Greetings Rattlers.

Not just for John Marshall on drums, but for the sheer beauty of the music, it's
worth noting that as part of their fortieth anniversary - Jeez, has it been that
long?? - ECM have re-released Yellow Fields, Silent Feet and Little Movements by
Eberhard Weber's Colours.

A review by John Fordham is here:
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/nov/19/eberhard-weber-colours-review>.

And a question I may have asked before: way back whenever, the group guested on
a TV series hosted by Oscar Peterson. I don't have broadband, yet, but does
anyone know if that performance (or any others) is on YouTube? If so, do let me
know the URL so I can look forward to rewatching it someday.

Cheers,
Terry

"Roger Farbey" <rogerfarbey@...> wrote:

>This is certainly turning out to be an extremely bad year
>for music. First Ian Carr, then Hugh now Jeff Clyne. Plus
>quite a few others such as Charlie Mariano. Very, very
>sad news.

Although I couldn't have said it better than Roger, there's also a Facebook page
now up dedicated to Jeff called "Jeff Clyne Remembered":
<http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=195042895208>

All the Best,
Brian

Here:

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nxh2z#synopsis>

...but, if I can understand right, it's not a live gig, it's like "their
favourite music". Isn't it?

r

This is certainly turning out to be an extremely bad year for music. First Ian
Carr, then Hugh now Jeff Clyne. Plus quite a few others such as Charlie Mariano.
Very, very sad news. I spoke to Jeff only in March at Ian Carr's wake and he
seemed absolutely fine. I gather it was a sudden heart attack. There's an
obituary in today's Independent (20.11.09) which is available online. I would
imagine other ones will follow. R.I.P. Jeff.

Roger F

PS: Just to clarify an earlier post - the gig at the QEH, London on Feb 23 next
year is to mark the first anniversary of Ian Carr's passing. From all accounts
it should be a great, unmissable gig.

For Crimson fans, you may know guitarist Jakko M. Jakszyk as the guy who handles
both Robert Fripp's guitar parts AND vocals with 21st Century Schizoid Band, a
collective of King Crimson alum including Ian McDonald, Mel Collins and Peter
Giles that plays the early 1970s Crim catalogue. AAJ reviewed his solo debut,
Bruised Romantic Glee Club, a couple years back:

<http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=24134>

The Rattlin' connection is that on BRGC, Jakszyk covered Soft Machine and Henry
Cow, and included, in addition to Crimson alum also including Fripp, the
venerable Dave Stewart himself....

Waves Sweep the Sand is, at Jakszyk's word, an album of outtakes and left-overs,
but what he doesn't tell you is how  well it hangs together as an independent
album. Review here:

<http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34742>

Best!
John

[Of course, Jakko needs no introduction to Canterbury fans - the bands Rapid Eye
Movement with Dave Stewart and Pip Pyle (1980-81), and The Lodge, with John
Greaves and Peter Blegvad (1987-88), not to mention his significant contribution
to Pip Pyle's "7 Year Itch" album - A.]

It'll be on listen again for a week, as usual I expect.

Show's still on now though.

- Nick

Gideon Coe's 9pm show on BBC6 Music:-

"Tonight's quartet of classic session artists include Kent proggers Caravan and
C86 Essex noise-pop quintet The Wolfhounds, along with Portland-based
multi-instrumentalist Jona Bechtolt, aka Yacht and Henry Cow's John Greaves
together with the former Slapp Happy frontman Peter Blegvad, for John Peel in
1977."

- Nick

[Sorry I got this too late... - A.]

Oh sh*t, this is terrible news! He as well as Hugh were my among my favourite
bass players. I had just e-mailed him maybe 2-3 months ago congradulating him on
the long-awaited double CD release of "Creatures of the Night" and "Silent
Promise", to which he gave a very kind reply.

A fine musician and a gentleman who will be very missed by his many fans around
the world. My condolences to his friends and family.

This is been the worst year for me as far as my/our dearest musicians passing
away! The Canterbury Legend Hugh Hopper; one of the greatest trumpeters,
authors, and contributors to jazz, Ian Carr; and now the long loved and admired
double bassist/bass guitarist Jeff Clyne.*sighs*

Take care,
Brian

Such a shame. I was with Michael Clare when we saw Jeff with Turning Point at
Ronnie Scott's in 1978. We were blown away, and had the opportunity to speak
with Jeff who was ever so gracious. At that point he was playing electric bass,
and he was a monster on stage as Michael's bootleg tape confirmed. His playing
was very melodic, and he had assembled a great cast (as discussed in Aymeric's
interview) that balanced the composed music with a flowing spirit of
improvisation. The band certainly opened up the tunes in a live setting, and it
is a shame that the albums were not well known outside of their native England.
In some ways they remind me of the first Return to Forever disc with Flora Purim
on vocals.

