Lol Coxhill, the improvising saxophonist and friend of John Peel who (for all you Progrock fans out there) played with Mike Oldfield and The Whole World Band in the early 1970s and could be found busking on Hungerford Bridge and later compering the Bracknell Festival for all its existence, died on 10 July 2012, aged just under 80. Along with the guitarist Derek Bailey he was one of the pioneers of free improvisation anywhere (including in America) mixing with all sorts of musics and adventurous musicians. At the conclusion of an afternoon's commemorations held that Octiober at Cecil Sharpe House in Primrose Hill, the bass player Dave Green played a short CD of Lol singing and playing the old standard "Embraceable You", along with Dave, Michael Garrick, Bruce Turner and Alan Jackson, from what I presume to have been a BBC broadcast, from 1984. Sadly most of those in attendance were making their way out of the premises, and not giving what was being played much attention, so I went over and asked Dave Green about the recording, with the result that he handed me the CD, with just this one number on it, saying I could have it for nothing! I've just been listening to it and marvelling at Lol's performance, in which he sings the lyrics and interposes improvised passages in the gaps. Unfortunately there is no Youtube footage of that performance, but there is of one of Lol performing the same song accompanied by the drummer Roger Turner, and here it is:-
The next clip has Lol playing alongside the bassist John Edwards and one-time This Heat drummer Charles Hayward, apparently in somebody's back garden!
And here, Trevor Watts and the pianist Veryan Weston reminiscing about Lol:
And finally, The Melody Four (of whom there were three!), with Lol alongside pianist Steve Beresford and the great Tony Coe, offering some timely seasonal cheer in this performance in a church in the Netherlands, from 1996:-
Enjoy!
The next clip has Lol playing alongside the bassist John Edwards and one-time This Heat drummer Charles Hayward, apparently in somebody's back garden!
And here, Trevor Watts and the pianist Veryan Weston reminiscing about Lol:
And finally, The Melody Four (of whom there were three!), with Lol alongside pianist Steve Beresford and the great Tony Coe, offering some timely seasonal cheer in this performance in a church in the Netherlands, from 1996:-
Enjoy!
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