Jon Hiseman
Encyclopedia
Jon Hiseman is an English
drummer
, recording engineer, record producer
and music publisher.
single
, "Devil's Grip". In 1966 he replaced Ginger Baker
in the Graham Bond
Organisation and also played for a brief spell with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames. He then joined John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
in 1968 playing on the iconic album 'Bare Wires'. In April 1968 he left to form what has been critically claimed as the "seminal" jazz rock/progressive rock
band, Colosseum
. Colosseum disbanded in November 1971, although Hiseman later formed Colosseum II
with Don Airey
and Gary Moore
in 1975.
Between these two versions of Colosseum, Hiseman formed the band Tempest
with Allan Holdsworth
, Paul Williams and Colosseum bandmate Mark Clarke. Ollie Halsall
joined the band temporarily making the band a quintet but Holdsworth left the group along with Williams, leaving Halsall to handle all guitar and vocal duties.
Hiseman has subsequently played in jazz
groups, notably with his wife, saxophonist
Barbara Thompson, with whom he has recorded and produced fifteen currently available albums. Andrew Lloyd Webber
, searching for a "sound" for an album to feature his brother Julian
on cello
, stumbled upon Colosseum II by accident and imported the whole band into his "Variations" project. This was the start of a ten year relationship with Hiseman, whose drumming features on recordings, TV specials and musicals
.
In 1982 Hiseman built what was at the time a state-of-the-art recording studio
next to his home, and together with the compositional skills of Barbara Thompson produced many recordings for film
and television
soundtrack
s. Hiseman is a founding member of the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble
, a German-based "Band of Band Leaders", along with Barbara Thompson.
Colosseum reunited in June 1994 with the same line-up of musicians as when they broke up 23 years earlier. They played the Freiburg Zelt Musik Festival and followed it up with a German TV Special (WDR Cologne) in October, which was recorded and released as a CD and a VHS video...a DVD version followed in 2003. Several new studio releases also followed, as well as [4] expanded editions of Valentyne Suite and Colosseum Live plus several compilation boxed sets.
Hiseman's wife, saxophonist Barbara Thompson, joined the band on various occasions before the death of Dick Heckstall-Smith in 2004 and is now a permanent member of the band, which continues to record and, from time to time, tour the German speaking territories.
In October 2010, Jon Hiseman's biography was published..."Playing the Band", which was written by Martyn Hanson and edited by original Colosseum manager, Colin Richardson.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
, recording engineer, record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and music publisher.
Career
In the mid-1960s Hiseman played in sessions such as the early Arthur BrownArthur Brown (musician)
Arthur Brown is an English rock and roll musician best known for his flamboyant, theatrical style and significant influence on Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, Marilyn Manson, George Clinton, Kiss, King Diamond, and Bruce Dickinson, among others, and for his number one hit in the UK Singles Chart and...
single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, "Devil's Grip". In 1966 he replaced Ginger Baker
Ginger Baker
Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker is an English drummer, best known for his work with Cream and Blind Faith. He is also known for his numerous associations with World music, mainly the use of African influences...
in the Graham Bond
Graham Bond
Graham John Clifton Bond was an English musician, considered a founding father of the English rhythm and blues boom of the 1960s....
Organisation and also played for a brief spell with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames. He then joined John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are a pioneering English blues band, led by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall, OBE. Mayall used the band name between 1963 and 1967, but then dropped it for some fifteen years. However, in 1982 a 'Return of the Bluesbreakers' was announced and...
in 1968 playing on the iconic album 'Bare Wires'. In April 1968 he left to form what has been critically claimed as the "seminal" jazz rock/progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band, Colosseum
Colosseum (band)
Colosseum is a pioneering British progressive jazz-rock band, mixing progressive rock and jazz-based improvisation.-History 1968 - 1971:The band was formed in September 1968 by drummer Jon Hiseman, tenor sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith and bass player Tony Reeves, who had previously worked together...
. Colosseum disbanded in November 1971, although Hiseman later formed Colosseum II
Colosseum II
Colosseum II was a British band formed in 1975 by the former Colosseum drummer and leader, Jon Hiseman, following the 1974 demise of his band Tempest. Hiseman announced his plan to form the band eventually named Colosseum II in November 1974, but only Gary Moore was named. Rehearsals were due to...
with Don Airey
Don Airey
Donald Airey has been the keyboardist in the rock band Deep Purple since 2002, succeeding Jon Lord...
and Gary Moore
Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....
in 1975.
Between these two versions of Colosseum, Hiseman formed the band Tempest
Tempest (UK band)
Tempest was a British progressive rock band active from 1973 and 1974. Its core members were Jon Hiseman on drums and Mark Clarke on bass. They released two studio albums before breaking up.-Band biography:...
with Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...
, Paul Williams and Colosseum bandmate Mark Clarke. Ollie Halsall
Ollie Halsall
Peter John 'Ollie' Halsall was a left-handed guitarist and is best known for his role in The Rutles, the bands Patto, Timebox and Boxer, and for his contribution to the music of Kevin Ayers. He is also notable as one of the few players of the vibraphone in rock music...
joined the band temporarily making the band a quintet but Holdsworth left the group along with Williams, leaving Halsall to handle all guitar and vocal duties.
Hiseman has subsequently played in jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
groups, notably with his wife, saxophonist
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
Barbara Thompson, with whom he has recorded and produced fifteen currently available albums. Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
, searching for a "sound" for an album to feature his brother Julian
Julian Lloyd Webber
Julian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist who has been described as the "doyen of British cellists".-Early life:Julian Lloyd Webber is the second son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and his wife Jean Johnstone . He is the younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber...
on cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, stumbled upon Colosseum II by accident and imported the whole band into his "Variations" project. This was the start of a ten year relationship with Hiseman, whose drumming features on recordings, TV specials and musicals
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
.
