The jazz singer Natalie Williams is the daughter of poet
John Hartley Williams. They have performed jazz and poetry events together in
the London area
and in Berlin .
One Sunday a month Natalie holds a monthly rave-up at Ronnie Scott’s club in London , called Soul
Family. Otherwise she is often to be heard fronting the brilliant Ronnie Scott
house band (extraordinary James Pearson on piano) and the latest news is that
they have just put out a CD called Jazz Classics (it’s on the Ronnie Scott
label). There is more vigour and kick in these live performances than you’ll
hear almost anywhere else these days. Check it out!
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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