avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz and experimental jazz) is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through to the late 1960s. Ori ...
and
avant-rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...
ensemble formed in March 1977 with the merger of avant-rock group
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English experimental rock group, founded at the University of Cambridge in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler, b ...
Frankie Armstrong
Frankie Armstrong (born 13 January 1941) is an English singer and voice teacher. She has worked as a singer in the folk scene and the women's movement and as a trainer in social and youth work. Her repertoire ranges from traditional ballads to m ...
. They gave two performances in London in March and June 1977, and then embarked on two tours of Europe between September 1977 and May 1978, where they performed in Italy, France and Sweden.
History
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English experimental rock group, founded at the University of Cambridge in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler, b ...
and the Mike Westbrook Brass Band crossed paths several times before they merged in 1977. Westbrook was one of the guests at Henry Cow's Rainbow Theatre concert with
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...
in London in October 1973, and the Brass Band played for the audience in the foyer of the auditorium before the concert began. At the November 1975 Sigma Festival in
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
, France, Henry Cow and the Brass Band performed in different parts of the same building, and at the end of Henry Cow's set, the Brass Band played a
funeral march from the audience while the members of Henry Cow danced together on stage. Then in October 1976, Henry Cow, the Mike Westbrook Brass Band and folk singer
Frankie Armstrong
Frankie Armstrong (born 13 January 1941) is an English singer and voice teacher. She has worked as a singer in the folk scene and the women's movement and as a trainer in social and youth work. Her repertoire ranges from traditional ballads to m ...
New Cross
New Cross is an area in south east London, England, south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwic ...
, London.
When they appeared on the same bill again on 13 March 1977, this time at the ''Moving Left Revue'' at
The Roundhouse
The Roundhouse is a performing arts and concert venue situated at the Grade II* listed former railway engine shed in Chalk Farm, London, England. The building was erected in 1846–1847 by the London & North Western Railway as a roundhous ...
in London, Henry Cow, the Brass Band and Armstrong decided to merge and gave their debut performance. The ''Moving Left Revue'' was a
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
benefit concert that the Brass Band's Paul Rutherford had helped to organise. Steve Lake of the British music newspaper, '' Melody Maker'' described the three-hour concert as "a great success", and said that this merger was the "most exciting" of Henry Cow's succession of projects. Their drummer,
Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler (born 4 January 1947) is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of other bands, including Art Bears, ...
said that they had always wanted the explore the potential of an orchestra, and their "ideological common ground" made a cooperative venture inevitable.
On 26 June 1977 the Orckestra performed at the
Open Air Theatre
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre is an open-air theatre in Regent's Park in central London.
The theatre
Established in 1932, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is one of the largest theatres in London (1,256 seats) and is situated in Queen Mary†...
in
Regent's Park
Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...
. Reviewing the event in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', Ronald Atkins wrote that he was impressed by how wide-ranging the ensemble's music was, which, he said, "could hardly be equalled by any other group". In September 1977 they embarked on a three-month tour of Europe where they played at
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
in France. In March 1978 the Orckestra returned to Europe where they played in Stockholm, Norrköping and Gothenburg in Sweden,
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
Georgie Born
Georgina Emma Mary Born, is a British academic, anthropologist, musicologist and musician. As a musician she is known as Georgie Born and for her work in Henry Cow and with Lindsay Cooper.
Background
Born was born in Wheatley, Oxfordshir ...
and
Lindsay Cooper
Lindsay Cooper (3 March 1951 – 18 September 2013) was an English bassoon and oboe player and composer. Best known for her work with the band Henry Cow, she was also a member of Comus, National Health, News from Babel and David Thomas and t ...
from Henry Cow, however, continued to collaborate with Westbrook for several more years.
Music
The Orckestra did not generate any new material, and generally performed pieces that the Mike Westbrook Brass Band,
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English experimental rock group, founded at the University of Cambridge in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler, b ...
and
Frankie Armstrong
Frankie Armstrong (born 13 January 1941) is an English singer and voice teacher. She has worked as a singer in the folk scene and the women's movement and as a trainer in social and youth work. Her repertoire ranges from traditional ballads to m ...
performed individually. At their debut performance at the Roundhouse, their
set list
A set list, or setlist, is typically a handwritten or printed document created as an ordered list of songs, jokes, stories and other elements an artist intends to present during a specific performance.
A setlist can be made of nearly any materi ...
was:
*"Wheel of Fortune"
*" Beautiful as the Moon..."