We have lost not only a virtuoso, but a fine gentleman.

Regards, David

I suggest to everyone to listen Gordon Beck's album from 1967 "Experiments with
Pop", one of the greatest jazz albums from those days, featuring Jeff on bass,
John McLaughlin on guitar and Tony Oxley on drums.

I never had chance to meet Jeff Clyne, only exchanged a few e-mails with him
some years ago. A few years ago me and Allan Holdsworth had an idea to do a
brief re-appearance of, as called by Allan, the "Old English Geezers Jazz Band",
with Allan Holdsworth, Gordon Beck, Jeff Clyne and John Marshall. Nothing ever
happened due to various circumstances and the fact that Gordon Beck had also
some health problems. Allan Holdsworth considered Jeff Clyne one of the giants
of contrabass.

Cheers
Leonardo/MoonJune

Very sad, I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff and spending some time with him and
Turning Point on my very first trip to London in 1978 -- when I asked him about
Gilgamesh, he corrected my pronunciation from Gil Guh Mesh (accent on Gil) to
Gil Ga Mish (accent on Ga pronounce like the a in "and")

and so they go.
Love to the winds that took him.

Michael

just listened to this wonderful work....

Thank you Jeff

Vincenzo

Fascinating stuff, Aymeric.

And, as you know only too well, quite apart from the various bands and musicians
mentioned in the interview, Jeff was also one of the session men on Joy of a
Toy.

Neil Saunders

This was part of a series of interviews I made in London in June 1999. Over the
course of just two or three days, I interviewed Jeff but also Roy Babbington,
Trevor Tomkins and Phil Lee. Luckily, a few months later Steve at Cuneiform came
up with the Gilgamesh "Arriving Twice" project and I was able to use some of the
results, although in the case of Jeff (and Trevor) very little made the final
cut. As for Roy Babbington, the chance came later with MoonJune's "Floating
World" Soft Machine live album.

Anyway, to celebrate the memory of this kind and talented man, here are
extensive excerpts from the interview, focussing on Nucleus and Turning Point -

Q: How did you come to join Nucleus, and change from an acoustic jazz
double-bass player to a more rock bass guitar player ?

JC: I'll answer the second question first. Inasmuch as... If you're talking
about the period of the late Sixties, and I'd already been playing since the
late Fifties, on double bass as you mentioned, but I resisted playing the bass
guitar... But I was very much interested in the new way that music was going.
And what really switched me over to the bass guitar was Steve Swallow, who was
working with Gary Burton's group at the time. And I was then working quite a lot
at Ronnie Scott's club, and they used to come over about once a year, to Ronnie
Scott's club. And the first couple of times, Steve Swallow was playing the
double bass, and then he came over with the bass guitar, and it sounded
absolutely perfect for the music... And that was almost an overnight decision,
cos it sounded so right that I thought I couldn't resist any longer... And so I
went out and bought myself a bass guitar. But I had connections with Ian Carr;
we in fact shared a flat together, and we lived together in London for a while.
So we had an excellent working connection anyway.

Q: How would you describe the atmosphere in London at the time, when the jazz
and rock scenes kind of met ?

JC: Well, there was a hard-core jazz scene... But even a few years earlier, when
I used to work doing a lot of jazz sessions at some of the clubs, and people
like Georgie Fame were coming, with the Blue Flames, that was kind of
blues-tinged. And there was also Alexis Korner... But the younger people, I
think, related far more, especially since some of the clubs were still, people
would dance more readily-available kind of rock bands... But it was a good time,
there were lots of things going on in that Sixties period, with the fusion
music, and there was still a whole lot of free music going on as well. So it was
a very interesting starting time, with lots of different strands all going on at
very much the same time. For a bass player it was great, cause one time you
could be playing like, sort of some free music, and then you might find yourself
in a sort of jazz-fusion situation... And even on the first Nucleus record,
there's a bit... That was Chris Spedding, who later became the grandfather of
punk, as they say. With the double bass and the guitar, there's some free
improvisation, on the very first one. So, yes, it was an interesting time.
Everything was very open.

Q: Did you have previous interest in rock, or did you tend to look down on it ?

