The album The Hazards of Love begins with ominous organ tones—are they serious or merely melodramatic? Yet, the music that follows is sturdy, formidable, although some of the songs may be only fragments, parts of a larger story and theme, a story of love and separation. It is notable that the voices we hear are not connected to the blues, which has influenced much American and English rock.
The Crazy Pride of a Free Man of Color: K’naan, Troubadour
In light of hip-hop’s materialism, narrow perspectives, prejudices, violence and vulgarity, it can be hard to know whether hip-hop is worth critical attention (and many rappers reject the value of critics). Who is paying (perceptive, thoughtful) attention, to artists, to critics? It is fascinating, if not perplexing, that the blackest of genres—hip-hop—has found acolytes around the world, in places such as France and Israel and Russia and Japan—and Somalia. I suspect that what many hear in it is self-affirmation, a toughness of sensibility equal to the toughness of the world.
Nature and Art, Music and Criticism: Andrew Bird, Noble Beast
One of the intriguing qualities of Andrew Bird’s work is what seems to be a core of serenity, beyond joy or sorrow, isolation or community; and I wonder if the quality of his attention—dispersed among his creativity and his responses to the beings and things of the larger world—is a key to that serenity: no single thing is his focus.
Musicians in the Poor Man’s Provence: fiddler Cedric Watson, triangle player Christine Balfa, and the band Feufollet
While playing some of the traditional music of the American south, the Creole and Cajun music of Louisiana, the creative artists Cedric Watson, Christine Balfa, and Feufollet, render that music as the exciting music of the present, of now: these musicians choose to honor tradition but are more inclined toward improvisation and invention than imitation.
A review of The Snowing and Greening of Thomas Passmore by Paul Burman
Although the ending is given away right from the start, the shear physical blow of it still comes as a shock. Suddenly all the disjointedness in the novel, which never impedes readability or progression, is put right in an affirmative transformation that is both large and tiny in scope. The Snowing and Greening of Thomas Passmore is deeply original, powerfully moving, and hugely satisfying.
A review of The Endgame by Marat Makarov
Marat Makarov’s The Endgame is a treasure trove of instruction and ‘need to know’ information. Undoubtedly, a careful study of the many splendid positions in it will be sure to reap rewards in your own play.
A review of Batsford’s Modern Chess Openings, Fifteenth Edition
While it would now be an exaggeration to call MCO by its erstwhile moniker ‘The Chess Player’s Bible’, it remains the best one-volume work on the openings. Its ambition, to adequately map the whole terrain of modern opening theory, is a worthy one, and in a sense it comes down to a classic trade-off: what one loses in depth, one gains in comprehensiveness.
A Review of House of Meetings by Martin Amis
There is a ring of truth and emotive power in the historical veracity of House of Meeting’s setting. Amis has done his research well, and claims that an English author can’t really write about Russia don’t do justice to the deep sense of history and personal involvement that underpin this book. But House of Meetings really isn’t meant to be a realistic picture of life in the Soviet gulag.
A review of Wild Wives by Charles Willeford
Charles Willeford has been much praised by Elmore Leonard and others in the know, yet even now he remains something of a cult figure. This is a pity, for he is a rewarding writer for any reader. Certainly, he should really be better known and more widely appreciated than he is at present.
A review of Why Evolution Is True by Jerry A. Coyne
The marsupials trekked from the tip of South America (when South America formed a part of the unified continent Gondwana) to the connected landmass that became Australia. There they became the dominant form of animal life in country that had drifted away from their original home. This is a beautiful example of “We have the fossils – you lose.”