NEWS FROM NOWHERE (WELL, NZ...)
Pieces on a Latin jazz legend and a Miami soul icon sandwich posts on Haiti, the Brogliarchy, Franz Fanon, misleading myths in politricks and Biden's toxic legacy.
Dock of the bay: if the tide is high I start my Auckland mornings with a dip in the Manukau harbour.
Apologies for not posting a mid-week Yak but family matters and the Kiwi summer have kept me otherwise preoccupied (and sleepy - the media here is mostly abysmal and many Kiwis tune out from engaging with a wider world). To wake myself up I’ve taken morning dips and read widely. Thus I’ve decided to share a selection of articles I think might be of interest to my readers. These superb pieces begin and end with music but, for the most part, look at the parlous state of our world today. One that gets increasingly worse with every day of the Trump-Musk regime. I hope there’s writing of interest – I consider the following to be journalism of a very high standard.
EDDIE PALMIERI SAYS DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK by Carina del Valle Schorske
Pureto Rican American pianist/composer/band leader Eddie Palmieri is one of the under-celebrated elders of American music, so its great to see him getting the in-depth profile treatment from the New Yorker. The author is apparently an academic, although this doesn’t hinder her ability to write an engaging, very informative feature - a rare thing in today’s media where most music writing focuses on superstars who rack up multi-million streams or veteran “icons”. I once saw Eddie play in London and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a pianist more physically connected to their piano – he was one with that instrument! Such a dynamic musician. He was supposed to play London in 2023 but cancelled – “near death illness” I was told – tho’ he was still playing concerts on the East Coast at the time... Hey, that’s the music biz!
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/eddie-palmieri-says-dont-call-it-a-comeback?
Here’s Eddie leading his band at Newport some 22 years ago. When I caught him in London he was leading a much smaller ensemble and played more Latin jazz - lots of salsa rhythms were employed - than here. No matter, this is a magnificent performance from an absolute master.
THE SUFFERING & BETRAYAL OF THE HAITIAN PEOPLE
Around 8 months ago I posted BLUES FOR HAITI on the Yak, where I looked at different facets of Haitian music. Things were awful then in Haiti and they’ve only got worse since. I’m re-sharing this video - a collaboration between Haitian band Lakou Mizik and Joseph Ray, a US electronic musician who arrived in Port-au-Prince to teach music technology and went on to work with Mizik. Video likely shot at Carnival. I can’t offer deeper understanding of the dance and dancers - and I doubt that street festivities take place now in Port-au-Prince. Stunning video, moving music, the Haitian people deserve help not harassment.
Beyond Gaza, the West Bank and Sudan, is there anywhere in the world that is currently more brutish and terrifying for its people to live in than Haiti? The Caribbean nation’s social collapse continues with armed thugs controlling most of its capital and terrorising other areas. Heath care, food, medicine are all extremely difficult to access. This succinct, informed editorial focuses on how the suffering of the Haitian people is continuing to escalate. And under Trump it will only get worse.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/23/the-guardian-view-on-haitis-deepening-crisis-abandoning-people-when-they-most-need-support
CAROLE CADWALLADR’S HOW TO SURVIVE THE BROGLIARCHY: 20 LESSONS FOR THE POST-TRUTH WORLD
Carole Cadwalladr is one of the foremost journalists reporting on disinformation – so much so she was sued by Aaron Banks (the wealthy Brit who funded Nigel Farage’s Brexit campaign) – and as the sale of The Observer means she will lose her job at that publication late-April, she is now launching both a Substack & Podcast titled How To Survive The Brogliarchy: 20 Lessons For The Post-Truth World. Its grim stuff but Cadwalladr is no Cassandra and instead insists we fight for our rights and our democracy – I suggest all the Yak’s readers pay attention to her reporting.
Frantz Fanon: portrait of the revolutionary thinker as a young man.
