By Stephen Yarwood
Probably still best known for his time with Soft Machine, saxophonist Elton Dean has been a highly respected player on the free jazz and new music scene for many years. His career began back in the mid sixties and continues to this day with an energy that shows no signs of abating. 20 years after he left Soft Machine his work from that era continues to reverberate. A recent resurgence of interest has enabled him to tap into a hitherto unrealised market in the USA and the far East. Different generations of Soft Machine fans are connecting through CD re releases. Watch out for an ED anthology in 2002, mainly unreleased material but with one or two favourites thrown in.
Bar Torque, Dean's most recent release, courtesy of Leonardo Pavkovic's New York based Moonjune label, is a duet with guitarist Mark Hewins recorded back in 1992 at London's Jazz CafÃÂÃÂÃÂé. The pair have worked together on and off for a number of years dating back to the early 80s creating improvisations that straddle the line between jazz and ambience. Hewins is a versatile and innovative guitar player from what could be termed the second generation of Canterbury musicians, younger but inspired by the original spirit. On Bar Torque he generates a wide range of textures, skilfully utilising the nascent synth guitar technology. The sampling capability adds rushing wind, chirping birds, various percussive sounds, and even a string of bells into the soundscape that accompanies Dean's alto and saxello.
On the evening of this recording Dean had no idea of what was likely to happen or what they were going to play, nor did he have any idea that they were being taped. He simply arrived, unpacked his horns, took the stage and began to react to the palette of sounds that Hewins was creating. The improvisation develops like a kind of exploration, a feeling of travelling without needing to arrive, like moving through a landscape of constantly varying and surprising topographical features. The music is at times loud and powerful, at others delicate and floating. It is the more melodic saxello side of Dean's character that is at the forefront here, although his more abrasive alto does break through from time to time.
The Dean technique was honed in the vibrant club scene of mid sixties London, a land of opportunity for young up and coming musicians. Work with Bluesology, a renowned R 'n B outfit probably best known for their association with singer Long John Baldry elevated his profile. Having got to know some of the main faces around town like Mike Osborne and Harry Miller, a more serious jazz attitude began to evolve. Dean was moving away from the R 'n B scene and into full scale improvisation. In 1968 along with Mark Charig he decided to enrol at the Barry Jazz Summer School in Wales, here they first ran into Keith Tippett and Nick Evans. Later that year Tippett came to London and employed Dean, Charig and Evans as the nucleus of his new band.
Soft Machine's Mike Ratledge was an admirer of the Tippett horn section and hired them en masse to play some of his fiendish new compositions. A moment of decision loomed for Elton Dean and his friends, to carry on in a more pure jazz direction with Keith Tippett, or enter the world of rock music. The latter seemed more attractive at the time. The first tour with the expanded Softs line up was a long one and fraught with problems. Sound technology for touring rock groups was still at a formative stage, the biggest difficulties were balancing the sound and miking the horns so they could be heard over the roar of the rhythm section. Despite some great performances it all proved too unwieldy and difficult to manage both in terms of personnel and budget. The band couldn't really afford to run a full time horn section, so eventually slimmed down to a more manageable quartet.
The sessions for Third Soft Machine album hit new musical heights, but there was much internal strife as Robert Wyatt became increasingly isolated from the more jazz influenced direction the group was taking. Elton Dean wasn't really writing much at this stage, mainly themes or sketches as a basis for improvisation. When Wyatt finally left Dean suggested Phil Howard, a flamboyant Australian whose style of drumming was of the Tony Williams school. After an impressive audition he was in. However, on stage Howard and Dean proceeded to take the music into new areas of freedom, perhaps a bit beyond where Ratledge and Hopper were prepared to go. Phil Howard was an astonishing drummer, a real powerhouse, he wouldn't exactly play the time signatures as such, they might just be implied, a pulse beneath ever increasing layers of rhythm. In the end Ratledge and Hopper decided he was too hot to handle and had to go. John Marshall possessed the perceived rhythmic accuracy and was brought in as replacement. A seething Elton Dean agreed to do one more tour before departing to solo pastures new. Thus ended the classic Soft Machine, they were never really quite such a potent force again. Undoubtedly the later line ups produced much excellent music but never with the same maverick feel, it all became a rather clinical.
Whilst still part of the Soft Machine Elton Dean had laid the foundations for his future solo career. His eponymous first album was released on CBS who strangely made little attempt to promote it. Much of it was improvised, Blind Badger being the outstanding composition. The recently reissued version of this album entitled Just Us also contains additional live material. Just Us was the name of Dean's combo at the time, usually a quartet working when and where they could occasionally in the UK, more often in mainland Europe. The line up tended to be fairly fluid depending on who was available.
