Free Republic

John Coltrane’s sessions for the Prestige label proved to be supremely fertile and prolific, marking the saxophonist’s creative rebirth.It’s 1958 and John Coltrane is looking to rebuild his career. The reputation of the Philadelphia-raised musician, then 32, had seemed in serious jeopardy a year earlier, after his heroin addiction got him fired from Miles Davis’ group. As a rising star of the tenor saxophone – the man who had lit up a clutch of Davis albums recorded for both Prestige and Columbia during 1955-56 – the high-flying Coltrane seemed an indispensable component of the trumpeter’s band, but the shock of...

Germany’s leading Jewish newspaper has fired sharp criticism at the capital city, arguing that Berlin is failing to take a strong enough stance against anti-Semitic activist groups. The Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung (JAZ) published the strongly-worded article on Wednesday after several artists dropped out of a music festival currently being held in the capital when they found out that it was being backed by the Israeli embassy. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which seeks to isolate Israel internationally, put “massive pressure” on artists to withdraw from the Pop-Kultur festival due to a €500 donation from the Israeli embassy, JAZ...