JC: I certainly didn't look down on it, no. Since the advent of the Beatles, in
London there was a total transformation, everybody, certainly a lot of us, were
touched by Beatlemania. You couldn't avoid or escape Beatlemania. And so fashion
was changing... The voice of young people was much more prominent then. And a
lot of the music that was on radio, the pop stuff on the radio, there was some
great stuff at that time, especially the Tamla-Motown period. And then the
Beatles and Stones, a lot of stuff over here that was kind of changing popular
music. And we knew people like Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, who came from the
jazz fraternity, that were entering into the pop world... So, like Georgie Fame,
people like that, that were involved with jazz at some point, or using jazz
musicians in their bands... So certainly no, I was very open to the way that
music was going. I've always been open to see the new direction of the music.

Q: Would you say that Soft Machine was important, at the time ?

JC: They were just names at that time, so I didn't really know much about the
music. It was later on, when some of the... I'd already left Nucleus at that
time, but some of the Nucleus people were then working with the Soft Machine
people. So I didn't know much about Soft Machine, or any of that... The band
coming out of the rock side, I didn't know many of these musicians that came out
through... I was then getting into my thirties, and I'd grown up with the jazz
side. So I didn't know much about the rock side of music.

Q: Were you surprised by the very quick acceptance of Nucleus ? Playing at
Newport Festival in the States...

JC: Well, it just sort of all happened, we did the... The reason we played at
Newport was the result of having won a BBC competition, where every European
radio station put forward a band, and that was the result... That was at the
Montreux jazz festival, and the prize was to play at the Newport jazz
festival... Well, yeah, it was a total surprise, I mean it just sort of
happened... People were ready for that kind of music, there was good following,
at that period, for those fusion bands. One could play, like, universities -
which one couldn't do now - with jazz groups, and get a very good attendance.
And also they could go on alongside possibly, say, bands like, Soft Machine,
equally sharing a concert, with some of the rock bands. And it would go down...
people were very open to it. I think a lot must be said also, I suppose, of the
popularity of Miles Davis with his new direction as well, amongst the jazz
fraternity. And again, a younger audience growing up with the music. So no, it
just seemed to be quite normal at the time, it was great to find an interest in
the music. [...]

Q: Let's talk of Turning Point...

JC: I think I'd got a bit fed up of staying with bands and doing a lot of hard
work, and then for whatever reasons they're not sort of doing it, and... I
decided I might have a go at doing my own thing. And Pepi Lemer, who we knew
through Pete - I knew Pete Lemer very well -, I quite liked the idea of using
voice as a kind of instrument, as a sound. And so we decided that we'd do this
band together. I hadn't written any music at all, ever. Brian was a very good
writer, he'd write quite a lot of music for the band. Then I started to do a bit
for writing myself, because we just needed some material to play. And then I met
Paul Robinson, the drummer - I was doing some teaching at the music weekend
course, and he came along. He was only about 16. He eventually joined the band.
On saxophone, I wasn't sure - I was looking for somebody, a young gun... We
wanted to evolve it... And then Dave Tidball came along. I was told about him
by... I did a gig, the drummer was Alan Jackson, and Dave Tidball was playing
with Alan's band. And they were all interested in getting this band together,
and so it started from there. We did some rehearsals, and managed, with my kind
of reputation with other bands, to get a few gigs, and it kind of snowballed
from there. People liked the sound, and it was exciting. By that time I was in
my late thirties, about forty. It was good that there were lots of younger
people in the band... So it took off, and there were... four good years with it.

Q: There was a whole period towards the end that's not been documented, with
Allan Holdsworth...

JC: That's right. Because we never recorded, which is a shame. What happened was
that the personnel was pretty much the same, except Dave Tidball went to the
States, he decided to go to the States, then we got Phil Todd. Paul Robinson was
busy doing something else, and Gary Husband came in on drums. And I'd met Allan
Holdsworth through other situations, doing some free music, with John Stevens
and also with John Taylor playing in that band as well, not recorded but we did
a tour with John Taylor and Allan Holdsworth, prior to the recording. I
approached the Arts Council about doing a tour, I sent a proposal, saying I'd
like to do the same band, but with guest artists - Neil Ardley on synthesizer
and Allan Holdsworth on guitar. And so we did a tour with that group for the
Arts Council. Unfortunately that wasn't recorded. There was a lot of material...
At that time I wanted to get some work abroad with the band and couldn't, and I
tried to get some work in the North of England... We just seemed to go as far as
we could. I was very frustrating. And I felt, oh, that's it, there's no point...
We sort of lost interest. I felt very frustrated at not being able to push it
any further. And also at that time I started playing the double bass again, I
started getting very interested in the double bass. So that, again, was almost
the end of an era, with that sort of music.

Q: Do you remember playing to large audiences with any of these bands ?