In 1982 Hiseman built what was at the time a state-of-the-art recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
next to his home, and together with the compositional skills of Barbara Thompson produced many recordings for film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
s. Hiseman is a founding member of the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble
United Jazz and Rock Ensemble
350px|right|United Jazz + Rock Ensemble Farewell Tour 2002The United Jazz + Rock Ensemble developed from a group of jazz musicians that was formed for a 1974 to 1975 television show of Süddeutscher Rundfunk...
, a German-based "Band of Band Leaders", along with Barbara Thompson.
Colosseum reunited in June 1994 with the same line-up of musicians as when they broke up 23 years earlier. They played the Freiburg Zelt Musik Festival and followed it up with a German TV Special (WDR Cologne) in October, which was recorded and released as a CD and a VHS video...a DVD version followed in 2003. Several new studio releases also followed, as well as [4] expanded editions of Valentyne Suite and Colosseum Live plus several compilation boxed sets.
Hiseman's wife, saxophonist Barbara Thompson, joined the band on various occasions before the death of Dick Heckstall-Smith in 2004 and is now a permanent member of the band, which continues to record and, from time to time, tour the German speaking territories.
In October 2010, Jon Hiseman's biography was published..."Playing the Band", which was written by Martyn Hanson and edited by original Colosseum manager, Colin Richardson.
With Jack Bruce
- Songs for a TailorSongs for a TailorSongs for a Tailor is the 1969 solo studio album debut of musician, composer and singer Jack Bruce, who was already famous at the time of its release for his work with the supergroup Cream...
– (1969) - Things We LikeThings We LikeThings We Like is a jazz album by bassist Jack Bruce.The album was Bruce's second solo album to reach the marketplace; it was released in the U.K. in late 1970, and in the United States in early 1971...
– (recorded 1968, released 1970) - Harmony RowHarmony RowHarmony Row is Jack Bruce's third album, originally released in July 1971.The album takes its title from a tenement street in Glasgow, near where Bruce grew up. The street, since demolished, was famous as the largest unbroken houserow in Europe, stretching for over a mile...
– (1971)
With Colosseum
- Those Who Are About To Die Salute YouThose Who Are About to Die Salute YouAllmusic's review was laudatory, saying the album "is a powerful one, unleashing each member's instrumental prowess at one point while consolidating each talent to form an explosive outpouring of progressive jazz/rock the next." They highly praised the variety and uniqueness of each song, the...
– (1969) - Valentyne Suite – (1969)
- The Grass Is GreenerThe Grass Is Greener (album)The Grass Is Greener is an album by Colosseum, released in April 1970. In contrast to other albums by Colosseum, The Grass Is Greener was released only in the United States, on the Dunhill/ABC label. It was conceived as a U.S. alternative to November 1969's Valentyne Suite, complete with a muted,...
– (1970) - Daughter of TimeDaughter of Time-Personnel:*Mark Clarke - Bass Guitar *Dave "Clem" Clempson - Guitar, Vocal on 3*Chris Farlowe - Vocals *Louis Cennamo - Bass Guitar *Dave Greenslade - Organ, Piano, Vibes, Vocals...
– (1970) - Colosseum LiveColosseum LiveAllmusic wrote that "With good material, some towering performances, and a powerful atmosphere, this is everything you could hope for from a live album." They made note of the performances of all the players except Dave Greenslade, and commented that the band arrangements, duets during the fills,...
– (1971) - Bread and Circuses – (1997)
- Tomorrow's BluesTomorrow's BluesTomorrow's Blues is a 2003 album by Colosseum.-Track listing:#"Tomorrow's Blues" – 6:41#"Come Right Back" – 4:32#"In the Heat of the Night" – 5:37#"Hard Times Rising" – 6:41...
– (2003) - Live05 – (2007)
With Tempest
- TempestTempest (UK band)Tempest was a British progressive rock band active from 1973 and 1974. Its core members were Jon Hiseman on drums and Mark Clarke on bass. They released two studio albums before breaking up.-Band biography:...
– (1973) - Living in FearTempest (UK band)Tempest was a British progressive rock band active from 1973 and 1974. Its core members were Jon Hiseman on drums and Mark Clarke on bass. They released two studio albums before breaking up.-Band biography:...
– (1974) - Under The Blossom: The Anthology – (2005) [includes both albums + BBC session recordings]
With Colosseum II
- Strange New Flesh – (1976)
- Electric Savage – (1977)
- War DanceWar danceA war dance is a dance involving mock combat, usually in reference to tribal warrior societies where such dances were performed as a ritual connected with endemic warfare....
– (1977)
With United Jazz + Rock Ensemble
- Live Im Schützenhaus (1977)
- Teamwork (1978)
- The Break Even Point (1979)
- Live in Berlin (1981)
- United Live Opus Sechs (1984)
- Highlights (1984)
- Round Seven (1987)
- Na Endlich! (1992)
- Highlights II (1994)
- Die Neunte Von United (1996)
- The UJRE plays Albert Mangelsdorff (1998)
- X (1999)
- The UJRE plays Wolfgang Dauner (2002)
- The UJRE plays Volker Kriegel (2002)
Literature
- Hanson, Martyn: Playing The Band - The Musical Life of Jon Hiseman, 2010, London, Temple Music Books, ISBN 978-0-9566863-0-5