Woman on the bass - Trinidad All Stars, Panorama Finals 1980

1980. All Stars playing Scrunter's 'Woman on the bass' with an arrangement by Leon 'Smooth' Edwards. One of the greatest Panorama performances.

May spirits build nests in his beard

'I like to play fast. I get excited, and I have to sort of control myself, restrain myself. But when the rhythm section gets cooking, I want to 'explode'. --- Johnny Griffin - April 24 1948 - July 24 2008

"Unquestionably Johnny Griffin can play the tenor saxophone faster, literally, than anyone else alive. At least he can claim this until it's demonstrated otherwise. And in the course of playing with this incredible speed, he also manages to blow longer without refueling than you would ordinarily consider possible. With this equipment he is able to play almost all there could possibly be played in any given chorus." - Ralph Gleason

Snowdonia

Saturday morning
Climbing through Snowdon in a gust of fine rain
down from devil's kitchen
picking up crytstals
on the shores of Llyn Idwal

Dream on Corbeau Mountain - Live in Studio

Dream on Corbeau Montain live in Studio de Meudon near Paris, France. You will find it on Anthony Joseph and the Spasm Band's forthcoming album 'Bird Head Son' to be released in fall 2008.


Featuring :
Anthony Joseph : vocals, Andrew John : bass, Colin Webster : saxophone
Adrian Owusu : guitar, Paul Zimmerman : congas / djembe, Paul Brett : irons / snare / cymbals, Craig 'Cigar' Tamlin : misc percussions, special guest : Joe Bowie on trombone, Jean Paul Gonnod : sound engineer, Julien : engineer assistant, Antoine Rajon : producer.
Filmed and edited by Martin Meissonnier and 'Campagne Première' crew

Two Workshops I'm facilitating in July

The King Died, the Queen Died: Understanding Plot with Anthony Joseph

Saturdays 12th & 19th July 12 - 3 pm at Brighton Writers' Centre
£32/£30 concs, Friends of THE SOUTH £30/£28 concs

Plot at times takes on a mysterious quality. This workshop aims to dispel the myths and to show the universality of plotting in storytelling. Participants will work individually and in groups, examining the relationship of characterisation to plot, generating stories and taking part in writing exercises which will develop suspense and tension in their fiction.

To book and for more info : http://www.thesouth.org.uk/workshops.html#event8



Sounds of Poetry

Music and poetry course to commemorate the Windrush Anniversary.

Work alongside musicians to create work in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the arrival of 492 Caribbean men and women on the Empire Windrush at Tilbury docks in June 1948.

Participants will explore aspects of identity, exile and diaspora and how the influx of Caribbean musicians in particular changed the cultural landscape of the UK, introducing Calypso, Ska and Reggae to Britain.

Tutor: Anthony Joseph

Wednesdays 9, 16, 23, 30 July
7pm – 9pm

Nettlefold Hall
Norwood High Street
West Norwood
London
SE27 9JX
[TRAIN] West Norwood

Number of places: 8
£50/£30 concessions


For more info and to book spaces contact :


Spread the Word
77 Lambeth Walk
London
SE11 6DX
Phone: (+44) 020 7735 3111
Fax: (+44) 020 7735 2666

http://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/index.php?id=events&event=565

Root Strata - circa 78

Cesaire

1913 - 2008


I was introduced to Aime Cesaire's work circa 1994, in particular Cahiers..., I came via the surrealist movement, into negritude and the depth of Caribbean feeling. In my most recent book, The African Origins of UFOs one of the 3 sections that comprise the text - that deals with a return home from exile is called 'Journal of a return to a floating Island', again inspired by Cesaire's seminal work of diasporic identity. A floating island, this is how I still see home; as an island afloat in the sea of memory. Aime inspired that title. He inspired us all, diasporic poets, not simply poetically but politically.
Came home tonight after guesting with the Heliocentrics at Cargo, and then Mulatu Astatke came on with his rolling soul and I knew that that was the closest we would get to see someone like Fela. Came home to read Aime Cesaire passed. May spirits build nests in his beard.