Nevertheless, it is sometimes worth mortgaging your house for as there are often articles worth reading of which more in a moment.
I was initially worried when, plastered across the cover, was a heading that read: "SPECIAL MEMORIAM ISSUE". Did this mean that the magazine was headed for the newspaper graveyard where it would rest in peace alongside Metronome, Melody Maker, Crescendo, Jazz Monthly, Jazz News and, among others, the Daily Herald and Reynolds News?
Fortunately not. It seems the memoriam bit was in remembrance of those jazz musicians who died in 2022 which, as we're now in April 2023 suggests that it is just as well they weren't covering 9/11.
However, this particular issue is well readable as, apart from an in depth interview with pianist Fred Hersch, it also includes a feature where various musicians remember the old 55 Bar in NYC. Reading Shaun Brady's article about the club, a former speakeasy, which opened as a jazz venue in 1983 in the West Village and closed in May last year, brought back memories of a place closer to home on this side of the Atlantic.
Lincoln Goines: The place was a health hazard. One time I found a dead rat in the back of one of Mike [Stern]'s amps.
Ben Allison: You'd plug in an amp and there was always a 50/50 chance that sparks would fly out.
Kate McGarry: As much as people called it a dive, I felt it had a kind of magic.
Sounds familiar? You betcha and this issue was the best £8 (-1p) I ever spent! Lance
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