Live At Willisau
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Live At Willisau
''Live at Willisau'' is a live album by South African pianist and composer Chris McGregor's big band Brotherhood of Breath. It was recorded on January 27, 1973, in Willisau, Switzerland, and was released on LP by Ogun Records in 1974. In 1994, the album was reissued on CD with extra tracks. Reception In a review for AllMusic, Scott Yanow wrote: "This is intriguing music that should have been more extensively documented. Adventurous listeners can be grateful that at least this document and a few others exist." The authors of ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings'' stated: "this is affirmative music of a rare sort, bringing together African ''kwela'', free jazz, post-Ellington swing and even touches of classicism in a boiling mix that grips the heart." In an article for ''Bells'', Henry Kuntz called the album "McGregor’s best record yet," and commented: "McGregor's scores stem mainly from strong and simple themes that reflect the South African idioms that did so much to fuel his ...
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Chris McGregor
Christopher McGregor (24 December 1936 – 26 May 1990) was a South African jazz pianist, bandleader and composer born in Somerset West, South Africa. Early influences McGregor grew up in the then Transkei (now part of the Eastern Cape Province), where his father was headmaster at a Church of Scotland mission institution called Blythswood. Here McGregor was exposed to the music of the local amaXhosa people. This music, as explained in Dave Dargie's book ''Xhosa Music'', is complex. Dargie mentions the following as examples of this complexity which might be seen to have influenced McGregor in his own music, both as composer/arranger and as band leader: "...a great number of style characteristics are to be found: relating not only to harmony and scale, but to melody, structure and phrasing, form, rhythm, instrumentation, singing techniques, and so on." In his book ''Chasing the Vibration'' Graham Lock quotes McGregor saying: "I have this strong imaginative reference to African ...
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Gary Windo
Gary Windo (7 November 1941, in Brighton, England – 25 July 1992, in New York City) was an English jazz tenor saxophonist. Career Windo came from a musical family in England. By age six he took up drums and accordion, then guitar at twelve and saxophone at seventeen. He lived in the United States during the 1960s but returned to England in 1969. In the early 1970s, his career grew as he founded the Gary Windo Quartet and worked with Carla Bley, Brotherhood of Breath, Centipede, Matching Mole, The Running Man, and Nick Mason. Sonny Stitt heard Windo play at the Berlin Jazz Festival and asked him to join the band, which he declined. He worked outside jazz, with the Psychedelic Furs, Robert Wyatt, NRBQ, and for the comedy television show ''Saturday Night Live''. He taught music lessons with his friend Eric Peralli. Windo could play many reed instruments, including soprano sax and bass clarinet. His time in America exposed him to all types of jazz, and he was at home in any idiom. ...
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Louis Moholo
Louis Tebogo Moholo (born 10 March 1940), is a South African jazz drummer. He has been a member of several notable bands, including The Blue Notes, the Brotherhood of Breath and Assagai. Biography Born in Cape Town, Moholo formed The Blue Notes with Chris McGregor, Johnny Dyani, Nikele Moyake, Mongezi Feza and Dudu Pukwana,John Corbett"South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo fans the spark of resistance into the flame of liberated jazz" '' Chicago Reader, 29 August 2017. and emigrated to Europe with them in 1964, eventually settling in London, where he formed part of a South African exile community that made an important contribution to British jazz. In 1966, he toured Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he performed at the Theatron with Steve Lacy, Johnny Dyani and Enrico Rava and recorded the album ''The Forest and the Zoo'' with the same musicians. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Breath, a big band comprising several South African exiles and leading musicians of the ...
