Brian Morton

Brian Morton is a former academic, Times of London journalist and BBC arts and music presenter. He currently writes and farms in the West of Scotland.

Britain’s Atavistic Royalism

Britain’s Atavistic Royalism Britain’s Atavistic Royalism

Will and Kate may look and dress like us, but their modernity is illusory. They, and the entire British polity, are tied to a 300-year-old law that puts sectarianism at the heart o...

Apr 28, 2011 / Brian Morton

Music’s Measures Music’s Measures

A jazz writer pays tribute to his longtime collaborator on The Penguin Guide to Jazz.

Aug 12, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Brian Morton

Letters Letters

BELIEVE WHAT YOU WANT BUT BUTTON UP Hadensville, Va.

Dec 12, 2007 / Letters / Our Readers and Brian Morton

Roscoe Mitchell’s Wolf Tones Roscoe Mitchell’s Wolf Tones

The subtle sounds of this saxophonist defy definition.

Nov 15, 2007 / Books & the Arts / Brian Morton

Hatchet Man’s Heresy Hunt… Hatchet Man’s Heresy Hunt…

New York City

Mar 15, 2006 / Letters / Michael Kazin, Daniel Lazare, Brian Morton, and Todd Gitlin

The Cool War The Cool War

The US government employed jazz musicians as ambassadors to the world during the cold war.

Jun 9, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Brian Morton

Quartet for the End of Time Quartet for the End of Time

When David Spencer Ware was a baby, his mother pronounced a blessing over him. Go See the World became the title of the saxophonist's first major-label record, for Columbia.

Mar 24, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Brian Morton

Stankonia Stankonia

Fifty years ago, a young Polish journalist named Leopold Tyrmand lost his job at the country's last surviving independent publication, the Catholic weekly Tygodnik Powszechny, ...

Feb 24, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Brian Morton

Flowers for Albert Flowers for Albert

On the morning of November 25, 1970, the body of a young African-American male was recovered from the foot of the Congress Street Pier in Brooklyn.

Nov 4, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Brian Morton

Raw Material Raw Material

Since Miles Davis died on September 28, 1991, the merchandising machine has been in overdrive, pushing repackaged classics (Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain), niche compilations a...

Mar 4, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Brian Morton

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