ADAM SHATZ ON FRANTZ FANON
When I was a student in the 80s the writings of the late Frantz Fanon were, to a degree, still seen as topical. Partly, I now realise, this was due to my interest in 60s revolutionary movements – of whom Fanon’s Wretched Of The Earth and Black Skins, White Masks were extremely influential treatises – and its unlikely many other teenagers were studying Franz. In today’s scorched landscape where fascism is on the rise and liberation movements have either atrophied or been crushed by brutal force, there’s probably not a huge demand for new editions of his work. Yet Adam Shatz’s fascinating biography of Fanon, the man and radical thinker, will surely invigorate debate on his life and beliefs. The following is exerted from Shatz’s book The Rebel’s Clinic: the Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon.
https://www.codastory.com/rewriting-history/frantz-fanon-father-anti-colonialism/
Here’s biographer Adam Shatz discussing Fanon. Lots of interesting points here, especially if you are new to Fanon and wondering what he actually stood for.
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JOHN GANZ ON MYTH MAKING IN US POLITICS
John Ganz is the New York Times best-selling author of When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s, a book that document how US democracy/society has been raped and pillaged by wretched opportunists. He writes the Unpopular Front newsletter on Substack, which I highly recommend. Here’s a taster with Ganz looking at the power of myth ie a strong, fictional narrative in contemporary politics.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-157384854
SIMON TISDALL & MEDHI HASAN on THE LEGACY OF BIDEN’S PRESIDENCY
I’ve not posted any links to Trump or the deteriorating situation in Ukraine as both of those situations are changing so rapidly – I do recommend my readers check out (if they’re not already doing so) the regular postings of such informed commentators as HEATHER COX RICHARDSON & ROBERT REICH (on US politics) and TIMOTHY SNYDER (on Ukraine). What we have here is two very different writers commenting on the one individual who enabled Trump to regain the presidency – Joe Biden.
Tisdall is The Guardian’s leading international politics commentator. Hasan is CEO of Zeteo media company. Here they separately weigh up Joe Biden’s successes and failures over his four years in office – Tisdall is gracious to Biden (as far as his achievements domestically) then castigates him as an absolute disaster when it comes to foreign policy. Hasan looks more at how Biden refused to prosecute Trump and dilly dallied on Supreme Court reform. Obviously, Biden will now go down in history as a winner who became a loser – though his own vanity, stubbornness and stupidity.
One thing neither men note but I think should be pointed out is this: Biden was as vain a Prez as Trump and one who shared his ignorance/contempt for foreign policy. His vanity is obvious in many forms – most notably how he refused to prosecute Trump for treason (figuring he’d seen him off – Joe obviously doesn’t watch many horror movies) and his refusal to make way for a decent Democrat candidate until literally forced to step down. This is a president who, when told by senior Pentagon figures that agreeing to honour Trump’s agreement with the Taliban regarding the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan (why would he trust either signatory?) would see the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and the return of Islamists, refused to listen – why? Joe wanted to be able to address the nation on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and claim to be the president who ended US involvement in that seemingly endless conflict. Well, he did, but there was no glory for Biden to wrap himself in… Afghanistan’s females must loathe Biden with an intensity few receive.
He also refused to let Ukraine take the fight into Russia, such was his fear of Putin, until the last weeks of his presidency. And as for his blind support for Netanyahu’s genocide in Gaza and continued ethnic cleansing in the West Bank… these are war crimes and in a just world Biden would stand trial alongside the Israeli PM and his cabinet. Biden may now go down in history as the man who sold out US democracy. He certainly will be considered the second worst US president ever – not just for his abysmal foreign policy, but for allowing the first to regain power.
Anyway, read the following in disbelief: liberal democracy is crumbling in the US, unsurprisingly when those supposed to represent and defend it do such a poor job.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/11/joe-biden-got-plenty-right-at-home-but-on-the-world-stage-he-let-himself-be-taken-for-a-fool
&
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/19/joe-biden-had-one-job-and-he-failed
GWEN MCCRAE: WAVING GOODBYE TO A MAJESTIC MIAMI ICON
It’s hard to believe this banger wasn’t a huge hit when first released in 1979 - no matter, its since gone on to be an anthem amongst fans of soul/funk/rare groove. Written and produced by Betty Wright, the Queen of the Miami sound (although Gwen’s my personal favourite - what a singer! what a song interpreter!).
