Stewart Smith

Newcastle upon Tyne

Writer: improvised & experimental music @thewiremagazine | Jazz Police @Repeater_Radio | Third Eye Jazz @cca_glasgow | Associate lecturer @NclUniMusic He/him

Articles

The Wire Issue 496

2 weeks ago | thewire.co.uk | Claire Biddles |Emily Pothast |Daniel Spicer |Stewart Smith

June 2025 Subscribers: read this issue online. Subscribe to the magazine. Buy issue 496. Inside our brand new issue: Cosey Fanni Tutti: The industrial music icon has been to Hull and back with her new album 2t2. By Claire Biddles Quinton Barnes: The Montreal rapper and producer flips the script in a new project with free musicians. By Emily Pothast David Van Tieghem: The New York percussionist who has played with everyone on the Downtown scene receives a dedicated collection of his own work.
Peter Brötzmann / John Edwards / Steve Noble / Jason Adasiewicz – The Quartet | The Quietus

Feb 12, 2025 | thequietus.com | Stewart Smith |Bobby Barry |Antonio Poscic

OTOROKU The Quartet with double bassist John Edwards, drummer Steve Noble, and vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz was recorded at London’s Cafe Oto in February 2023, just a few months before Peter Brötzmann’s passing. The stark finality of this sentence is hard to swallow. The German free jazz saxophonist and clarinettist was one of those larger than life characters – and, yes, true legends – that felt as if they would go on forever, privy to some arcane ways of cheating death. While he ultimately...
Wire mix: Sakina Abdou - The Wire

Feb 5, 2025 | thewire.co.uk | Stewart Smith

Based in Lille, France, Sakina Abdou has been involved in free music since 2007, when she joined the Muzzix collective. Her 2022 solo album Goodbye Ground brought her wider attention and acclaim, and helped her to move towards free improvisation in her solo playing. Her latest album Hammer, Roll And Leaf is a collaboration with pianist Marta Warelis and precussionist Toma Gouband. She describes the feeling of wanting “to approach freedom with serenity...
“A portrait in many colours”: Joe McPhee’s autobiography reviewed

Jan 29, 2025 | thewire.co.uk | Stewart Smith

Joe McPhee Straight Up, Without Wings, The Musical Flight Of Joe McPhee Corbett vs Dempsey Pbk 170 pp “I love noise. Noise interests me because it’s everywhere, and it can be organised to make what we think of as music. Everybody has access to it, and everybody can fashion it anyway they want to.” So begins Joe McPhee’s memoir, Straight Up, Without Wings.
Jungle, funk and 14th-century Arabic astronomers: piano virtuoso Pat Thomas on his journey through jazz

Nov 19, 2024 | theguardian.com | Stewart Smith

‘I see myself as a traditional player who’s just open to things,” says Pat Thomas. Respectful of heritage yet unwilling to be bound by genre, race or class, Thomas is one of Britain’s most distinctive pianists, as well as an electronics wizard and visionary composer.
Shabaka Hutchings Unveils New EP, 'Possession'

Nov 18, 2024 | thequietus.com | Peter Margasak |Stewart Smith |Christian Eede

Shabaka Hutchings has a new EP on the way. Spanning five tracks, Possession sees the UK multi-instrumentalist collaborate with the likes of billy woods, ELUCID, Esperanza Spalding, Carlos Niño and a surprise special guest, whose identity will be revealed upon the full release of the record. To mark the EP’s announcement, Hutchings has shared the billy woods-featuring lead track ‘Timepieces’.
Take Four: EFG London Jazz Festival Preview

Oct 24, 2024 | thequietus.com | Luke Turner |Stewart Smith

With dozens of gigs taking place over nine days, EFG London Jazz Festival can be an overwhelming affair. From big name shows in swish concert halls to jam sessions in grimy basements, the 32-year-old event pretty much runs the gamut of jazz presentation. To help audiences navigate the huge programme, the organisers have identified several strands: Icons, Jazz Visionaries, New Creations, Home Grown, Beyond Margins, Voices and Beyond Borders.
The Necks – Bleed | The Quietus

Oct 17, 2024 | thequietus.com | Stewart Smith |Kate Hennessy |Bobby Barry |Levi Dayan

One of the main challenges for any group of improvising musicians is to figure out ways to push forward without repeating yourself. One would imagine this is especially true for the legendary Australian trio The Necks, both because they specialise in ultra minimal longform improvised soundscapes, and because they’ve been pursuing these sounds for more than thirty-five years now.
Conductor of Magic and Chaos: The Roscoe Mitchell Solo Saxophone Concerts at 50

Oct 15, 2024 | thequietus.com | Stewart Smith |Patrick Clarke

There are performances that rewire your brain chemistry, forcing you to listen to music and sound in different ways. Roscoe Mitchell’s solo set at the Jeff Mangum curated All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in 2012 was one such performance. At the time, I was familiar with some of the composer and multi-instrumentalist’s work with the Art Ensemble Of Chicago, but I’d yet to hear his unaccompanied solo recordings.
Play for the People: Caveira Interviewed

Sep 16, 2024 | thequietus.com | Patrick Clarke |Stewart Smith

With its tarpit drones, lurching dynamics and free jazz squalls, Caveira’s Ficar Vivo is one of the year’s heaviest dispatches from the underground. Emerging from Lisbon’s experimental music scene in the early 2000s, the group has gone through various incarnations with guitarist Pedro Gomes at the helm.