I just discovered this:
Tony no-nonsense alto playing probably appeals across the board here. Tony co-ran a Monk and Mingus playing quartet with Chris Biscoe a few years back - it was hard to decide which of the two out-Dolphied the other, yet neither is really imitative of the great Eric. He appears quite often around these parts, normally, and did a set at the Oval in Croydon one Sunday afternoon alongside Ed Jones, with the tall Larry Bartley leading on bass, that might have passed for one of the mid-70-s Loft sessions in sheer energy and commitment. It's interesting to learn that Tony hails from Nottingham - a place far in spirit and ethos from The Metropolis, birthplace in more senses than one of the black British jazz movement of the mid-1980s. He would be one of the first recruits to Gary Crosby's Nu Troop platform for up and comings. While his rough-and-ready directness and emotional thrust have found voice in a comparatively conservative personal vocabulary, pitched into a maelstrom he can more than hold his own.
Slight change of subject: scrolling through the page of articles I belatedly note the death of the critic Barry McRae, two years ago. As the one correspondent unabashedly sympathetic in this country to and supportive of Ornette Coleman and the whole succeeding free jazz movement when it was being trashed by the jazz commentariat, Barry's reviews were invaluable tools in legitimising the music to those of us struggling to keep up, and in explaining its workings.
Tony no-nonsense alto playing probably appeals across the board here. Tony co-ran a Monk and Mingus playing quartet with Chris Biscoe a few years back - it was hard to decide which of the two out-Dolphied the other, yet neither is really imitative of the great Eric. He appears quite often around these parts, normally, and did a set at the Oval in Croydon one Sunday afternoon alongside Ed Jones, with the tall Larry Bartley leading on bass, that might have passed for one of the mid-70-s Loft sessions in sheer energy and commitment. It's interesting to learn that Tony hails from Nottingham - a place far in spirit and ethos from The Metropolis, birthplace in more senses than one of the black British jazz movement of the mid-1980s. He would be one of the first recruits to Gary Crosby's Nu Troop platform for up and comings. While his rough-and-ready directness and emotional thrust have found voice in a comparatively conservative personal vocabulary, pitched into a maelstrom he can more than hold his own.
Slight change of subject: scrolling through the page of articles I belatedly note the death of the critic Barry McRae, two years ago. As the one correspondent unabashedly sympathetic in this country to and supportive of Ornette Coleman and the whole succeeding free jazz movement when it was being trashed by the jazz commentariat, Barry's reviews were invaluable tools in legitimising the music to those of us struggling to keep up, and in explaining its workings.