OK, here’s one of mine and it might appear somewhat slight after recommendations for an epic New Yorker profile of Eddie Palmieri, an exert on a writer who was a dedicated political revolutionary and major thinkers on how Western democracy is being undermined and eroded. This noted, the late Gwen McCrae deserves acknowledgement as a remarkable singer – to my mind, one of the finest of the 1970/80s soul/funk/disco era – and as an African American woman who struggled throughout her life, suffering not only the racism of US society but a marriage to a man who (according to Gwen) was violently abusive towards her. Alongside being on a record label that was notorious for underpaying its artists.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/feb/22/the-late-gwen-mccrae-brought-emotion-to-dance-music-like-no-one-else
Gwen was one of the great voices of the much vaunted “Miami sound” of the 1970s and, growing up in Auckland in the 70s, that music got lots of airplay – perhaps because my home city is a very sunny, beach metropolis the music cut in Miami resonated here? Anyway, McCrae cut some formidable records between 1967 – 1982. After her commercial peak was over she remained a formidable live performer, until she suffered a stroke in 2009 while touring Europe. She never recovered from said stroke so I image the past 16 years were not only punishing for her but also for her daughters and other family members.
Before you click the link to my piece I suggest you read a review written by my friend (and Yak contributor) Noah Schaffer, who saw what apparently was Gwen’s final US performance – he wrote it for In The Basement, the now defunct soul music magazine, and has given me permission to reproduce them here. Thanks Noah!
Gwen McCrae, Concilio Banquet Hall, Philadelphia, PA, Nov. 21 2009
The promotion by a local radio DJ had the dubious distinction of having the worst sound system I've ever encountered. It was really just a vocal microphone -- the backing bands had no monitors or mix, they just played through their amps. Good thing no one brought a horn section! And there was an extreme amount of horrendous feedback all night. The buffet offered was compared by one of the audience members to “prison food.” The first two local acts came on and did their thing. Then the Illusions came on and seemed to think they were the headliners. They played way too long. Even worse, their band then proceeded to break down and pack up all their gear on stage rather than just moving it off to the side area like all the other bands did. It was extremely unprofessional and combined with the excessive length of their set delayed the show so much that the audience had thinned out by the time the headliners went on. The Dynamic Superiors, now down to George Spann and some new members, didn't have a band, just tracks, and their vocals were inaudible, to the clear annoyance of the crowd. Gwen McCrae finally came on at 12:30 and looked and sounded fantastic – it’s impossible to believe that she’s in her mid-60’s. Joined by her sisters on backing vocals, she started with Bettye Swann’s "Make Me Yours", then did "I'm Getting What I Want" (Peggy Scott Adams) before the highlight of the night, a devastating "Let's Straighten It Out." The dance-floor filled up for "Clean Up Woman." Then Gwen tried to do a medley of “Rock Me Baby” and "Rockin’ Chair" but after several unsuccessful attempts to get the band to play either song correctly she simply gave up and left the stage, a rather unfortunate ending to a show she had traveled 2000 miles round trip by car to perform. I’d see Gwen again in an instant – unless this promoter was putting on the show! Noah Schaffer
I hope my Guardian piece does justice to Gwen. To my mind she’s a far greater artist than many more celebrated names – the likes of Nina S and Joni M never served a song with the directness and emotional intelligence Gwen McCrae employed. May dance floors everywhere continue to move to Gwen’s tunes!
Bizarrely, this was a B-side when first released in 1974 - the same year Gwen’s husband George scored an international No 1 with Rock Your Baby (a song written for Gwen by Richard Finch & Harry Casey of the Sunshine Band). I believe it did get radio play on R&B stations and was quickly recognised as a classic: for me this is a desert island disc, one of the greatest singles of a remarkable era for soul/funk. Written by Clarence Reid and produced by Steve Alaimo, two fascinating individuals who played major roles in developing the Miami sound. Both deserve more attention - I interviewed label impresario Henry Stone the one time I was in Miami, sadly never spoke to either Clarence or Steve - so will dedicate a Yak post to the music then coming out on the Miami labels those men helmed.