read more... |
CD: The Hot 8 Brass Band - The Life & Times Of...Tuesday, 06 November 2012
It's sad, isn't it, that we still live in a world where the more something sounds like a great party, the less “serious” it is considered? Think about how much deep meaning is attached by how many to, say, the portentous mitherings of Thom Yorke,... Read more... |
Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, National TheatreThursday, 15 March 2012
Like many a regular theatregoer, I have a little list of classic plays that I’ve never seen, or even read. One of these is, or rather was, Errol John’s evocatively titled Moon on a Rainbow Shawl. Written in 1953, this definitive “yard play” was a... Read more... |
A soundscape of inheritance at Black Music ArchiveSunday, 26 February 2012
The legacy and influence of black music has led to a unique exhibition in South London. The South London Black Music Archive features memorabilia, listening posts, and a fascinating map of local musical landmarks.Visitors to Peckham Space are... Read more... |
