The Sound of Squirrel Meals. The Work of Lol Coxhill
Item
The Sound of Squirrel Meals. The Work of Lol Coxhill
Hamburg / London
Blackpress
2006
eng
Books about experimental musicians often are done as labor of love by enthusiasts who follow their beloved artists around, collect their recordings as well as essays, interviews, articles about them. Resulting discographies tend to be for the cognoscenti only, for fellow enthusiasts, for the ones in-the-know. Lol Coxhill, though, is one of those avantgarde musicians who always was able to relate to his audiences because while taking his art and music seriously he knew that he wanted to reach the heart of the listeners. He used musical and extramusical elements of humor in his performances. His concerts are entertaining as well as engaged, serious fun, if you will. Barbara Schwarz tries to capture some of that spirit, which may be kind of hard to do in the form of a fact collection.
Coxhill, born in 1932, started semi-professional playing tenor saxophone in mainstream and modern bands. The “New Musical Express” called him the “Thelonious Rollins of British jazz” in 1954. In the 1960s he toured with blues and rhythm ‘n’ blues artists, and even Jimi Hendrix turned up to jam with him on one of his gigs. In the late 1960s he turned to soprano saxophone as his main instrument. In 1969 Coxhill partook in the free Jazz Music Workshop in Berlin, organised by the FMP record label, performed with the avantgarde rock/jazz/improvised music band Henry Cow occasionally and recorded with Pierre Courbois and Jasper van’t Hof. He also worked with John Stevens’ Spontaneuous Music Ensemble and Mike Westbrook’s Brass Band and joined Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Brass for various concerts. Since then, his activities always were on the axperimental side, but hard to classify between the realms of jazz, avant-rock, contemporary improvisation or whatever you might call it.
Barbara Schwarz has compilated several essays on and interviews with Coxhill, some of them from hard to obtain out-of-print magazines. A biography from the beginnings until the present starts the book. A chronology lists his recordings from 1964 to 2005. The discography itself, then, gives all relevant information: personnel, track titles, track length, original release as well as re-issues over the years. Each entry is followed by descriptive text, annotations by Schwarz, excerpts from the original sleeve notes, comments by Coxhill himself. This may be the most fun part of the book, being able to get a glimpse of Coxhill’s present-day reflections on his own music. The discography is sorted not chronologically but alphabetically by the band names or the band leaders’ names. A special chapter is dedicated to film, TV and video performances from the early 1960s until today. A bibliography and a name index rounds up this book which will provide every fan of Coxhill’s music with myriads of information and can make anybody else curious for his music.
Coxhill, born in 1932, started semi-professional playing tenor saxophone in mainstream and modern bands. The “New Musical Express” called him the “Thelonious Rollins of British jazz” in 1954. In the 1960s he toured with blues and rhythm ‘n’ blues artists, and even Jimi Hendrix turned up to jam with him on one of his gigs. In the late 1960s he turned to soprano saxophone as his main instrument. In 1969 Coxhill partook in the free Jazz Music Workshop in Berlin, organised by the FMP record label, performed with the avantgarde rock/jazz/improvised music band Henry Cow occasionally and recorded with Pierre Courbois and Jasper van’t Hof. He also worked with John Stevens’ Spontaneuous Music Ensemble and Mike Westbrook’s Brass Band and joined Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Brass for various concerts. Since then, his activities always were on the axperimental side, but hard to classify between the realms of jazz, avant-rock, contemporary improvisation or whatever you might call it.
Barbara Schwarz has compilated several essays on and interviews with Coxhill, some of them from hard to obtain out-of-print magazines. A biography from the beginnings until the present starts the book. A chronology lists his recordings from 1964 to 2005. The discography itself, then, gives all relevant information: personnel, track titles, track length, original release as well as re-issues over the years. Each entry is followed by descriptive text, annotations by Schwarz, excerpts from the original sleeve notes, comments by Coxhill himself. This may be the most fun part of the book, being able to get a glimpse of Coxhill’s present-day reflections on his own music. The discography is sorted not chronologically but alphabetically by the band names or the band leaders’ names. A special chapter is dedicated to film, TV and video performances from the early 1960s until today. A bibliography and a name index rounds up this book which will provide every fan of Coxhill’s music with myriads of information and can make anybody else curious for his music.
