Jazz Articles about Soft Machine

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Soft Machine from 1973, Trevor Watts from 1976, Vital Information and Dave Weckl band

by Len Davis
May 28, 2023

Vital Information from Time Flies, Tony Williams from Spectrum Road, Soft Machine, The Dutch Lesson. Trevor Watts fromAnother Time, French trumpeter Erik Truffaz, Italian bassist Pippo Matino, Dave Weckl Band, Tom Coster and Brazilian bassist Fernando Molinari. Playlist Vital Information “Choreography in Six" from Time Flies (Wounded Bird) 00:00 Tony Williams “Wild Life" from Spectrum Road (Palmetto) 05:22 Soft Machine “Improvisation from The Dutch Lesson (Cuneiform) 10:48 Trevor Watts-Amalgam “Jive" from Another Time (FMR) 16:12 Erik Truffaz “Ghost ...

Album Review

Soft Machine: Facelift France and Holland

Read "Facelift France and Holland" reviewed by Maurizio Comandini

by Maurizio Comandini
May 30, 2022

Sotto l'ombrello robusto chiamato Soft Machine si nascondono in realtà parecchie band. All'inizio l'interesse del gruppo, nato nel 1966 in quel di Canterbury (anche se loro non vogliono essere considerati come esponenti del cosiddetto Canterbury Sound), era per una sorta di pop-rock patafisico, che poi ha iniziato a dilatarsi verso la psichedelia, il rock progressivo, il jazz moderno, la musica creativa, l'avanguardia. Questa eccellente proposta della Cuneiform, etichetta che davvero merita un plauso particolare per l'abilità dimostrata nel riuscire a ...

Album Review

Soft Machine: Live At The Baked Potato

Read "Live At The Baked Potato" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 31, 2020

European progressive jazz-rock ensemble Soft Machine seems to have run through more lives than even the luckiest tomcat. They've been first-rate musicians at every incarnation, and it's heartening to hear John Etheridge (guitar), John Marshall (drums), Roy Babbington (bass) and relative newcomer Theo Travis (piano, flute, saxophone) sound so vibrant as well as accomplished on Live at the Baked Potato. Baked Potato is a souvenir, recorded at Los Angeles' legendary musical hotspot, from the ensemble's 2019 tour of ...

Album Review

Soft Machine: Live At The Baked Potato

Read "Live At The Baked Potato" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
July 4, 2020

Live At The Baked Potato was recorded in Los Angeles in 2019 as part of Soft Machine's 50th Anniversary Tour. (Fact check: 2019 was the band's 53rd and this lineup's fourth anniversary). The latest album is a lot of fun even though it bears little resemblance to the music of the revolutionary 1966 -1969 lineups featuring Mike Ratledge on keyboards and flute, Robert Wyatt on drums and vocals, Kevin Ayers on guitar, bass guitar and vocals, Daevid Allen on guitar ...

Album Review

Soft Machine: Hidden Details

Read "Hidden Details" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
July 2, 2019

Hidden Details celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Soft Machine's 1968 eponymous debut, a seismic event in the British psychedelic, jazz and rock music landscapes that still reverbates as the Canterbury scene/sound. This anniversary studio celebration also brought about Soft Machine's first tour of North America since 1974, with several 2018 shows featuring Gary Husband as guest performer on either drums or keyboards. First assembled in 1966, Soft Machine has become a landmark British (if not global) progressive musical ...

Live Review

Soft Machine at the Beachland Ballroom

by Matt Hooke
October 29, 2018

Soft Machine Beachland BallroomCleveland, OH October 18, 2018 A disco ball may have been spinning at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland Ohio, but this was no dance party. Instead, Soft Machine brought their brand of progressive jazz-rock to the venue with the energy of a band a fraction of its age. The band came to the Ballroom as part of an international tour celebrating the release of Hidden Details (Moonjune), the band's first ...

Album Review

Soft Machine: Hidden Details

Read "Hidden Details" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
October 15, 2018

From leading the psychedelic '60s charge with Pink Floyd to a more experimental, free rock/jazz stratagem that incorporated whatever sound caught its collective musical ear, Soft Machine included, over the course of nearly two decades, a colorful cast of eccentrics, like guitarists Allan Holdsworth and Andy Summers, drummer/vocalist Robert Wyatt, bassist Hugh Hopper, and fuzz organist maestro Mike Ratledge. Nearly four decades later, Soft Machine still makes a far ranging, far flung sound like no other. Most aware ...