With the nearly always dubious benefit of hindsight a band with a front line consisting of the Bald Soprano (Lol Coxhill) and the Dirty Bopper (Bruce Turner) seems a little unlikely, but it shows how the lines were getting blurred even almost half a century ago. Dave Green’s been no slouch when it comes to pushing down the temporary barriers either, while Michael Garrick and Alan Jackson are in the category of nominally modern musicians who simultaneously have an eye for the past.
As far as I’m aware the quintet only ever put one album out and this is it in the complete form – that is to say with more add-ons than you can shake a stick at. The original LP, recorded in the empty Forum theatre in Hatfield, is now subsumed within the greater order, and the result is a fine snapshot of a group the like of which we’re unlikely to encounter much in the future. All the stylistic labels which then and now largely still do apply are politely ignored and the resulting music is as fresh now as it was then.
Thus, even in Warming Up To Softly Turner nods to Lee Konitz in a manner than would have the Trad Dads fuming – if any of them were still around – while the three takes of Ornette Coleman’s Tears Inside would likely induce apoplectic rage. For those of us of a less insular disposition they all offer insight into the timeless notion of a jazz group as a work in progress, subject to inspiration passing and/or lasting, and the whole business of “bottling” a mercurial art.
This particular work was destined to continue for approximately five years, as indicated by the date of track seven on the third disc, with an “after thought” coming in the form of a Garrick / Green / Jackson track from December 1993. The three tracks on the third disc, recorded in New Merlin’s Cave, London, are a joy, documenting the quintet rising to a live occasion at a now legendary venue. It’s sad to reflect that at least three of the group are no longer here, but let’s be provoked into joy by what we have here.
Discography
CD1: Warming Up To Softly; Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise; Tears Inside (take 1); Tears Inside (rehearsal into take 2); Tears Inside (take 3); Alice’s Wonderland (take 1) (66.18)
CD2: Alice’s Wonderland (take 2); Anthropology; Mood Indigo (take 1); Mood Indigo (take 2); Remember Mingus (53.11)
CD3: Too Marvelous For Words; A Child Is Born; She’s Funny That Way; Bopit Lidice / Morning Light / Anthropology; Someone To Watch Over Me; We’ll Be Together Again; Embraceable You; Goodbye Dad (62.23)
Lol Coxhill (ss, ts); Bruce Turner (as, cl); Michael Garrick (p); Dave Green (b); Alan Jackson (d). CDs 1 and 2: Hatfield Forum, 29 May 1979. CD3, 1-3: New Merlin’s Cave, London, 10 August 1979. CD3, 4: BBC Maida Vale Studios, 31 October 1979. CD3, 5, 6: Same venue as CD3, 4, 21 June 1983. CD3, 7: Same venue as CD3, 4, 18 December 1984. CD3, 8: BBC Pebble Mill Studios, Birmingham, 1 December 1993.
Jazz In Britain JIB-55-S-CD
