What was Penny Rimbaud’s ‘Last Amendment’, but is now ‘L’Académie des Vanités’, continue their quarterly residency with further adventures into the realms of words and music or, as Rimbaud puts it, ‘the poetry of jazz and the jazz of poetry’. It’s a unique and sometimes confrontational blend of passion, word and music featuring Penny Rimbaud and Eve Libertine on vocals, Louise Elliott on sax and flute, Kate Shortt on cello and Jennifer Maidman on guitars. In Penny’s words, ‘if you think you’ve got the answer, you didn’t hear the question.’
Penny Rimbaud is one of England’s great rebel poets. Prolific author, founding member of Crass and fearless explorer of possibilities in life and art, Rimbaud has never been one to wallow in nostalgia. Over the three decades since Crass disbanded he has been involved with myriad arts projects, published over 14 books, and released music ranging from the free form jazz/spoken word agitations of The Last Amendment to last years ‘symphonic punk’ collaboration with The New Banalists. – The Quietus