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Harry Miller (jazz Bassist)
Harold Simon Miller (25 April 1941 - 16 December 1983) was a South African jazz double bassist, who lived for most of his adulthood in England. Biography A native of Cape Town, South Africa, Miller began his career playing bass for the rock group Manfred Mann. After settling in London, he became part of a groups of musicians in the 1960s and 1970s who combined free jazz with the music of South Africa. He recorded with Elton Dean, Chris McGregor, Louis Moholo, John Surman, Keith Tippett, and Mike Westbrook. At the end of the 1970s, he moved to the Netherlands for economic reasons and worked with musicians in Willem Breuker's circle. In 1971, he made a guest appearance on the album ''Islands'', by the progressive rock band King Crimson. He and his wife founded Ogun Records. Miller died in a car crash in the Netherlands in 1983. Discography * ''Children at Play'' (Ogun, 1974) * ''Live at Willisau'' with Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath (Ogun, 1974) * ''Ramifications'' with Ir ...
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Radu Malfatti
Radu Malfatti is an Austrian trombone and harmonica player, and composer. He was born in Innsbruck, in the province of Tyrol, on December 16, 1943. Malfatti is associated with the style of music known as reductionism and has been described as "among the leaders in redefining the avant-garde as truly on-the-edge art." His work "since the early nineties... has been investigating the edges of ultraminimalism in both his composed and improvised work." He also operates B-Boim, a CD-R-only record label focusing on improvised and composed music, much of it his own. Discography As leader * ''Balance'' with Balance (Incus, 1973) * ''Thrumblin'' with Stephan Wittwer (FMP, 1976) * ''Und?'' with Stephan Wittwer (FMP, 1978) * ''Bracknell Breakdown'' with Harry Miller (Ogun, 1978) * ''Humanimal'' with Jerry Chardonnens (Hat Hut, 1980) * ''Blek'' with M.L.A. Blek (FMP, 1981) * ''Ach Was!?'' with Ulrich Gumpert, Tony Oxley (FMP, 1981) * ''Zwecknagel'' with Harry Miller (FMP, 1981) * ''Formu'' (N ...
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Nick Evans (trombonist)
Nick Evans (born 9 January 1947 in Newport, Monmouthshire, South Wales) is a Welsh former jazz and progressive rock trombonist. Career Evans worked in the Graham Collier Sextet (1968–69), Keith Tippett Group (1968–70), Soft Machine (1969), Brotherhood of Breath (1970–74), Centipede (1970–71), Just Us (1972–73), Ambush (1972), Ninesense (1975–80), Intercontinental Express (1976), Ark (1976, 1978), Nicra (1977), Dudu Pukwana's Diamond Express (1977), Spirits Rejoice (1978–79), and Dreamtime (1983). Early years He started playing the trombone at age 11 and by 1966 he had joined the New Welsh Jazz Orchestra. In that period he first joined the Graham Collier Sextet. In 1968 at the Barry school he worked with Keith Tippett and became a founding member of his sextet. He later worked with South African band Brotherhood of Breath and also Soft Machine. He was a peripheral figure in the Canterbury Scene. Evans also appeared on the album ''Lizard'' by the progressive r ...
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Marc Charig
Mark Charig (born 22 February 1944 in London) is a British trumpeter and cornetist. He was particularly active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when he played in settings as diverse as Long John Baldry's group, Bluesology, Soft Machine, and Keith Tippett's group and his Centipede big band. Charig also featured on several King Crimson albums, being particularly prominent in a long solo on the title track of ''Islands'', on the title track of Lizard and on the track "Fallen Angel" on the ''Red'' album, as well as in a work-in-progress version of " Starless". In the mid-1970s he also toured with the group Red Brass, which featured singer Annie Lennox. He also appeared with the Brotherhood of Breath and recorded with Mike Osborne, as well as releasing his own ''Pipedream'' LP on Ogun Records. He is also a member of the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra. He now lives in Germany and is a member of the Wuppertal-based Conduction Orchestra. More recently, he has recorded ''KJU:'' a ...
