Mark Sampson - or Prezident Markon as he is known to a discerning minority of listeners in France - is a writer, journalist, intermittent radio DJ and straw-bale builder (once featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs Abroad). He lives in SW France with a tolerant wife, an affectionate dog, 'two cats in the yard' and more music than you can shake a baguette at.
Website: mtsampson.com
April has showered its musical blessings upon us: some old, some new and all worthy of more than a mere... Read Article
Spring has sprung in this neck of the woods, a little precociously perhaps but intimating better times ahead. Hopefully. Time... Read Article
Alas poor Johnny, we knew him well… But perhaps we knew the dearly departed Dominican flautist more as a composer... Read Article
It’s rare to find an album starring the trombone: the names Jay Jay Johnson, Trombone Shorty, Willie Colón come to... Read Article
A musical prodigy, Marcos Resende learnt to play the accordion at age two and the piano at six. If the... Read Article
Now that I’ve got over Christmas and, more particularly, the shock of forgetting Raúl Monsalves’ marvellous Bichos in my recent... Read Article
If the name Gerry Weil doesn’t sound Venezuelan, that’s because he’s Austrian. Indeed he looked at the time like a... Read Article
I note with interest that in my New Year’s Honours List of January 2020 I described 2019 as “dire”. So... Read Article
On a casual first listening, this band from Birmingham (that’s England, not Alabama) sounds like Hot Club of Cowtown might... Read Article
Season’s greetings, pop-pickers! There are few more gratifying ways of bringing this annus horribilis to a close than savouring some... Read Article
If you want the synth, the whole synth and nothing but the synth, then this “mini-LP” is for you. It’s... Read Article
One man’s passion became the same man’s label. Now based in Barcelona, El Palmas is described as “an intertropical South... Read Article
