This Jazz in Britain release with its rather expansive title has rather snuck below the radar in amongst the Allan Holdsworth biography ‘Devil Take the Hindmost’ and the release of the associated album ‘Warleigh Manor’. But you’d do well not to ignore this brief live performance, currently available as a free download.
This was rescued, as was ‘Warleigh Manor’ from the Ron Mathewson archive, and whilst it shares with it key personnel including Holdsworth, Ray Warleigh and Mathewson, this particular set of pieces could scarcely be more different. Beautifully constructed and evocative, this is reflective, melodic, somewhat transportative music. Other contributors are Geoff Castle on keyboards, with Dick Crouch credited as composer and Alain Presencer on the aforementioned singing bowls. Paz were always one of those names at the back of my subconscious – I knew they had musicians who crossed over into spheres I was familiar with: Dave Sheen (Soft Heap), Castle (Nucleus), Phil Lee (Gilgamesh), Henry Thomas (John Etheridge Band) but I had never heard any of their material. Not that this live performance is in any way representative of the music of a band that existed as a London collective for around a decade or more, purveying music more akin to Latin jazz funk fusion than anything heard here.
Prefaced by the sound of a singing bowl which gives the outfit its extended name, and a piano motif which recalls a little the backdrop to the Soft Machine’s ‘Tales of Taliesin’ the opener ‘Dream Sequence’ is a rather beautiful piece, notable for some very understated Holdsworth etchings but also yet more fabulous flute recalling Jimmy Hastings’ wonderful solo on National Health’s ‘Toad of Toad Hall’. ‘And They Speak For Themselves’ is the only remotely ‘free’ piece here – with bass grumblings and keyboards recalling some of the electronics on the Hopper/Dean/Tippett/Gallivan albums.
‘Kandeen Love Song’ is interesting as representing a bridge between the old and new for Allan Holdsworth – its swooning guitarscapes conjures up many of the sounds one would associate from his 80s solo albums onwards, countered by Castle’s gentle keyboard explorations. Shades of some of the pastiches later produced by Holdsworth’s protégé Jakko Jakszyk here.
Final track is another mellow ballad, dominated by acoustic piano and more wonderful performances from the flute of Warleigh, a glorious pastoral sound underpinned by warm bass. It is presumably the breaks in the transmission of this track, as well as the shortness of performance (only 25 minutes in total) which means that this artefact hasn’t been turned into an official, paid for release. Which presumably also means that unless more complete copies are found elsewhere, this will remain an unheralded, delightful little curio.
https://jazzinbritain1.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-london-81-the-ron-mathewson-tapes-vol-2
The Canterbury scene(zine) continued.... 