music: all articles

A gifted musician born of black American culture whose work reached beyond. Why did he matter?

The love of millions is invested in Bob Dylan. But can we know too much to see him? (archive)

The inspirational composer, who died on 13 December 1981, remains a rich resource for fellow-musicians

"The carnival that keeps us sane after all this madness." Listen to Jim Gabour report from New Orleans's big parade.

The modernist English composer Cornelius Cardew's sudden death on 12 December 1981 left an immense body of creative work, a huge vacuum in the lives of hs contemporaries, and a sense of promise unfulfilled. A quarter-century on, David Hayes presents a range of reflections from some - Keith Rowe, Eddie Prevost, Robert Wyatt, and the composer's biographer John Tilbury - who knew and collaborated with this protean figure.

 

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In one part of Iraq, the daily struggle for survival is waged against a pulsating Spanish-Jamaican musical beat celebrating the joys of – well, what, exactly? Spencer Ackerman reports from Irbil, Iraqi Kurdistan.

Ed Morales pays tribute to the "Nuyorican" master of Latin Jazz, Ray Barretto.

Fatih Akin's new film, "Crossing the Bridge", allows Istanbul's music and musicians to reveal the city's fascinating and contradictory character – paradoxically without escaping risks of a Eurocentric perspective.

James Mangold’s film portrayal of Johnny Cash in "Walk The Line" gives insight into the musician’s transition to artistic maturity, but for Charlie Devereux, the story it omits is just as interesting.

What do you get when you pair a Hungarian writer-photographer with a Pakistani musician? Answer: sublime photographs of the Danube, a narrated short story, set to the sound of the tabla and atmospheric Punjabi vocals, all presented in a multimedia slideshow format. Yep, only on openDemocracy!

“No Direction Home” is a compelling film portrait of Bob Dylan which leaves the great musician as addictively elusive as ever, writes Rob Cawston.

Astor Piazzolla is widely regarded as the most important tango musician in the latter half of the twentieth century. His creation "New Tango/ tango nuevo" changed the face of traditional tango music. Tony Staveacre, who recorded Piazzolla's last live session, pays tribute to the man "who took no prisoners".  

Part 2 of The new information ecosystem: cultures of anarchy and closure

openDemocracy presents an exclusive advance audio preview of ‘Lycanthropy’, Patrick Wolf’s debut album. Click below to listen.

Twenty-five years ago, punk exploded into Britain’s last royal jubilee. Has that extraordinary moment itself become a subordinate part of the national heritage, or is the radical anger that inspired it still germinating beneath the thrones of power?

A prophetic thirty-year old song illuminates a deep truth: that the language of our hearts and our public life is in urgent need of regeneration. And that can only come from within.

Monuments have toppled all over the world, but Bob Dylan stays on his feet – indefatigable, protean, transcending his every generation. openDemocracy’s North Americas editor asks whether the source of his endurance lies precisely in the fact that he started old?

The documentary history of jazz by Ken Burns is the work of a raw enthusiast, unbalanced in judgment, flawed by hero-worship, and tone-deaf to unorthodox streams of the great river. A respected jazz critic acknowledges its merits... and makes its silences audible.