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Tony Oxley: Beaming
by John Eyles
Since 2010, album releases from drummer Tony Oxle (born 1938) have become increasingly scarce and poignant. A Birthday Tribute—75 Years (Incus, 2013) comprised live recordings from 1977 and 1993—featuring trombonist Paul Rutherford and guitarist Derek Bailey, respectively, both long gone—issued to mark Oxley's birthday. Its appearance on Incus was a reminder that Oxley was part of the threesome, along with Bailey and Evan Parker, which set up the influential label back in 1970. The years since ...
Continue ReadingTony Oxley: A Birthday Tribute--75 Years
by John Eyles
As its title indicates, this album was released to mark the occasion of drummer Tony Oxley's seventy-fifth birthday (which occurred on June 15 2013.) Fittingly, it is released on Incus, the ground-breaking label that Oxley established in 1970 with Derek Bailey and Evan Parker, frequently cited as “the first independent musician-run record label in Britain" (just about true because of the inclusion of “independent"--which rules out The Beatles' Apple label--and of “in Britain," which rules out Debut set up by ...
Continue ReadingTony Oxley: The Baptised Traveller
by Clifford Allen
Though in hindsight many followers of British jazz and free improvisation are well aware of the impact that artists like Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley have had on the course of modern creative music, the original liner notes on this, Oxley’s first album as leader, point to a presentation of new music by none other than Ronnie Scott’s preferred house drummer. Indeed, shortly before The Baptised Traveller was released, Oxley appeared alongside Kenny Clare on Scott’s Live at ...
Continue ReadingPaul Bley: Chaos
by Larry Koenigsberg
There's a fashion on many contemporary jazz recordings, in which the players are variously combined for each track: all on some tracks, just a few on others, perhaps just one or two on the rest, and no grouping the same. While Chaos follows this formula, the results have a consistency which is often lacking in straight-ahead releases thus assembled. The explorations of Bley, Di Castri and Oxley are so strong on their solo tracks that when they play together, they ...
Continue ReadingPaul Bley: Chaos
by Glenn Astarita
Chaos is a new collaborative effort from experimentalists Paul Bley (p), Furio Di Castri (b) and drummer Tony Oxley. What we have here is a series of duets, solos and trio settings.The Bley composition “Poetic Justice” typifies some of the trio’s introspective pieces which generally reside within the free jazz realm. Bley provides the melodic interludes while Oxley and Di Castri explore various rhythmic structures. Oxley’s inventions on the kit are legendary. His arsenal of odd sounding percussion ...
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