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Community Blog Posts: Big World with Martin McFie
Jazz is such a good-looking word, if at times overused. Travelling invites discovery of the many different accents of the jazz language. Muslim countries, for example, don't have jazz. It never developed in those fifty countries, even though the Trans Saharan Slave Trade operated from the 7th century until the 20th century, transplanting a diaspora from sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and beyond. Britain and other European countries operated the Transatlantic Slave Trade from West Africa to the West Indies and America until it was abolished across the British Empire in 1833 and later in America, after the Civil War. However, jazz roots were only laid and grew in America, in the Deep South and in Chicago. In the Roaring 1920s, the music spread quickly through the invention of recordings across Europe and 150 countries in the world. Encountering the music abroad is like meeting a lost cousin.
Revels And Revolution
By Martin McFie
October 17, 2026
62 views
Walking to the magnificent Opera House in Nice, in the South of France, the air was filled with chanting and a cloud of smoke. Not smoke, it was a lingering cloud of tear gas. That's an experience to be avoided. The gas was evidence that the young were revolting, as we all did to some degree. In the Opera House foyer, red velvet, mirrors and the Belle Epoch style spoke of a time of elegance. The building dates ...
read moreFrédéric Gomes Parisian Accordionist
By Martin McFie
October 14, 2026
67 views
Years ago, walking down Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris on the way to lunch, the sweet, romantic sound of the accordion could be heard. A small group were playing the authentic Manouche sound of Paris near the mouth of the Metro Station, next to Place Juliette Gréco. People stopped to drop a few coins in a hat on the sidewalk. That was where these musicians sometimes did their daily practice.After they finished playing and, as they packed up, a ...
read moreJazz and Classical
By Martin McFie
October 3, 2026
208 views
When French pianist Jacques Loussierpiano1934 - 2019" data-original-title="" title="">Jacques Loussier and composer Claude Bollingpianob.1930" data-original-title="" title="">Claude Bolling died within a year of each other, jazz and classical fusion music lost two masters. Around that time in America, an effort was made to bring upbeat swing rhythms and classical instrumentation together. That gave new, vibrant life to immediately identifiable music. Many of the themes were deliberately well-known, as they had been widely heard in concert halls and advertising campaigns.
read moreThe European Jazz Festivals
By Martin McFie
September 22, 2026
208 views
The monster of the European Jazz Fest circuit is Montreux, Switzerland. Covering Montreux is an exercise in triage, with twelve live stages working from midday into the night for two consecutive weeks. It's also very hot in July, with only air-conditioned spaces or a light breeze from the lake for respite. The Press Office is organised; the press workroom less so. It is decorated with the odd used coffee cup, newspapers, press releases and daily information from the efficient press ...
read moreGuitars In Oxford
By Martin McFie
September 11, 2026
240 views
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has a fine collection of early guitars, including one which was made by the most famous luthier ever known, Antonio Stradivari. He is renowned for violins and 'celli but he made some guitars. The Stradivarius is the tallest guitar in the showcase and has eighteen frets, although some may have been retrofitted. The museum also houses the Messiah Stradivarius violin. Inlaid on the reverse of the guitar's head is “Ant Stradivarius Cremonen 1688," ...
read moreChopin In Warsaw
By Martin McFie
September 9, 2026
333 views
Afternoon tea at Raffles in Warsaw is always a pleasure, but a visit to Poland's capital is not complete without some music by Fryderyk Chopin. Staying close to the river, next to the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy, it is a hard climb through a park to get to the main square in the Old Town. Crossing the street, dodging cars and trams, there is an old wooden elevator staircase for the last steep part of the climb. It ...
read moreBossa Nova Discovered
By Martin McFie
September 4, 2026
215 views
In Lima, Peru, the Huaca Pucllana pyramid is made of clay and adobe, the size of cinder blocks on end. A message came from Rio de Janeiro, an invitation to fly there and spend New Year with a dear friend who had recently managed the Equestrian Events at the Brazilian Olympic Games. The mystery of how clay pyramids could coexist with the Amazon rainforest in Peru was solved by checking the annual rainfall in Lima, which is the ...
read moreStaffa and Mendelssohn
By Martin McFie
September 1, 2026
299 views
The Isle of Staffa is an uninhabited nature reserve off the West Coast of Scotland. It was formed sixty million years ago by volcanic activity, the same activity that formed the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. Upright hexagonal basalt pillars formed in the cooling process. It's difficult to get to Staffa. It requires two crossings of sea swells, often driven by wind and waves coming directly across the Atlantic Ocean. The first crossing went well. Caledonian MacBrayne's “Isle ...
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