Roy Campbell

[king ubu]

Got to look for that one!

Took me a while to dig Roy, but had a very, very nice personal encounter with him in Paris.

He played (the now defunct, I think) "Sept Lezards" club with Joelle Leandre - just the two of them. There was hardly an audience - the top floor was a bar/restaurant, in the cellar there was a horrible little room for music. Some of the dining folks came down but they quickly disappeared again... I got to chat with the lady next to me, and turns out she's Roy's girlfriend. I mention having a disc or two of Roy's, and then in the break she told him and he was very pleased to find a fan in the room (well, an acquaintance of Joelle Leandre's was there, too, makes two of us... the rest of the audience consisted of three or four people).

Roy was great to talk to.... very knowledgeable and thoughtful person, seems he payed plenty of dues and knows quite well where he's going and what he's doing, musically. (I find many musicians lacking as far as reflecting their own art goes... lacking may be too negative a word as an artist doesn't have to be a critic/historian at the same time, but I still find it irritating rather often.)

Anyway, they invited me over for the second night, and of course I went back - and yes, I felt bad being on the guest list, while there were just... four or five? paying customers that night as well.

The music they performed was great, a mix of various styles that somehow turned out very well. Leandre did all that wild stuff, including frantic bowing and some of her weird singing, and Campbell played the trumpet (and/or a cornet, can't remember) as well as the flute (regular one), and brought plenty of roots into the mix. In some of his solos, I thought I could virtually hear the whole history of jazz trumpet playing... but he's working and playing with it, reflecting it, turning it into his own, personal statement, not merely recycling it.

[papsrus]

Nice recollection. Thanks.

[Bright Moments]

great story ubu! thanks for sharing!

[clifford_thornton]

Roy's good although when it comes to outfits like Brotz's Die Like a Dog Quartet, I find Campbell a poor substitute for Kondo.

Kondo is wonderful on those FMP discs, but I don't feel that Roy was trying to fill any shoes at Fire in the Valley.