JC: Yes. That seemed to be the kind of norm then, because I think the audiences
were far more... Those bands, people didn't regard them as jazz bands as such,
and so you could play for very large audiences. And the university circuit was
much more available to that kind of bands. Whereas a jazz group now, you may
find 30 or 40 people turn up, whereas before you might get 250 or 300, 400
people. That's the way it goes. Next year we could be back playing universities
again ! It's just the way things change over the years. But there wasn't, as far
as I was concerned, maybe some of the other bands and probably more into Europe,
I've spoken to people like John Marshall, who did more work in Europe, they say
there's far more acceptance in Europe, gigs are far better attended, for that
sort of music

Q: What recordings you've done are you most proud of ?

JC: I'm not particularly proud, but I'm pleased to have been part of many
recordings. On the jazz scene, there was a thing called "Under Milk Wood" (1965,
Columbia) with Stan Tracey, which was very popular. I played with Gordon Beck
and John McLaughlin on an album called "Experiments With Pops" (1969, Major
Minor), which was a very good album. We're trying desperately to get it out on
CD. There's some stuff with Tony Oxley, Kenny Wheeler... Of course I was very
pleased with the two albums we did with Turning Point, I'm very pleased we got
those recorded. You always find bits that you don't like, and bits that you
think are good. There's the thing I did with Phil Lee, and the album with John
Horler. But they're all kind of different periods of my life.

Q: What was the most exciting time in your career, the best musical environment
? The late Sixties ?

JC: It was a good period for me. I got married in the late Sixties... But the
whole period... When I first started it was very exciting. When I was 20, 21, I
did my National Service, and I went with the Jazz Couriers, with Tubby Hayes and
Ronnie Scott, which was one of the biggest bands at that time. So I was lucky to
really come in on a high. I hadn't been playing for that long, I didn't start
till I was quite late. So from that period, the late Fifties, right through
to... I think the most exciting time would have been on to the mid-Seventies, I
suppose. Leading my own band... And I think as you get older things get less
exciting, but I really enjoyed those periods, into the Seventies, up to the
Eighties. Different kinds of things, now, that I get excited about. But that
whole period was great, yeah.

What a tour de force on the British jazz/rock scene.

At least Jeff had a true pleasure of being in the company of, and collaborating
with, musical visionaries who were pure geniuses, ie Allan Holdsworth.

Jeff's contribution to the UK jazz army was priceless.

RIP

This is terrible and unexpected news. Jeff Clyne was one of the greatest bass
players in the world, and not merely Europe. On a personal note, he gave me my
first lessons on double-bass, and was a brilliant and patient teacher.

RIP

Neil Saunders

Hello Rattlers,

Another sad news. Jeff Clyne died yesterday of heart attack.

Leonardo/MoonJune

Just browsing Ian Carr's website - there's an anniversary gig for Nucleus next
February in London and came across the terribly sad news that Jeff Clyne died on
November 16th.

Greetings Rattlers.

John Kelman has written a fine review. I'm still playing the album and must
agree with his closing paragraph: "What's Rattlin' On The Moon [is] an album of
both direct homage and lovingly inspired new music that actually surpasses Delta
Saxophone Quartet's disc as the most oblique Soft Machine tribute to date."

What I keep returning to are moments when I could swear that I can hear Hugh's
bass underpinning the swirls of sonic improvisation - yet I know that Beppe's
keyboards are all there are.

This is one fine album, a potential classic even, and a very worthy addition to
the SM canon.

Cheers,

Terry

Complimenting Michael King on his verdict about early Soft Machine and  indeed
any remastered audio dynamic recordings, the impact and result of most transfers
to cd, sadly result and to the original recordings loss, highly compressed
versions of some lively and excellent dynamically charged sessions having all
their life, sucked out like a sponge, to accommodate the modern digitally
accepted type of compact media designed for convenience.

Yes folks I am still in shock at the above headline...
A gig of Phil Miller/In Cahoots that was not absolutely fab, that was in fact a
disaster!

Here's why, after spending hours getting back from work in London to home in
Sunny Southend, then rushing about getting ready to go back out and picking up a
musician friend on the way we reached the Colchester Institute gone half past
eight, drove into the car park to see signs everywhere saying parking for
students only! or its a £50 fine, blah blah, so after driving around like Jenson
Button on acid to find somewhere to park, eventually I thought sod it and parked
outside the venue and rushed inside, the band were already blamming away nicely
on a number I couldn't identify. The nice man on the desk said, oh they've
already started their second set so I will give you a discount... What! the
second set Oh no! It was about ten to nine.

