I posted a brief advance notice of the under-publicised concert
by The Bill Wells Octet and Lol Coxhill at the Cowane Centre,
Stirling on Saturday 3rd March. I had written: I notice from
an ad in The Wire that Textile records are
advertising a 12 inch Ticklish Fizzarum by The Bill Wells
Octet Meets Lol Coxhill, but haven't heard it.
"Klaus Oldanburg [tm]" from Diskono emailed to clarify this - Ticklish and Fizzarum are two different projects, who have one side each on a Textile Records 12 inch. He also tells me that Ticklish (a group of London-based improvisers) will play at Le Weekend in May 2001.
Regarding the Coxhill / Wells concert:
Being acutely unaware of the passage of time, it was disconcerting to reflect on how many years had passed since I last saw Lol Coxhill play - perhaps it was with guitarist Gerry Fitzgerald around 1976, although I have the feeling that there may have been one later concert in Glasgow. Since then... I recall an excellent (but never repeated) radio piece with Company on Radio 3 (during their very brief - 6 month - commitment to improvised music), a rather brief CD for the Glasgow-based Scatter in the mid 1990s, but he'd dropped out my line of sight. The ubiquitous can be overlooked and underrated.
Last night's solo performance brought back to me how much I enjoy his particular inflection on the soprano sax. It is by no means my favourite instrument... Coltrane, Lacy, Parker (um... Beefheart?!); despite these, it remains an instrument whose nasal tone is difficult to personalise. Coxhill retains a grain, a rootedness in and through jazz (fragments of past traditions, past affiliations pushing through a monologue) which made his solo set sing.
The first Bill Wells set was a trio (piano, harmonica, muted trumpet). A contrast with the mobility of the Coxhill set; a bright but static piece underpinned by Wells' arranger's piano. Mood music, recalling a slightly faded British film of the late 60s - frustrated suburban dreams.
The second set featured Wells' full Octet with Coxhill. Did it work? I'm unsure. Moving through various Wells pieces pieces underpinned by tapes, the through-composed (the Octet) and the improvised (Coxhill's commentaries) stood slightly distanced from one another. It is always the lack of potential mobility of the composed which bothers me... Accepting the Octet music, Stevie Jackson's guitar, vocals and harmonica did provide a considerable brightness and edge throughout.