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drstewartsmith.bsky.social
Writer: jazz, improvised, experimental, Scotland & the avant-garde @ The Wire, Bandcamp, The Quietus, We Jazz, Guardian. Associate lecturer Newcastle University. Musician. He/him. 🇵🇸
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we’ve lost a lot of broke-the-mold artists in the last week or two - roberta, gene, now david (who we knew was struggling). may they all be at peace

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

Morning soundtrack: Paul Bley’s classic, courtesy of Chicago’s magnificent Hyde Park Records.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

So now we are seeing the American branch of then anti-trans movement go from "we just have concerns about women's sport" to firing all LGBT people in government in a matter of weeks, like we all knew they would, are British centrists going to wake up?

submitted 5 days ago • 17 comments

For @tribunemagazine.bsky.social I spoke to artist & filmmaker Johan Grimonprez about his Oscar-nominated documentary #SoundtracktoaCoupD'etat which takes a kaleidoscopic look at the CIA-backed murder of Patrice Lumumba, jazz, the Cold War & decolonisation. tribunemag.co.uk/2025/02/the-...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Chicago! Do not miss the US debut of Mariam Rezaei & Pat Thomas, preceded by Angharad Davies, at Frequency Festival tonight! Minds will be blown! www.frequencyfestival-chicago.com

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

If you're going to the press night for Ishy Din's excellent Champion @livetheatre.bsky.social this evening, the DJs I work with - Lawnmowers Theatre Krocodile Krew - will be bringing the party! www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/f...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Read my interview with the great Angelica Sanchez in @thewiremagazine.bsky.social #483. Or better still, check out her music on Intakt, Pyroclastic, Clean Feed & other essential creative music labels.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

“Well Starmer is better than letting the far right in!” You mean the guy who armed a genocide, took healthcare away from trans kids and is busy cutting benefits for disabled people? That Starmer? My man, he IS far right as far as vulnerable people are concerned.

submitted 18 days ago • 7 comments

Against The Grain: George Rayner-Law on folk revivals and the idea of continuity What's fuelling the current interest in English folk music? Are ideological currents going unchallenged? George Rayner-Law considers these questions & more in The Wire 493. www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/c...

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

This stuff makes me absolutely viscerally angry. Everyone jeered and laughed and said we were fucking idiots, and these guys were the sensible grownups who would fix everything. And now it turns out that they're failing in the exact way that we said they would fail. We were right, fuck you.

submitted 22 days ago • 6 comments

From the wonderful interview with Susan Alcorn published today at @thetonearm.com

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Following on from our chat in the previous @thewiremagazine.bsky.social the great Sakina Abdou shares a fantastic playlist of music that inspires her.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

For the latest @thewiremagazine.bsky.social I review a page of new jazz & improv releases & report from Jazzfest Berlin.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Langston Hughes

submitted 30 days ago • 33 comments

Blindsided by the loss of Susan Alcorn, who possesses an impossibly rare blend of stunning musicality, innate compassion, masterful storyteller, endless curiosity, bottomless commitment, and unflagging righteousness.

submitted 31 days ago • 5 comments

Terrible news. An amazing artist who I was lucky to see live a few times, most recently in Lisbon with Jose Lencastre & Hernani Faustino, where she had the pedal steel sounding like a zither or banjo at times. The range of sound and expression she got from the instrument was remarkable. A huge loss.

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

Let's be absolutely clear. The sequence of anti-trans measures brought in by Trump echo the antiSemitic Nuremberg laws of the Third Reich. They are also in line with express demands of the GC movement such as the Women's Declaration which most leading GCs signed. If it walks like a Nazi.

submitted 32 days ago • 6 comments

My review of Joe McPhee’s wonderful memoir is now online @thewiremagazine.bsky.social #JoeMcPhee #CorbettVsDempsey #defiantjazz #pomusic #freejazz www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/e...

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

DJ Jazz Police Doxology 21.1.25 @starandshadow.bsky.social Thanks to Alyssa Wilby for recording & Gwilly Edmondez for putting my between-the-acts DJ set together as this mix. Jazz, dub, hip-hop, punk, hip-hop, Anatolian funk and an absolutely filthy calypso... soundcloud.com/waverock/dox...

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments