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Westbrook Trio: three into wonderfull
by Bruce Lindsay
The Westbrook Trio celebrates thirty years of music making with three into wonderfull, a retrospective covering the years from 1983 to 2012. Pianist and composer Mike Westbrook, vocalist Kate Westbrook and saxophonist Chris Biscoe have pursued an uncompromising path through the three decades since forming the Trio, crafting music that can be both beautiful and challenging. Mike Westbrook has long been one of the UK jazz scene's most impressive composers, working equally successfully with small ensembles and big bands
read moreRefugee: Patrick Moraz / Lee Jackson / Brian Davison: Live in Concert 1974
by John Kelman
When Keith Emerson left The Nice in 1969 to form Emerson, Lake and Palmer, bassist/vocalist Lee Jackson and drummer Brian Davison were left in a quandary. Both were capable enough, but Emerson was clearly the star of the show. Jackson's subsequent Jackson Heights achieved some cult status, but was hamstrung by average playing and writing--and Jackson's grating voice. So it was a very good thing for Jackson and Davison when they found a new wunderkind in keyboardist Patrick Moraz. With ...
read moreVarious Artists: Soupsongs Live: The Music of Robert Wyatt
by John Kelman
Canterbury-associated singer/songwriter Robert Wyatt's recorded output, since an accident that left him paralysed from the waist down in the mid-1970s shut down his ability to play the conventional drum kit, is hardly what anyone would call jazz by any standard definition. But it's important to recognize that, while he was always the more song-oriented member of the classic Soft Machine line-up of the late-1960s and early-1970s, he was as jazz-informed as the rest of the group. His first solo album, ...
read moreBrian Hopper: If Ever I Am
by John Kelman
British saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Brian Hopper may not be as well-known as his brother, bassist Hugh Hopper of Soft Machine fame. He has, however, been a part of the same Canterbury scene since the '60s, when he was a member of the pre-Soft Machine collective the Wilde Flowers, along with a number of other artists who would go onto varying degrees of greater fame--future Softs members including brother Hugh, keyboardist Mike Ratledge, and drummer/singer Robert Wyatt; future Hatfield and the North and ...
read moreSoft Machine: Breda Reactor
by John Kelman
Breda Reactor finds British jazz-rock outfit Soft Machine in one of its many transitional stages. Between the septet that toured in late '69 and the emergence of the classic" lineup--keyboardist Mike Ratledge, saxophonist Elton Dean, bassist Hugh Hopper, and drummer/vocalist Robert Wyatt--this incarnation was augmented by saxophonist/flautist Lyn Dobson. The quintet may have only lasted three months, but Dobson possessed a strong voice, providing interesting counterpoint to the more free-spirited Dean.
Recorded a month after the Croydon show documented on ...
read moreHugh Hopper Band: Alive!
by John Kelman
Ex-Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper underwent something of a crisis of musical faith in the early '80s. Having given up music--not even touching his bass for over a year--he had taken a day gig and, aside from some writing, appeared to be giving up the arts for good. Then a Dutch Soft Machine fan, Kees Schep, met him in Canterbury, suggesting that if Hopper ever wanted to play in Holland he knew a lot of musicians with whom he could ...
read moreSoft Machine: Facelift
by John Kelman
First, let's get one thing out of the way. Facelift , another in Voiceprint's ongoing series of live Soft Machine performances, comes from an audience recording by bassist Hugh Hopper's brother Brian. Not only is the quality decidedly lo-fi, but the tape machine actual slows down and speeds up on a couple of occasions, making this double-disc set absolutely for deeply committed fans only.
That being said, Facelift is yet another reason to re-examine Soft Machine within the broader context ...
read moreSoft Machine: Live at the Paradiso 1969
by John Kelman
In a recent interview guitarist Nels Cline described seeing John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra as ...like having all your body hair singed off in one fell swoop." Similar words could be used to describe British progressive rockers Soft Machine on Live at the Paradiso 1969. Their raw energy and sheer power, recorded in Amsterdam shortly before the release of Volume Two --considered by many to be a defining moment in progressive rock--translates directly from stage to disc on this fine archival ...
read moreSoft Machine: Somewhere in Soho
by John Kelman
A few months after the recordings that would result in an undisputed classic of progressive rock/jazz, Third , Soft Machine had pared down from an octet to a leaner, meaner quartet. Remaining were keyboardist Mike Ratledge, bassist Hugh Hopper, drummer/vocalist Robert Wyatt and a relative newcomer, saxophonist Elton Dean, who would continue to drive the group in further and further outward-reaching directions over the next couple of years. The group would shift around him, first in seeming agreement and then ...
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