*"Django"
*"God Bless the Child"
*"Naima"
*"Mourn not the Dead"
*"Anthem"
*"Jackie-ing"
*"On Suicide"
*"Lady Howard's Coach"
*"Kanonensong"
*"Santiago, You are Suffering"
*"Let the Slave"
*"Serpent Maigre"
*"Bartlemy Fair"
*"The Saucy Sailor"
*"Little Duke Arthur's Nurse"
*"Sovay, Sovay"
*"Jack the Lad"
*"Holy Thursday"
*"I See Thy Form"
*"Alabama Song"
Henry Cow later incorporated some of the Brass Band pieces into their own sets, for example, "Jackie-ing" which appears on ''Volume 9: Late'' in ''
The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set
''The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set'' (also known as ''The Road'') is a nine-CD plus one-DVD limited edition box set by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, and was released by RÄ“R Megacorp in January 2009. It consists of almost 10 hours ...
'' (2009).
Recordings
No recordings of the Orckestra were released during their lifetime. A live album of extracts from their 20 November 1977 Paris concert at the Fête du Nouveau Populaire in the Hippodrome was planned, but was abandoned when it was discovered that the recording was sub-standard and that it had been premixed. A bootleg recording of this concert was released in 2003, but its sound quality has been reported as being poor.
The first officially released recording of the Orckestra appeared in 2006 when a 12-minute 3"
CD single
A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...
, "Unreleased Orckestra Extract" was given to subscribers of the '' Henry Cow Box''. It contained an untitled piece by Fred Frith and "Would You Prefer Us to Lie?" by
Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler (born 4 January 1947) is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of other bands, including Art Bears, ...
and
John Greaves
John Greaves (1602 – 8 October 1652) was an English mathematician, astronomer and antiquarian.
Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, he was elected a Fellow of Merton College in 1624. He studied Persian and Arabic, acquired a number of old ...
, both taken from some of the Orckestra's live performances in Europe in March–May 1978. The two pieces were later reissued on ''Ex Box – Collected Fragments 1971–1978'', a bonus CD given to subscribers of '' The Henry Cow Box Redux: The Complete Henry Cow'' (2019).
Members
*
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English experimental rock group, founded at the University of Cambridge in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler, b ...
Tim Hodgkinson
Timothy "Tim" George Hodgkinson (born 1 May 1949) is an English experimental music composer and performer, principally on reeds, lap steel guitar, and keyboards. He first became known as one of the core members of the British avant-rock group ...
– organ, alto saxophone, clarinet
**
Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler (born 4 January 1947) is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of other bands, including Art Bears, ...
– drums
**
Lindsay Cooper
Lindsay Cooper (3 March 1951 – 18 September 2013) was an English bassoon and oboe player and composer. Best known for her work with the band Henry Cow, she was also a member of Comus, National Health, News from Babel and David Thomas and t ...
– bassoon, flute, oboe
**
Dagmar Krause
Dagmar Krause (born 4 June 1950) is a German singer, best known for her work with avant-rock groups including Slapp Happy, Henry Cow, and Art Bears. She is also noted for her coverage of songs by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler. He ...
– vocals
**
Georgie Born
Georgina Emma Mary Born, is a British academic, anthropologist, musicologist and musician. As a musician she is known as Georgie Born and for her work in Henry Cow and with Lindsay Cooper.
Background
Born was born in Wheatley, Oxfordshir ...
Mike Westbrook
Michael John David Westbrook (born 21 March 1936) is an English jazz pianist, composer, and writer of orchestrated jazz pieces. He is married to the vocalist, librettist and painter Kate Westbrook.
Early work
Mike Westbrook was born in Hig ...
– piano, euphonium
**
Kate Westbrook Kate Westbrook may refer to:
*Kate Westbrook (musician) (born 1939), singer/songwriter
*Kate Westbrook, pseudonym for Samantha Weinberg
Samantha Weinberg is a British novelist, journalist and travel writer. Educated at St Paul's Girls' School and ...
– piccolo, tenor horn
**
Dave Chambers
Dave Chambers (born May 7, 1940) is a Canadian former ice hockey coach. Chambers coached the Quebec Nordiques of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1990 until 1991.
Born in Leaside, Ontario, Chambers played junior hockey in the Ontario Ho ...
– soprano and tenor saxophone
** Paul Rutherford – trombone, euphonium
**
Phil Minton
Phil Minton (born 2 November 1940) is a British avant-garde jazz/ free-improvising vocalist and trumpeter.
Minton is a highly dramatic baritone who tends to specialize in literary texts: he has sung lyrics by William Blake with Mike Westbrook' ...
– vocals, trumpet
*
Frankie Armstrong
Frankie Armstrong (born 13 January 1941) is an English singer and voice teacher. She has worked as a singer in the folk scene and the women's movement and as a trainer in social and youth work. Her repertoire ranges from traditional ballads to m ...
– vocals
Discography
Singles
*"Unreleased Orckestra Extract" (3" CD single, 2006,
Recommended Records
Recommended Records (RÄ“R) is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler with Nick Hobbs in March 1978. RÄ“R features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected mus ...
, UK) – a bonus CD given to subscribers of the '' Henry Cow Box'' (2006).
Bootlegs
*''Live in Paris, November 20, 1977'' (2xCD, 2003, Hickory, Japan)