In Cahoots was a

Canterbury scene The Canterbury scene (or Canterbury sound) was a musical scene centred on the town of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Associated with progressive rock, the term describes a loosely-defined, improvisational styl ...

band led by guitarist

Phil Miller Philip Paul Miller (22 January 1949 – 18 October 2017) was an English progressive rock/jazz guitarist and a central part of the Canterbury scene. He was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire. Self-taught on guitar, Miller formed his first band, Del ...

, their main composer.

History

The band was formed in November 1982 by Miller with

Pip Pyle Phillip "Pip" Pyle (4 April 1950 – 28 August 2006) was an English-born drummer from Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, who later resided in France. He is best known for his work in the progressive rock Canterbury scene bands Gong, Hatfield an ...

(drums),

Richard Sinclair Richard Stephen Sinclair (born 6 June 1948) is an English progressive rock bassist, guitarist, and vocalist who has been a member of several bands of the Canterbury scene. Biography Born in Canterbury, England, both his father (Dick Sinclair) ...

(bass) and

Elton Dean Elton Dean (28 October 1945 – 8 February 2006) was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello (a variant of the soprano saxophone) and occasionally keyboards. Part of the Canterbury scene, he featured in, among oth ...

(

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

), as the Phil Miller Quartet. It was expanded to a quintet and given its definitive name when

Peter Lemer Peter Naphtali Lemer (born 14 June 1942) is an English jazz musician. He worked with the Pete Lemer Quintet, Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Annette Peacock, Harry Beckett, Gilgamesh, Baker Gurvitz Army, Seventh Wave, Harry Beckett's Joy Unlimited, ...

(keyboards) joined in early 1983. Miller and Pyle had been working together in

National Health National Health were an English progressive rock band associated with the Canterbury scene. Founded in 1975, the band featured members of keyboardist Dave Stewart's band Hatfield and the North and Alan Gowen's band Gilgamesh, including guita ...

and had been in

Hatfield and the North Hatfield and the North were an experimental Canterbury scene rock band that lasted from October 1972 to June 1975, with some reunions thereafter. Career In mid 1972 the band grew out of a line-up of ex-members of blues/jazz/rock band Del ...

with Sinclair before that, while Pyle and Dean were longstanding collaborators too, recently having worked together in the Weightwatchers (with pianist

Keith Tippett Keith Graham Tippetts (25 August 1947 – 14 June 2020), known professionally as Keith Tippett, was a British jazz pianist and composer. According to AllMusic, Tippett's career "..spanned jazz-rock, progressive rock, improvised and contemporary ...

) and

Soft Heap In computer science, a soft heap is a variant on the simple heap data structure that has constant amortized time complexity for 5 types of operations. This is achieved by carefully "corrupting" (increasing) the keys of at most a constant number o ...

. Early in 1985,

Hugh Hopper Hugh Colin Hopper (29 April 1945 – 7 June 2009) was a British progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and other bands. Biography Early career Starting in ...

replaced Sinclair. The band appeared on Miller's first solo album, ''Cutting Both Ways'' (released 1987). In 1987, Steve Franklin replaced Lemer, and in 1988 Fred Baker replaced Hopper. This line-up appeared on Miller's solo album ''Split Seconds'', while ''In Cahoots Live 86-89'' was released in 1989 (released under the name Phil Miller/In Cahoots like all their albums). In 1990, Franklin left and the band was joined by

Jim Dvorak James Peter Dvorak (born December 16, 1948, New York City) is an American jazz trumpeter. Dvorak received his bachelor's degree from the Eastman School of Music in 1970 and then relocated to England, where he lived for several decades. In the earl ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

. Baker and Lemer appeared on Miller's ''Digging In'' (1991), which also had programmed drums by Pip Pyle. In 1991, Miller and Pyle were reunited with Hopper in

Short Wave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the High frequency, high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (10 ...

. In Cahoots continued with a Japanese tour, including Lemer, documented on ''Live in Japan'' (1993). The next studio effort, ''Recent Discoveries'', was recorded in 1993. Lemer rejoined the band in 1995 and they recorded ''Parallel'' (1996) and ''Out of the Blue'' (2001), which saw

Caravan Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop *Camel train, a convoy using camels as pack animals *Convoy, a group of veh ...

guitarist

Doug Boyle Doug Boyle (born 6 September 1962, Buckhurst Hill, Essex, England) is an English guitarist and composer, best known for his work with Robert Plant, Nigel Kennedy and later incarnations of Caravan. Boyle's first major break was playing in Robert ...

sitting in on two tracks (he also took part in a brief European tour that year). In 2002, Mark Fletcher replaced Pyle and the line-up of Miller, Fletcher, Dean, Dvorak, Baker and Lemer released ''All That'' in 2003. In 2004, Dean and Dvorak left and, since then, the brass section consists of Simon Picard on tenor sax, Simon Finch on trumpet, and occasionally Gail Brand on trombone. Former Short Wave collaborator

Didier Malherbe Didier Malherbe (born January 22, 1943 in Paris), is a French jazz, rock and world music musician, known as a member of the bands Gong and Hadouk, as well as a poet. His first instrument was a saxophone, but he also plays flutes, alto clarinet ...

, however, was the featured saxophonist on Miller's latest effort, 2006's ''Conspiracy Theories'', which also included guest spots by

, Dave Stewart and Doug Boyle.

Discography

* 1991: ''Live 86-89'' (Mantra Records) * 1993: ''Live In Japan'' (Crescent Discs) * 1994: ''Recent Discoveries'' (Crescent Discs) * 1996: ''Parallel'' (Crescent Discs) * 2001: ''Out Of The Blue'' (Crescent Discs) * 2003: ''All That'' (

Cuneiform Records Cuneiform Records is a record label in Silver Spring, Maryland. Founded in 1984, the label releases an mixture of musical styles, all with a Rock in Opposition aesthetic, including progressive jazz, jazz fusion, the Canterbury scene, and electr ...

) * 2007: ''Conspiracy Theories'' (Crescent Discs) * 2011: ''Mind Over Matter'' (Crescent Discs)

Filmography

* 2015: '' Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales'' (DVD)

Sources

*
Calyx - the Canterbury scene website
{{Authority control Canterbury scene Jazz fusion ensembles English progressive rock groups English jazz ensembles Musical groups established in 1982 1982 establishments in England