Apart from solo projects there was a lot of activity in other areas, Elton Dean was much in demand. The mid to late seventies was a particularly good period with the likes of Brotherhood of Breath, Barry Guy, Ninesense. The latter was a mixture of Keith Tippett's sextet and the Brotherhood of Breath, personnel and style wise. Just Us became EDQ, usually with Keith Tippett, Louis Moholo and Harry Miller. There was also a memorable tour of European festivals with the Carla Bley Band, featuring an exciting mix of players such as Hugh Hopper, Gary Windo and Roswell Rudd.
Aside from jazz oriented projects there were other more experimental situations on the fringes of various genre. Much of the recorded output of Soft Heap has only recently become available. Could this have been how Soft Machine might have evolved if Wyatt and Dean had not jumped ship? An interesting thought. After the untimely death of founder member Alan Gowen, guitarist and sound sculptor Mark Hewins joined Dean, drummer Pip Pyle and bass player John Greaves. He was a terrific discovery, it was obvious straight away that it was going to work. The final album A Veritable Centaur was totally improvised, certainly not for the faint hearted, the chemistry is weird and wonderful, Mark Hewins is magnificent. There has been talk of a Soft Heap reunion to promote a possible live release by Moonjune Records. The musicians themselves are keen, the spark has always been there and because they only come together occasionally it's always fresh.
Elton Dean has been a member of Phil Miller's In Cahoots for many years now. As Miller's composing talents have matured, his adventurous material is perhaps sometimes suited to a larger group of musicians than economics will allow. The current In Cahoots sextet probably comes closest to being able to fully recreate the sounds conceived in the composer's head. A recent European Tour and a few dates in the Far East have shown they are still a potent mix of rock and jazz.
In 1997 after a few years operating small groups Elton Dean put together a larger ensemble, Newsense, to play both composed and improvised material. In many ways they carried on where Ninesense had left off in the seventies but with some new angles. Newsense prominently featured three trombonists who became affectionately known as Snap, Crackle and Pop. Annie Whitehead, versatile, schooled in jazz but happy to cross over into funk, reggae and ska. Paul Rutherford, uncompromising explorer, constantly pushing his instrument beyond its recognised boundaries. Roswell Rudd, the trombonist's trombonist, seen it all, done it all. The basic concept was to take the existing EDQ, augment it with the trombones then add a couple of wild cards. The mix of old Ninesense stuff and newer material worked well and an excellent album was recorded live at the Purcell Rooms in London.
1998 saw a back to basics approach with a trio featuring Newsense bass player Roberto Bellatalla and drummer Mark Sanders. Throughout the three improvised pieces on the Into the Nierika album the musicians stretch this way and that, reacting to and complementing the flow of ideas between them. Elton Dean is constantly on the look out for new situations and combinations of players to keep the music fresh. 1999/2000 sessions produced the Moorsong album which featured regular pianist Alex Maguire on Hammond organ. His performance, which was the first time he'd played the mighty Hammond, was something of a revelation and sparked some excellent playing and composing.
The album itself came out on Cuneiform, the New York label run by Steve Feigenbaum who have been responsible for a number of Dean releases and for raising his profile in the USA and beyond.
2001 has seen new partnerships and new directions. Tony Bianco, an American drummer based in London, has developed something he calls Freebeat. This hinges on bass motifs that Bianco has pre recorded and plays against, but which have a degree of irregularity that prevents the participants from locking into a groove for too long. Dean's long standing relationship with Mark Hewins continues to evolve and produce more new and challenging music. Much of this relies on more and more sophisticated technology utilising the synth guitar and other pre recorded textures. This backdrop has created a new and liberating canvas for Elton Dean, a man who has been playing free music for decades. It is still evolving, this music would not have been possible without the technology and Mark Hewins' ability to use it so creatively. The technology on Bar Torque now seems primitive in comparison.
Jazz doesn't always transfer well to the studio environment, the overall picture often becomes distorted once an engineer begins separating instruments and changing individual sounds. The heart of jazz culture is the sound of musicians playing together and reacting to each other. The best way to experience this is in a live situation, sadly the live jazz scene in and around London is not what it was. The art of improvisation is a concept difficult to explain to somebody who hasn't experienced it. Should there be any structure or planned pattern of operation? Should the musicians think before they play?
Elton Dean explains. "If you think about it and plan it you're missing the point, ideally it's just pure reaction and exchange of energy. It only happens with people who have that knowledge, when it's flowing it's very powerful, but the chemistry has to be right. Immersion in the flow is something that comes through experience, even if the musicality is there somebody new to it will at some stage pause and wonder where to go next. Doubt and indecision will lose the flow. You have to be strong yet sensitive to what others are playing, the art is to have a distinctive voice within the larger entity."
As far as Elton Dean is concerned the music comes first, commercial considerations have never been allowed to stand in the way of his desire to improve and explore. This philosophy has certainly not made him a fortune but has produced an impressive body of work which I am convinced will continue to grow. Hopefully the newly discovered overseas markets will bear fruit.
