Label:
CBS – 64071
Format:
Vinyl, LP / Country: UK / Released: 1970
Style:
Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded on
February 7, 1970 and released on LP by CBS that year.
Liner
Notes – Michael Walters
Engineer
by – Mike FitzHenry
All
compositions by Tony Oxley
A1
- Saturnalia .............................................................................
10:09
A2
- Scintilla ...................................................................................
8:56
B1
- Amass ...................................................................................
13:00
B2
- Megaera .................................................................................
6:09
Personnel:
Tony
Oxley – drums
Evan
Parker – tenor sax
Kenny
Wheeler – trumpet, flugelhorn
Paul
Rutherford – trombone
Derek
Bailey – guitar
Jeff
Clyne – bass
Oxley's band for this outing was a dream group of Brit outsiders: Derek Bailey on guitars, Kenny Wheeler on trumpet and flügelhorn, Evan Parker on saxophones, Oxley on drums of course (the only British drummer besides Robert Wyatt who could play pop or free jazz with equal enthusiasm), Paul Rutherford on trombone, and Jeff Clyne on bass. The four tunes are all outer-limits numbers; all methadrine takes on what were happening improvisations. It's true that there are loose structures imposed on all four tracks, but they quickly dissolve under the barrage of sonic whackery. At times, dynamic tensions present themselves, such as on the beautiful "Scintilla," where Bailey shows what made him Derek Bailey in the first place: his willingness to take even preconceived notions of free improvisation apart. There are also puzzling questions that the sextet cannot resolve (e.g., how far to take harmonic investigation). It's clear not even Parker wants it to completely disintegrate into the ether; he holds forth with Wheeler that some semblance of order, no matter how tenuous, be kept. And while it's true these selections all sound dated by today's standards, and by how far each man has come in terms of musical growth, there is still something compelling here in the chopped-out framework of "Amass" or Parker's attempt to blow Oxley from the room with outrageously long lines that seem to come from the mouthpiece of the horn rather than its bell in "Megaera." There is also a stalwart "anti-Americanism in all of it," an anger directed at the Yankee jazzers who were now moving toward fusion or even the avant cats who relied too heavily on tradition. In any case, this is a fine record historically, for seeing where the Brit free music movement came from.
_ Review by Thom Jurek
A
year on from The Baptised Traveller, Tony Oxley's debut recording as a
composer, this LP from 1970 is perhaps even more indicative of how the
experimental music of the time ended up in the jazz bin seemingly by default. That
said, all the essential attributes which are needed to add to the impetus of
jazz are still here in abundance--the extraordinary empathy between the
players, the clarity of thinking as to where the music needs to go and the
continuing search for fresh and revitalising ideas to help it get there--but
Oxley's diverse musical background (which even by this time had ranged from
duties as housedrummer at Ronnie Scott's club to military band drumming,
classical studies, working with John McLaughlin and forging an increasing
commitment to freely improvised music) and natural self-discipline invests
these compositions with a more wide-ranging sensibility. Oxley's lucid notes
guide the listener through the structural bones of the compositions to which
the musicians add improvised flesh and, while the results are no more likely to
appeal to staunch traditionalists than they were all those years ago, the sheer
vision of these works makes them compulsive listening.
_ Review by Roger Thomas
If
you find it, buy this album!
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