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The British saxophone stylists


A Lark Ascending

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I really like the bit on Hayes and Harriott. They sum up Coxhill nicely but seem to think he vanished after 1971!

Then this:

His appearance with various line-ups led by the Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts since the 1980s has made it possible to hear his intense curlicue collages of sound alongside classic stylists like Danny Moss and Peter King, a veritable mini-history of British jazz saxophone development

Bev, are they serious here about Evan Parker? He's talking strictly performance, in and about town?

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Thanks for posting that, Bev. It's made me want to check out Bobby Wellins, a player who I'm completely unfamiliar with. Does anyone have Under Milk Wood and care to comment?

While I have Hayes, Scott, Harriott, Parker, and Osborne in my collection, I still feel vastly ignorant of this thick branch in improvised music. Parker's solo work on Chronoscope is certainly ear-shredding ... but mind-opening. My favorite recording with Parker on it continues to be Hunting the Snake. A "crown" recording in my book if there ever was one.

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There are several different versions of Under Milk Wood. The version with Wellins is from the mid 60s and is beautiful. It's available on CD:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B...4918138-0014006

The version I know best is a remake Tracey did with parts of the play read between tunes. This came out in 1976...I bought it at a live performance, my first real jazz performance. The tenor playing is by Art Themen, a superb player who was (possibly still is) a doctor by day and jazzman by night!

I think there's a more recent live recording out too.

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Bobby Wellins records seem well scattered but he's done a few recently. I love a live recording of his from the late 70s called Jubilation, sadly MIA.

http://www.jazzizit.co.uk/

I keep meaning to get 'The Best is Yet to Come' disc.

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The link above tends to focus on a limited sort of 'line-of-succession'. It obscures the sheer range of marvellous saxophonists in the UK including many great younger players coming up. I'd stronly recommend names like Julian Arguelles, Iain Ballamy, Martin Speake, Soweto Kinch and Jason Yarde just to name a handful.

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Oh!

Look what I just found:

http://www.bobbywellins.co.uk/

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I've heard that the original 'Under Milk Wood' sessions were recorded by Wellins and Tracey under something of a narcotic haze - and indeed a sense of this does come through in the sense of 'dreaminess' prevalent in parts of the sesion. 'Starless and Bible Black', for example.

Good words about Themen - one of the most solid and consistent of UK players. Isn't he a consultant surgeon in his 'day job'? Wonder how he finds time or energy to play jazz so well?

Edited by sidewinder
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