''Unreleased 1974–2016'' is an album by drummer and electronic musician
Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley (15 June 1938 – 26 December 2023) was an English free improvisation, free improvising drummer and electronic musician.
Born in Sheffield, Oxley moved to London in 1966 and became house drummer at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club where he ...
. The first three tracks were recorded in 1974, and feature Oxley with trumpeter Dave Holdsworth, trombonist
Paul Rutherford, pianist
Howard Riley, and bassist
Barry Guy
Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London, England) is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of or ...
. These tracks were remastered and edited into their final form in 2005, 2019, and 2020. Track four, recorded in 1981, is performed by Oxley, saxophonist
Larry Stabbins, violinist
Phil Wachsmann, pianist Howard Riley, and guitarist Hugh Metcalfe, while the fifth and final track, recorded in 2016, pairs Oxley with percussionist Stefan Hölker. Drawn from Oxley's personal archive of recordings, the album was released in 2022 by Discus Music.
Reception
In a review for ''
Jazz Journal
''Jazz Journal'' is a British jazz magazine established in 1946 by Sinclair Traill (1904–1981). It was first published in London under the title ''Pick Up'', which Traill founded as a locus for serious jazz criticism in Britain.Roberta Freund S ...
'', Peter Gamble wrote: "The kind of presentations we are faced with here are typical of so much of his output from the 1970s onwards, abandoning accepted form and structure, asking questions of the listener and taking no prisoners in the process... The emphasis is not on the leader's skills as a drummer; rather the music illustrates how important the collective effort has been in so much of his creative work."
''The Whole Notes Ken Waxman stated: "These previously unreleased tracks... contain sounds that not only expand improvised music history, but also reveal early adaptations of today's electroacoustic interactions... Remastered with full-spectrum, 21st-century sound, these heirlooms of an earlier era easily justify their unearthing and prominent display."
The editors of ''
The New York City Jazz Record
''The New York City Jazz Record'' is a New York City based monthly free newspaper about jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries ...
'' declared the album an "Unearthed Gem," and reviewer George Grella commented: "This is music that is very much in the moment, with no long-term and little short-term memory, free music not trying to build a larger form or any kind of dramatic direction, instead forgetting about anything that had come before and remaking itself every instant. That makes it sound far less like anything in the broad category of free jazz than high-modernist classical music... It is a powerfully satisfying thing to hear improvised music that sounds like it connects to such a larger and older context."
Writing for the ''
Downtown Music Gallery'', Bruce Lee Gallanter noted that Oxley "has remained at the cutting edge of avant jazz drumming, experimental percussion & electronics," and remarked: "It is Tony Oxley's sound which is at the center of each of these pieces, all of which are captivating to the serious listeners amongst us."
A reviewer for ''Vital Weekly'' wrote: "The album is a good example of how Oxley integrated electronics in free, acoustic improvisation, creating a world that often comes close to the atmospheres of modern composed music... the combination of drums, percussion and electronics was a lifelong fascination for Oxley and makes me eager to know what more diamonds are kept in the archives."
Daniel Spicer of ''
Jazzwise
''Jazzwise'' is a British monthly magazine focused on jazz, launched in 1997. The magazine covers a range of jazz sub-genres and provides news coverage, a national gig guide, a jazz-on-film page, feature articles, and a review section that evalua ...
'' stated: "These previously unheard snippets from
xley'sown archive underscore his passionate, unswerving commitment to non-idiomatic sound creation... It's a pretty convincing survey of a life devoted to serious investigation."
Track listing
# "The Embrace" – 9:20
# "Ensemble 1" – 7:30
# "Ensemble 2" – 4:28
# "Frame" – 14:53
# "Combination" – 11:52
Personnel
*
Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley (15 June 1938 – 26 December 2023) was an English free improvisation, free improvising drummer and electronic musician.
Born in Sheffield, Oxley moved to London in 1966 and became house drummer at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club where he ...
– drums, percussion, violin, electronics, sounds
* Dave Holdsworth – trumpet, sounds (tracks 1–3)
*
Paul Rutherford – trombone (tracks 1–3)
*
Howard Riley – piano (tracks 1–4)
*
Barry Guy
Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London, England) is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of or ...
– double bass, bass guitar (tracks 1–3)
*
Larry Stabbins – saxophones (track 4)
*
Phil Wachsmann – violin, electronics (track 4)
* Hugh Metcalfe – guitar, cymbal (track 4)
* Stefan Hölker – acoustic percussion (track 5)
References
{{Authority control
2022 albums
Tony Oxley albums