Norman Warwick reads a A WEST-SIDE STORY OF SONDHEIM An intimate portrait of a genius: the late Stephen Sondheim, is a series of illuminating and deeply personal interviews from the last years of his life that show the composer-lyricist as he has likely never been seen before. In 2017, New Yorker staff writer D.T. Max began working […]
In his third volume of sonnets, James Nash examines urban and seaside environments in a Yorkshire he has known through fifty years living in the North. His sonnets soar over the land – from Leeds, a predominantly Victorian city, to the Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, walking and cycling into the natural world with a pen and paper never far from his hand.
have never been able to afford a live show, as: the investment required with no guarantee of which Dylan might turn up, and what interpretation of his own work he might choose to deliver was a risk I wouldn´t take even in the days before these a-changing times in which we are urged to gamble responsibly.
Performing and releasing music under the name Magpahi, Alison Cooper has toured UK and Europe and has numerous releases via Twisted Nerve, Bird Records, Finders Keepers Records, Folklore Tapes and A Year In The Country. As a visual artist she also works in a variety of mediums including photography, printmaking, animation, textiles and has a foundation course in herbal medicine.
A jazz renaissance has blossomed because many of the genre’s most gifted artists have rejected both the neo-liberal hyper-traditionalists and Bolshevik hyper-experimentalists. This has freed them to embrace both melody and dissonance, both history and innovation, both great chops and tremendous feeling. Call them the jazz progressives, seeking to build coalitions rather than divide, more eager to improve the average citizen’s standard of listening than to maintain musicological purity.
In our occasional re-postings Sidetracks And Detours are confident that we are not only sharing with our readers excellent articles written by experts but are also pointing to informed and informative sites readers will re-visit time and again. Of course, we feel sure our readers will also return to our daily not-for-profit blog knowing that we seek to provide core original material whilst sometimes spotlighting the best pieces from elsewhere, as we engage with genres and practitioners along all the sidetracks & detours we take.
Still, though, I can hear in my head a lyrical line that accompanies the New World Symphony Opus 9 music but the voice I hear is not mine (its in tune) and nor is it the voice of Colin Lever, my Lendanear song-writing partner, so I´m pretty damned certain we didn´t write it. Who did, though?
Tumbling Dice is my favourite track by The Rolling Stones and the decision to cover that 1972 hit was a stroke of genius for Ronstadt. Again, a woman shaking up the status quo with a groovy, provocative song was ground-breaking and became a tent pole of her catalogue.
I’d tell him, okay, Wayne, “you’re the bird.” So he’d go out in the studio, put his horn in his mouth, and the first lick that came out of him was so like a bird. It was amazing. Then his hand was in the air waving for “one more take,” and I said, “no way. I’ll punch you in, but I won’t start over.” So I punched him in and I left the first lick that he played on the record. It was magnificent. He was just kind of unconscious when he played it, but it was so bird-like and so unusual. He was a beautiful musician. He will be sorely missed.
Julie Hesmondhalgh has called on supporters of Oldham Coliseum to STAGE A SIT-IN as Steve Cooke reports From his all across the arts office in Rochdale Steve Cooke, (left) has updated his story that we published last week under the title of Final Curtain Call At Coliseum. That piece has now been archived in our […]
SIDETRACKS & DETOURS: 7 / 12 / 25 classical, jazz, folk, rock, americana; songwriters & invisible angels7th December 2025 - 7:00 am
SIDETRACKS & DETOURS Pass It On 2/11/2025 Jenny Bray, Nash and Asher, Opus 222nd November 2025 - 7:00 am
A LITTLE BUNDLE OF SUMMER. sidetracks & detours 3rd September 2025 featuring Jazz Artist, Jenny Bray. Broadcaster and writer, Steve Bewick, Expo Folk and Sound Roots3rd September 2025 - 7:00 am