Jazz Articles about Soft Machine

like 355

Fusion: Floating World Live, One Spirit, and Dancing On The Water

by Mark F. Turner
May 5, 2006

Three recordings which tell us that fusion is alive and well, taking inspiration from the past while also searching for new perspectives. Soft Machine Floating World Live Moonjune Records 2006

Recorded in 1975, Floating World Live is a jazz/rock blast from the past. Britain's popular Soft Machine have been captured on numerous live albums, but the added bonus here is the addition of legendary guitar stylist Allan Holdsworth. The music ridicules ...

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Soft Machine: Floating World Live

by John Kelman
March 16, 2006

Fans of Soft Machine, which began with mid-1960s psychedelia but evolved into Britain's most influential jazz/rock group, generally consider the “classic lineup to be keyboardist Mike Ratledge, bassist Hugh Hopper, drummer Robert Wyatt and the recently deceased saxophonist Elton Dean. Many also suggest that ex-Nucleus woodwind multi-instrumentalist/keyboardist Karl Jenkins' recruitment signalled the beginning of the end, as the Softs moved from greater freedom towards riff-heavy fusion. But it's a more complicated story than that. The fact is that many post-Dean ...

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Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous

by Francis Lo Kee
March 5, 2006

Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous Graham Bennett Hardback; 448 pages ISBN: 0946719845S.A.F. Publishing 2005 First of all, we at AllAboutJazz-New York note the recent passing of Elton Dean (1945-2006) with deep sadness. Mr. Dean was an integral part of the “classic" Soft Machine lineup. Graham Bennett's book proceeds from a passion for Soft Machine's music, though in the preface he admits “... although that doesn't mean, as ...

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The Soft Machine Legacy: Live In Zaandam

by Glenn Astarita
November 17, 2005

This limited edition live set, recorded in the Netherlands, showcases the Soft Machine Legacy's bridging of previously explored horizons with a new outlook, firmed up by acclaimed British jazz guitarist John Etheridge. With three longstanding members of the early rendition of the Soft Machine carrying the torch, this album features richly lyrical jazz-rock architectures of various colors and flavors.

On the opening “Ash, Etheridge's understated electric guitar voicings provide an ethereal backdrop for Elton Dean's softly executed sax ...

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Soft Machine: British Tour '75

by John Kelman
October 5, 2005

Recent years have seen a wealth of archival live releases by British jazz-rock legend Soft Machine. But the lion's share of this material has revolved around the period 1970-72, which saw the classic lineup of keyboardist Mike Ratledge, saxophonist Elton Dean, bassist Hugh Hopper, and drummer Robert Wyatt morph from a freewheeling high-volume exploratory quartet into a more straightforward riff-based fusion band; ex-Nucleus reedman/keyboardist Karl Jenkins would assume leadership, along with another Nucleus alumnus, drummer John Marshall. The artistic success ...

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Soft Machine: Softstage: BBC In Concert 1972

by John Kelman
August 30, 2005

If a band exemplified the term mercurial, it was Soft Machine. Starting as a kind of post-Dadaist pop band in the late '60s only to end a little more than a decade later as a guitar-driven fusion group, Soft Machine went through so many personnel changes that it's a challenge, even in retrospect, to keep up. And while almost every recording represented some kind of significant directional shift, the recruitment of woodwind multi-instrumentalist/keyboardist/composer Karl Jenkins, previously a member of trumpeter ...

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Soft Machine & Heavy Friends: BBC in Concert 1971

by John Kelman
July 23, 2005

Released briefly on Windsong in the mid-'90s before going out of print and commanding large sums on eBay, the BBC recording of Soft Machine's March 11, 1971 Paris Theatre show in London, England was a one-off performance that most fans of the classic lineup--keyboardist Mike Ratledge, saxophonist Elton Dean, bassist Hugh Hopper, and drummer Robert Wyatt--could previously only dream of hearing. Thankfully Hux, which has been responsible for rescuing all kinds of BBC recordings from the archives and making them ...