Alexander Hawkins

although believe it or not, my computer speakers have just stopped working, so I can't hear it to jog my memory!

There's a wonderful 'Vers La Flamme' on YouTube by Horowitz where he plays fistfulls of wrong notes, and even remembers the piece incorrectly (I think - I don't have the score with me) - and yet, it's a *phenomenal* performance.

Thanks! Will switch over now.

Yes - and I think the two guitars are brilliant foils for each other. Mary was also a highlight (on of many) of the Braxton quintet in London a few years back - the one that's now out as Quintet (London) 2004, IIRC.

Dude, allow me to urge you to check it out. Shit had me talking back to him as he played, sometimes! It's in here: I think this has been on Emusic, actually. There's some fantastic Derek Bailey on the set, too.

The recent Braxton trio from Victoriaville last year with Halvorsen and Bynum is brilliant IMHO. Also with the opportunity to hear Braxton at length with electronics!

Thank you for that link! What a wonderful programme. This 'Nightingale...' is too beautiful!

Yes - as I recall the Rivers charts, they were generally 'open for blowing' for Rivers himself, and had more traditional 8/16/32 bar slots for the others. Great arrangements they were too! Haven't heard the Speake. Apparently the duo record with Mark Sanders is fantastic though.

There are some which are irritating and quite lovely in equal measure...I'm thinking of trumpeters with 'burnished' tones...

Yeah - he was in that band. IIRC the section was Ballamy, Kofi, Pete Wareham, Martin Speake, and Jason Yarde. They played nicely as a section, but when I caught them, only Jason really had much to say as a soloist. Someone was telling me that Kofi is actually a fairly full time member of WSQ...or perhaps only when they're in Europe? Not sure... Haven't heard the Monk thing, but have only ever heard VERY equivocal things about it...so much so that I'd be very curious to catch it!

Female a safe assumption - although like in the US, it's not unheard of as a male name. Casey, Randy - either way (although neither is particularly common). Sandy is very commonly male over here, especially in Scotland - it's a variant of 'Alexander'.

I saw Lol once in the basement of a pub in Nottingham in the 80s. He did a gig in a builder's skip up in North Yorkshire either last year or the year before. Malton, I think. There's a great video of him on YouTube playing with Rufus Thomas...or at least there used to be - I can't find it now!

Bev - wow, great! I wish people like Lol had visited my university! Really hope I can tie this one up - we've talked a few times about playing tunes (he gets a bit miffed at being seen as 'just' a free player, like you can imagine), so it'll be great fun to do. Don't think they're putting stuff on at the town hall anymore though...

As a sidenote, I've just been helping a small, self-funding Arts Centre in Reading to fix a season of gigs. If anyone's ever in the area, please do come along. Here's the programme: Rising Sun Jazz This is just a page on my site - there should be another coming soon, and there's also this.

Quite! Although I suspect it's one of those things which isn't a 'zero-sum' game...although people may well be upset by the amount of money being chanelled from other public 'pots' into the Olympics, I don't think too many will be upset to see Arts subsidies withdrawn...I hope that's too cynical, and that I'm wrong, of course, but...

I was commenting to someone only yesterday that we're beginning to feel the squeeze just getting paying gigs...

Bill - terrible news. Let's guess where the funding has gone. OK - I'll go first: the London Olympics.

p.s. to derail - on Anansi influences: Taylor Ho Bynum's group 'Spider Monkey Strings' (and their album, Other Stories) is wonderful. I'd have been interested to hear Baptiste's programme...I've never been really fired by his stuff. Soweto - the second album I find rather curious. It's no kind of a fusion record: he just alternates jazz with hip hop tracks, more or less, which lends it a rather disjointed feel. I think he can really play, but I've yet to hear him in what I think is the 'right' context for him. I think he needs to work with musicians who will really push him out of his comfort zone: I don't feel he does this with his regular band.

Nate - I've played with Stan's son a few times, and I have to say, really enjoyed it. Very solid...sort of out of an Art Blakey mould. Although also did some Kenny Wheeler charts with him and a big band at a festival last year, and he has a really nice 'open' feel as well on that kind of material. He was telling me he used to have a band in the early 80s with Osborne and Paul Rogers - very curious to have heard that!

And of course, still playing is the VERY VERY VERY great Lol Coxhill. Harry Beckett, Evan Parker, John Butcher. Not to mention our world class drummers: Mark Sanders, Steve Noble - and, in a straighter vein, Dave Wickens. Not talked about too much, but his trio with Kirk Lightsey is something else. p.s. just re-reading my previous post - came over as not very gracious in those last three paras...no offence meant...just something I feel strongly about!

I think I caught the band the night after their Newcastle hit. All was somewhat fraught - they had the camera crew in tow (recently mentioned on that thread about Sunny's big band in Luxembourg). Don't remember too much about the camera crew, other than them very excited that Lol Coxhill was in the audience, and trying to get an interview with him about Sunny. All got more fraught when about 15 minutes before the gig was to start, Sunny decided he didn't like the bass drum head on the drum set provided - it was one of those with a hole in for the microphone, so calls were put in to drummers across London to see if anyone had the right head. It arrived eventually. The first piece was extraordinary. Absolutely blistering. Tony played tenor throughout. What first struck me (although I should have know from this trio's 'Home Cooking') was how loud Sunny was. Part of me still thought of him as the Sunny Murray from Spiritual Unity, dancing all over the cymbals with the lightest of touches. Not this Murray, who played like an animal. John and Tony are very loud, very muscular players when need be, and my goodness did Murray goad them into some extremely loud, muscular stuff. It was almost 'guilty pleasure' music; an almost egregious blowout, but because of the sheer power ultimately incredibly arresting. It was interesting to hear Murray behind Tony when he played his bass sax, because for my money, he's much more - sorry for the cumbersome types - of a 'free jazzer' on tenor, and much more of a European 'non-idiomatic' player on bass (on which theme, I'd recommend a fantastic late Derek Bailey record, Limescale, featuring Derek, Tony, the phenomenal Alex Ward and THF Drenching and Sonic Pleasure [sic!]). Sure I had something else to add about the gig, but it's slipped my mind...At any rate - really looking forward to hearing this one!

Louis is indeed back in SA, but is back really quite a lot. He's been around this month actually. There's a new band of his which has gigged 3 times in this country so far - Louis, John Edwards, Orphy Robinson (who was spelled by Pule Pheto on the third of the three), and the twin saxophone front line of Ntshuks Bonga and Jason. I saw one of the gigs, which was completely wonderful - they pretty much took the roof off the (now, sadly defunct) Red Rose. The first gig, they played Harry Miller tunes etc., which a lot of people speak of as the best gig they've seen since [whenever]!

Tony's got a site at www.foghornrecords.co.uk I'd recommend most of the stuff on the label, actually... In a rush, but more thoughts later - I caught the trio on this tour. A short one though - both Tony and John are MONSTER musicians (and extremely nice people to boot).

Ah - to answer my own question - Michael Gregory Jackson. Great! What a band - AkLaff, Oliver Lake, Fred Hopkins, Jackson...'don't make 'em like that' etc.

Thank you! I think AkLaff is an awesome, awesome drummer. I sincerely hope the trio with Pheeroan, Cecil Taylor and Henry Grimes records. p.s. are there playlists for this show anywhere? There's a wonderful guitarist on at the moment whom I can't place, and would love to know who it is!