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Mail & Guardian
gwen anselllatest news & developments
Staging a protest: A demonstration by members of the South African Guild of Actors over their rights

Acting up for fair pay bears fruit

SA actors get a reprieve from the Competition Commission to ensure fair pay and practice

Amen: Local musician Zoë Modiga thinks while rankings can be valuable because they are aspirational, they are flawed.

Apple’s not-so-top 100 list: Is it rotten to the core?

The Mail & Guardian asked some of our favourite musicians and critics what they thought of the list and to tell us which three South African albums they believed should be on…

Shabaka Hutchings from the UK recently toured here with his South African outfit Shabaka and the Ancestors. Photo: supplied

SA jazz musos still lighting fires in London

It was in the 1970s and the decades that followed that the influence of South Africans on the London scene consolidated to create a shared musical language

Melvyn Peters and Thandi Klaasens at the famed Rainbow Restaurant and Jazz Club in Pinetown. (All images by Rafs Mayet)

Why we need a South African jazz photography archive

We need more books about South African jazz, focusing on both the verbal and the visual, to fully capture and appreciate the unique ‘river of culture we’ve been bequeathed’

(Reza Khota)

A repository for jazz historians

In the face of dwindling writing about South African jazz, bassist and composer Carlo Mombelli’s new offering is a repository for future historians.

Dancing while we weep: A statue of former Democratic Republic of the Congo president Laurent-Désiré Kabila on the 18th anniversary of his assassination — January 16 2019 — in Kinshasa.

Parsing Kabila through rumba

‘Chimurenga Chronic: Who Killed Kabila II’ sees memories of the past battle the future

Capturing the soul of a musician: Tseliso Monaheng’s photograph of Malcolm Jiyane

Radiant child: Jiyane captured in the dead of night

A portrait of the enigmatic but gifted jazz cat and artist is conjured through the eyes of photographer (and admirer) Tseliso Monaheng

Giving voice: Paul Hanmer draws on the nuances of identities and emotional experiences in the composing of his requiem. Photo: Paul Botes

A requiem for African identity

It is a feat to have a Mass that draws from a rich but distorted past to create a new musical canon

In tune: In this poster by artist Thami Mnyele for Jonas Gwangwa’s Shakawe ensemble

Beauty in struggle

Jazz and the fight for freedom were central to his life and poetry

Alice Bo Sheldon wrote her exotic novels under the name James Tiptree.

Close encounters with alien sex

Alien relations served writer Alice Bo Sheldon well as a metaphor for the gender obtuseness and sexual obsessions of dominant human males on Earth.

Although it riffs on the comic-book fantasy of the superhero

Tigerman: Escape from the genredarmes

Speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, thriller – who cares about genres when the writing is as good as in the novels reviewed here.

Inspired improvisation: William Parker’s music cannot be contained by commonly used labels.

William Parker: Back to bass licks

As the bassist prepares for his Joy of Jazz show, Gwen Ansell unpacks the musician’s life and the label “avant-garde”, which he has been linked to.

William Gibson and his book The Peripheral.

Paradoxes of a primitive 2030

William Gibson’s 11th novel is a gripping read that explores a world of multiple, branching timelines.

Mythical history meets fantasy. (John McCann)

FANTASY in brief

Abraham’s tale of war and banking in a not-quite-Renaissance empire gathers strength in this, the penultimate volume.

Race relations: Adam Haupt’s book discusses the thug stereotyping in the movie Tsotsi

Valuable addition to local archives

Adam Haupt summarizes all the questions his book raises

The Manhattan Brothers.

Jazzing up a historical record

The new edition of Chris Ballantine’s Marabi Nights is more than a description of the creation of a South African jazz; it is sociology set to music

In Antjie in Berlin/Without Time and Place

A marriage of sound and image

Pianist Jill Richards and artist Marcus Neustetter immerse themselves in this exciting show that unites paper and ivory.

Derek Gripper.

Derek Gripper: Sharing music between people

Derek Gripper might be skeptical about some commercial "world music", but that hasn’t weakened his passionate interest in the music of the world.

Angelmaker

Spying for the angels in a post-steampunk world

If digital fantasies are now post-cyberpunk, then perhaps Nick Harkaway could be credited with inventing post-steampunk.

Jitsvinger: Take-no-prisoners MC-ing.

Best of the jazz fest

One of the joys of the Standard Bank Jazz Festival in Grahamstown is serendipity. Most gigs are clustered in one venue. Here are the M&G’s picks.