7 d. ago Explosive and experimental, Eddie Palmieri was a revolutionary figure in postwar American music

The Puerto Rican New Yorker pianist, who has died aged 88, radiated pure joy as he played – never resting on his laurels as he went from jazz to salsa to house and beyond• Eddie Palmieri, pioneering Latin jazz musician and Grammy winner, dies aged 88Some 20 years ago I watched as Eddie Palmieri approached his piano, noting how his features radiated a mix of joy and excitement. As soon as he began to play I grasped why. To say the great Puerto Rican New Yorker was a thrilling performer is an understatement: seated at the piano he threw himself into playing explosive Latin jazz, his rhythmic attack reminding me how his first job as a professional musician was playing timbales in his uncle’s band aged 13. This sense of joy, the excitement he found in making music, the chances he took, helped shape Eddie Palmieri’s long, brilliant career.To my mind, Palmieri was one of the truly revolutionary figures of postwar American music, up there with Muddy and Miles and Aretha and Dolly: a musici...

Events

8 d. ago ‘Flyovers can be incredibly beautiful!’ Long Blondes singer Kate Jackson’s new career as a motorway artist

In her neck scarf and beret, she sang songs that defined the 2000s. Now the frontwoman has a second life – turning unloved roads, bridges and service stations into dazzling ‘pop art’ scenes full of romance and possibilityAs the singer in cult indie band the Long Blondes, Kate Jackson experienced all the thrills of the mid-00s music scene: chaotic gigs, hedonistic parties, an abundance of winklepickers and angular fringes. But years later, when she went back over all the photographs she’d taken during that period, things looked rather different. “I’ve got tons of photos of airport lounges and long stretches of road in Europe,” she says with a shake of the head. “Lots of German service stations. Nothing of the band! No backstage fun, no frolics!”Jackson may regret not capturing more of the band’s short but spectacular heyday, but the road has always been important to her. As a Pulp-obsessed teenager in Bury St Edmunds, she would gaze out of the kitchen window and dream of escaping sma...

Transport

9 d. ago Jo Whiley had 'horrible' interview with music legends who made her feel 'tiny and stupid'

Radio 2 legend Jo Whiley has revealed she had an extremely unpleasant experience interviewing two huge music stars, and that fame had changed one into another "creature"

Politics

1 week ago Joanne Robertson’s beautifully murky folksong and the best of the week’s new tracks

Known as a core Dean Blunt collaborator, the singer and painter has a way with hypnotic melodies and blurred guitar that brings to mind the best of GrouperFrom Blackpool, EnglandRecommended if you like Grouper, Sinéad O’Connor, Dean Blunt Up next New album Blurr released via AD 93 on 19 SeptemberThe best of the UK underground right now resonates with a dank hum, a grimy, disaffected feeling. You don’t need me to tell you why: just listen to Moin, Mark William Lewis, Quade or Still House Plants and let the feeling mingle with the deep sense of dread already entrenched in your bones. One strand of this sound’s DNA can be traced back to Dean Blunt’s warped experimentalism. Anyone attuned to the enigmatic London musician’s output is likely already aware of his long-term collaborator Joanne Robertson, a fixture on 2021’s Black Metal 2 and last year’s Backstage Raver among others. For those outside the Bluntverse, she’s likely to go overground this year as the latest tendril from its worl...

Politics

2 w. ago Tell us: have you seen live music with your family recently?

We would like to hear your experiences of going to live music concerts with your familyAhead of Oasis’s reunion shows this year, you could certainly have expected to tick a lot of sights off your bingo card: bucket hats? Check. Wall-to-wall Adidas? Present and correct. Enough lager consumption to fill the Thames? Naturally. Perhaps less anticipated was the prevalence of families at these shows: multigenerational groups spanning from excited kids seeing their first big gigs to aunts, uncles and grandparents who could remember seeing the band back in the 90s.On the first night in Cardiff, one woman told us about attending a show in the city 31 years ago while she was pregnant with her son, now bringing along his own young daughter; another boy was celebrating his 10th birthday there with his dad, who saw the band with his own father when he was a teenager. There have been similar scenes at Pulp’s big shows: when they performed to a hometown crowd at Sheffield’s Tramlines last week, th...

Society

3 w. ago Perth bass guitarists share musical experiences down the decades

Guitarists George and Frankie spoke about their love of the Fender Bass.

Politics

3 w. ago Oasis fan's 'surreal' experience after offering free camping in her garden near Heaton Park

Liv Bridge lives near Heaton Park and offered Oasis fans a place to camp in exchange for a ticket

Sport

4 w. ago Lewis Capaldi 'convulsing' backstage at show weeks before emotional Glastonbury comeback

The singer has opened up about his return to the iconic music festival after suffering a bad experience just weeks before

Politics