Latest Issue

The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson

Peter Rosser

The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson, Edited by Mark Fisher, Zero Books, Hampshire, England

Don’t Upset the Rhythm

Matthew Jordan

When innovative music is seen as a moral threat to society

Obair le Déanamh

Breandán Ó hEaghra

Breandán Ó hEaghra hears the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland in New York

The Musical Priest

Ciaran Carson

He was a cantankerous eccentric who stressed that the Irish language and music were inseparable. Richard Henebry should not be forgotten, writes Ciaran Carson

From the 1950s until the 1980s, Franco Luambo Makiadi and his TPOK Jazz orchestra profoundly shaped the sound of African music across the continent, and subsequently the popular music of the world through artists such as Paul Simon and Talking Heads. Yet Franco is little known outside Africa and his 1,000 compositions are hardly represented on recordings. Now just over twenty years since Franco’s death in 1989, Kasongo Musanga tells the story of ‘The Sorcerer of the Guitar’, from whose shadow Congolese music is still emerging.

The Master

Tony MacMahon

'To have crossed his path as a listener was enriching; to have had him as a mentor was unforgettable,' writes Tony MacMahon of the uilleann piper Séamus Ennis. In New York and Dublin in the 1960s, MacMahon lived with, played with and learned from Ennis, and here he recalls some of the rituals and skills of the artist that made him unique.