We went in to the venue with a really good audience in attendence maybe up to
50? and even more amazingly including young people! Yes I know young people!

We plonked ourselves at the front and prepared for the audio assault to come.
Fred Baker acknowledged my arrival with a little nod, and the number they were
playing soon ended! The young people looked as if they were enjoying it and
applauded appreciatively.

Phil stepped forward to the mic and thanked introduced in the band , Peter Lemer
on Keys, Fred on Bass, Mark Fletcher on Drums and the new guys; Paul Booth on
Saxes and Mark Armstrong on Trumpet and Fluglelhorn, I know too many Mark's, and
announced the last song; Medley... Aaargh Disaster!

They played it absolutely brilliantly the playing of this band gets more and
more ridiculous (good)the solo from Pete lemer had ny Keyboard playing friend
agog Ha Ha Solo's from the two newbies and they were soon finishing... Gutted!
the two new Marks' were excellent on their soloing and fit into the band as good
as any of the other previous Horn section players in recent years. I have to
that the rhythm playing of the band was gob smacking; the drumming and bass and
Phil's rhythm guitar playing was fantastic.

I applauded and called for 'more, more' probably too loudly, and the band left
the stage not to return. As I said "disaster". I looked at the ticket and it
said 07.30 start, which I assumed was just doors open, but it evidently wasn't.
Can't believ to have missed 90% of the gig I hadn't even got a drink before we
retreated in disappointment into the night. My friend who is a good musician was
stunned by the composition and playing and said he didnt know such music
existed!

They were great but I was late!

[I was luckier at the London gig... A video souvenir of the three new tunes (one
by Phil, bookended by two from Pete), with another of the older material to
come, is at:
<http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xb59e1_in-cahoots-vortex-2009-1_music>.
Excellent performance indeed - A.]

A review of Beppe Crovella's forthcoming Mike Ratledge tribute on our friend
Leonard's MoonJune imprint:

<http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34712>

Best!
John

Hi Rattlers,

To follow on Leonardo's flattery, this is surely a case of 'mutual admiration
society' as Moonjune's growing catalog is what is truly great! I'm very excited
to hear Beppe's new record taking on those wonderful Ratledge tunes. Regarding
Live at Henie Onstad Art Centre 1971 ~ yes, this is a tremendous recording of a
tremendous performance. I'd argue the music is superior to the concert from the
27th, which suffer several musical 'coughs & sputter' to my ears. Be that as it
may, I wish to add that the 'sonic enhancement' imagined by Leonardo consists of
little more than manual level adjustments/corrections and a dollop of EQ.
Otherwise what's encoded on the CD is the natural tape ~ No Compression/No
Limiting/No Maximization/No sonically stupid processing/Nothing intrusive to
compensate for having the recording amputated as an MP3. NO NEED! Several Soft
Machine recordings have already suffered that disrespectfully dreadful
'approach' to the digital domain. All this recording requires is accurate
amplification and it is unlocked as experiential. End-O-Rant. Release is
imminent.

Thank you,
Michael King

Here is a link to the brand new Jaga Jazzist single:

<http://www.ninjatune.net/jagajazzist/>

Enjoy!
Hans V.

This was always one of my all time favorite live recording of Soft Machine, the
quintessential Soft Machine, I am glad is out, both nights were fantastic and I
am looking forward to hear the final version now on the cd sonically enhanced by
the great Mike King.

Remembering Elton and Hugh...

Cheers
Leonardo/MoonJune

For those eagerly awaiting Reel Recordings' unearthed Oslo 1971 Soft Machine
show, the wait is nearly over. Here's a review to whet your appetite:

<http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34394>

Best!
John

Hi everyone,

Can anyone advise from where this album is available?

David Craigie

[<http://www.moonjune.com/MJR030.htm> - A.]

Greetings all.

Leonardo was in town (Jakarta) last week so I'm now a happy recipient of Beppe
Covella's "personal vision of the music of Mike Ratledge". I'm delighted to say
that I'm sure you will be well pleased.

Out of interest, I put together a compilation of those SM tracks he has adapted
and they make a good listening 'bonus'.

Cheers,

Terry

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gozagpzqGaA&feature=related>

Jon

Hi Roger,

>This is more a question than an information posting.
>A 180gm vinyl record of Nucleus 'Live 1970-71' is
>about to be released on the Vinyl Lovers label
>which I believe hails from the Russian Federation.

Vinyl Records are not from Russia! The records are printed in Russia but the
label is located in Italy. In fact he opened a vinyl-only record store in
Firenze last Saturday!

Your mail and question has been forwarded to him and I'll post here any answers
to come.

Cheers,

Pierre