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Harry Beckett
Harold Winston "Harry" Beckett (30 May 1935 – 22 July 2010) was a British trumpeter and flugelhorn player of Barbadian origin. Biography Born in Bridgetown, Saint Michael, Barbados, Harry Beckett learned to play music in a Salvation Army band. A resident in the UK from 1954, he had an international reputation. He played with Charles Mingus in the 1962 film '' All Night Long''. In the 1960s, he worked and recorded within the band of bass player and composer Graham Collier, retaining the connection over a 16-year period. Beginning in 1970, Beckett led groups of his own, recording for Philips, RCA and Ogun Records among other labels. Beckett was a key figure of important groups in the British free jazz/improvised music scene, including Ian Carr's Nucleus, the Brotherhood of Breath and The Dedication Orchestra, London Jazz Composers Orchestra, London Improvisers Orchestra, John Surman's Octet, Django Bates, Ronnie Scott's Quintet, Kathy Stobart, Charlie Watts, Stan Tracey's B ...
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Mongezi Feza
Mongezi Feza (11 May 1945 – 14 December 1975) was a South African jazz trumpeter and flautist. Biography Feza was born in Queenstown, Cape Province, Union of South Africa, into a family of musicians, His elder brother, Sandi Feza, who taught him how to play the trumpet in the dusty streets of Mlungisi township in Queenstown. A member of The Blue Notes, Feza left South Africa in 1964 and settled in Europe, living in London and Copenhagen. As a trumpeter, his influences included hard bopper Clifford Brown and free jazz pioneer Don Cherry. After The Blue Notes splintered in the late 1960s, he played with British rock musician Robert Wyatt, progressive rock band Henry Cow, and most extensively with fellow ex-Blue Notes musicians Johnny Dyani, Chris McGregor and Dudu Pukwana. Feza's compositions "Sonia" and "You Ain't Gonna Know Me ('Cos You Think You Know Me)" remained in the repertoire of his colleagues long after his death. In the early 1970s, Feza was also member of t ...
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Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation. He has pioneered or substantially expanded an array of extended techniques. Critic Ron Wynn describes Parker as "among Europe's most innovative and intriguing saxophonists...his solo sax work isn't for the squeamish." Early influences Parker's original inspiration was Paul Desmond, and in recent years the influence of cool jazz saxophone players has again become apparent in his music — there are tributes to Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz on ''Time Will Tell'' (ECM, 1993) and ''Chicago Solo'' (Okka Disk, 1997). He soon discovered the music of John Coltrane, who would be the primary influence throughout his career. Other important early influences were Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler and Jimmy Guiffre. Early career ...
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Brotherhood Of Breath
The Brotherhood of Breath was an English-South African big band established in the late-1960s by South African pianist and composer Chris McGregor, an extension of McGregor's previous band, The Blue Notes. History The Brotherhood of Breath included many members of the South African expatriate community resident in London, including McGregor himself, Louis Moholo, Harry Miller, Mongezi Feza, Dudu Pukwana, (occasionally) Johnny Dyani; and many of the free jazz musicians who were based in London at the same time. The group included, at various stages, Lol Coxhill, Evan Parker, Paul Rutherford, Harry Beckett, Marc Charig, Alan Skidmore, Jim Dvorak, Mike Osborne, Elton Dean, Nick Evans, and John Surman. The personnel was fluid, depending on who was available. The music resembles a mixture of Charles Mingus and the experimentalism of Sun Ra, but retains a unique feel due to the South African influences and the intelligent arrangements. The original Brotherhood Of Breath ended in ...
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Dudu Pukwana
Mthutuzeli Dudu Pukwana (18 July 1938 – 30 June 1990) was a South African saxophonist, composer and pianist (although not known for his piano playing). Early years in South Africa Dudu Pukwana was born in Walmer Township, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He grew up studying piano in his family, but in 1956 he switched to alto saxophone after meeting tenor saxophone player Nikele Moyake."Mtutuzeli Dudu Pukwana"
South African History online.
In 1962, Pukwana won first prize at the Jazz Festival with Moyake's Jazz Giants (1962 Gallo/Teal). In his early days he also played with