Jazz Articles about Elton Dean

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The Fire, Regardless

by Nic Jones
July 4, 2012

If considered together a couple of recent archival releases (The 100 Club Concert 1979 (Reel Recordings, 2012), by saxophonist Elton Dean's Ninesense and Mike Osborne Trio The Birmingham Concert (Cadillac, 2012), by the Mike Osborne Trio) and one reissue (Wilderness of Glass ((Awake, 2012), by Triton) remind us of how creative improvised music happens, regardless of the state of the world in which it's made. Dean, Osborne and the Triton trio were all stalwarts of the British and European jazz ...

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Elton Dean's Ninesense: Happy Daze + Oh! For The Edge

by Mark Redlefsen
September 27, 2010

This reissue of two Ninesense recordings, from the late British saxophonist Elton Dean, creates a gateway back to the London jazz scene of the 1970s. Digging into bands that he played with previously outside of his work with Soft Machine, he formed the nine-piece Ninesense with Keith Tippett, along with several other members of that pianist's bands, as well as other players that passed through the ranks of late South African pianist Chris McGregor's band, Brotherhood of Breath, like drummer ...

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Soft Machine: Drop

by AAJ Italy Staff
May 4, 2009

Questo bellissimo CD documenta il tour europeo dei Soft Machine dell'autunno 1971. Da pochi mesi il batterista Robert Wyatt aveva lasciato la band, pressato e spinto fuori dai dubbi dei due compagni storici Hopper e Ratledge. Al suo posto, su suggerimento di Elton Dean, era arrivato il giovane batterista australiano Phil Howard, una vera e propria forza della natura, un impetuoso motorino sempre pronto a spingere in avanti, senza mai guardarsi indietro. I brani dei Soft Machine acquistano durante questo ...

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Command All Stars: Curiosities 1972

by Nic Jones
April 18, 2009

That infinite moment with which a lot of the music AAJ covers is preoccupied is amplified here, rife with a depth which far outstrips the casual manner in which the music came together. Afforded the relative luxury of three days of studio time in February 1972, some of that time's most creative individuals on the British scene came together to work both spontaneously and collectively. The results, even while inevitably reflective of that casual approach, demonstrate the primacy of that ...

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Elton Dean / Steve Miller Trio / Soft Heap: British genre-benders

by Clifford Allen
August 24, 2008

Though non-idiomatic is a term often thrown around when referring to post-1960s British improvisation, the more apt one might be cross-idiomatic, insofar as significant players have worked across genres with regularity. Take alto saxophonist Elton Dean, for example. He was part of the three-horn front line of pianist Keith Tippett's group, which was co-opted by the Soft Machine (a band for whom even the term “progressive rock" doesn't do justice). Though trumpeter Marc Charig and trombonist Nick Evans eventually left, ...

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Elton Dean & The Wrong Object: The Unbelievable Truth

by Nic Jones
October 6, 2007

Poignant doesn't cover it. This was one of Elton Dean's last gigs before his death and all the qualities that made him such a distinctive voice on alto sax and saxello--his wit, his ascetic, unsentimental lyricism and the like--are caught in abundance and in the company of a band who do a whole lot more than simply provide a framework for his invention.

“Millennium Jumble (The Wrong Object)" is a case in point. Dean's saxello work in particular was always ...

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Elton Dean – Hugh Hopper - Hoppy Kamiyama - Yoshida Tatsuya: Soft Mountain

by AAJ Italy Staff
February 27, 2007

Nel 2003 il saxofonista Elton Dean e il bassista Hugh Hopper erano in tour in Giappone, assieme ad Allan Hodsworth e a John Marshall, con il progetto Soft Works e il bassista decise di contattare il noto tastierista giapponese Hoppy Kamiyama per programmare un incontro in studio capace di generare materiale da pubblicare. Il tastierista non si lasciò scappare l’occasione, propose di imbarcare anche il batterista Yoshida Tatsuya (che Hopper aveva già conosciuto a Londra in occasione di un concerto ...