The pianist-led band that recorded the, in British free jazz terms, groundbreaking 1966 "local Colour" album for Peter Stollman's ESP label, is due to re-unite for a one-off performance of the music under the title "Son of Local Colour" taking place at the Soho Pizza Express tomorrow night, "entry" charge being £25, though from memory one just goes in, to be ushered whether booked or not to an already occupied table, whereupon a waiter approaches you for whatever you're ordering, and you end up settling up for one helluva lot more than you would otherwise have paid for a small cardboard-textured pizza with sparse topping and a pint of hyper-effervescent beer, minus live music.
Anybody in possession of this record will have noted the strong influence of Paul Bley - with whom Lemer had been gigging in NYC the previous year - especially the latter's "Turning Point"; but though the music is inspired and the musicians really went for it, the recording quality, as Jon Hiseman observed, was dire, and I don't think the band ever got paid for it. These alone aren't however the reason why I won't be going along - the re-united line-up consisting of the leader, John Surman, George (Nisar Ahmet) Khan, Tony Reeves on bass, and Hiseman drums, probably promises more than it will deliver, the spirit of the times has changed, all the musicians having diverged drastically from the collective viewpoint then and there assembled. I just don't think it will work - interesting though the results will undoubtedly be. Cream of course, on its own terms, had a few musically comparatively successful re-unions in the 50 years since its initial disbandment, but accounted for by absence of booze and drugs as much as interim experience gathering, whereas the "Local Colour" aggregation was destined as a free jazz one-off, like in the way "Extrapolation" would be 3 years later.
Anybody in possession of this record will have noted the strong influence of Paul Bley - with whom Lemer had been gigging in NYC the previous year - especially the latter's "Turning Point"; but though the music is inspired and the musicians really went for it, the recording quality, as Jon Hiseman observed, was dire, and I don't think the band ever got paid for it. These alone aren't however the reason why I won't be going along - the re-united line-up consisting of the leader, John Surman, George (Nisar Ahmet) Khan, Tony Reeves on bass, and Hiseman drums, probably promises more than it will deliver, the spirit of the times has changed, all the musicians having diverged drastically from the collective viewpoint then and there assembled. I just don't think it will work - interesting though the results will undoubtedly be. Cream of course, on its own terms, had a few musically comparatively successful re-unions in the 50 years since its initial disbandment, but accounted for by absence of booze and drugs as much as interim experience gathering, whereas the "Local Colour" aggregation was destined as a free jazz one-off, like in the way "Extrapolation" would be 3 years later.
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