Lol Coxhill
Encyclopedia
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, England) is a free improvising
Free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....
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...
and raconteur. He plays the soprano
Soprano saxophone
The soprano saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument, invented in 1840. The soprano is the third smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and tubax.A transposing instrument pitched in...
or sopranino
Sopranino saxophone
The sopranino saxophone is one of the smallest members of the saxophone family. A sopranino saxophone is tuned in the key of E, and sounds an octave above the alto saxophone. This saxophone has a sweet sound and although the sopranino is one of the least common of the saxophones in regular use...
saxophone.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was a member of Carol Grimes and Delivery
Delivery (band)
Delivery was a British blues/progressive rock musical group, formed in the late 1960s. The band was one of the wellsprings of the progressive rock Canterbury scene....
and then Kevin Ayers and the Whole World
Kevin Ayers
Kevin Ayers is an English singer-songwriter and was a major influential force in the English psychedelic movement...
.
He became known for his solo playing and for work in duets with pianist Steve Miller and guitarist G. F. Fitzgerald.
Coxhill has collaborated with other musicians including Mike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...
, Morgan Fisher
Morgan Fisher
Morgan Fisher is an English keyboard player / composer, and is most known for being a member of Mott the Hoople in the early 1970s. However, his career has covered a wide range of musical activities, and he is still highly active in the music industry...
(of Mott the Hoople
Mott the Hoople
Mott the Hoople were a British rock band with strong R&B roots, popular in the glam rock era of the early to mid 1970s. They are popularly known for the song "All the Young Dudes", written for them by David Bowie and appearing on their 1972 album of the same name.-The early years:Mott The Hoople...
), Chris McGregor
Chris McGregor
Christopher McGregor , was a South African jazz pianist, bandleader and composer born in Somerset West, South Africa.- Early influences :...
's Brotherhood of Breath
Brotherhood of Breath
The Brotherhood of Breath was a big-band created in the late 1960s by South African pianist/composer Chris McGregor , essentially an extension of McGregor's previous band The Blue Notes....
, The Dedication Orchestra
The Dedication Orchestra
The Dedication Orchestra is a jazz ensemble formed as a tribute to the exiled South African musicians who formed the core of the The Blue Notes and the Brotherhood of Breath, it features Alan Skidmore, Radu Malfatti, Django Bates, Kenny Wheeler, Elton Dean, Lol Coxhill, Evan Parker, Paul Rutherford...
, Django Bates
Django Bates
Django Bates , is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and band leader. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. He currently lives in Copenhagen where he is a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and leader of the StoRMChaser orchestra.-Career:Django Bates was born in Beckenham,...
, The Damned, Hugh Metcalfe
Hugh Metcalfe
Hugh Metcalfe is a musician and filmmaker from London and Suffolk, England. He is best known as the promoter of The Klinker in London, which he has run in various venues since 1982. He plays guitar, violin, hi-hat and gas mask. He performs in several bands including Bicycle Clip Sex, The Small...
, Derek Bailey and performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
group Welfare State
Welfare State International
Welfare State International were an influential performance group based in the UK and founded in 1968 by John Fox and Sue Gill. Fox was, and remains, a vociferous proponent of 'celebratory theatre' and an anarchic, energetic and imaginative approach to creating theatre. In 2006 they felt the...
.
Coxhill was compere and occasional performer at the Bracknell Jazz Festival
Bracknell Jazz Festival
The Bracknell Jazz Festival was a major showcase for British modern jazz in the 1980s. The festival was known for attracting a largish audience for free improvisation, modern jazz composition and all kinds of British modern jazz in general....
, and a raconteur as well as a musician; indeed it was following a performance at Bracknell
Bracknell
Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of central London...
that he recorded the monologue Murder in the Air.
Discography
- Ear of Beholder (DandelionDandelion RecordsDandelion Records was a British record label started in 1969 by the British DJ John Peel as a way to get the music he liked onto record. Peel was responsible for "artistic direction" and the commercial side was handled by Clive Selwood of Elektra Records and his wife Shurely...
) - Toverbal Sweet (Mushroom Records)
- Fleas In Custard with guitarist G.F Fitzgerald. Caroline)
- Miller/Coxhil (with Steve Miller on piano). Caroline
- The Story So Far...Oh Really! with Steve Miller (credited as Stephen Miller) piano. Caroline
- Welfare State/Lol Coxhill with Welfare State Theatre Group. Caroline
- "Murder In The Air" (12" Single)
- Diverse. OgunOgun RecordsOgun Records is a record label created by the husband and wife team of Hazel Miller and Harry Miller, to document the music being created by a group of open-minded musicians in London in the early 1970s....
- The Joy of Paranoia. Ogun
- Frogdance. Channel 4Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
soundtrack - The Promenaders with other free-improvisers buskingBuskingStreet performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles...
on BrightonBrightonBrighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
seafront. Y Records - Digswell Duets. Random Radar Records
- French Gigs with Fred FrithFred FrithFred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
. AAA - Echoes of Duneden with guitarist G. F. Fitzgerald
- Three Blokes. FMP
- Chantenay 80 (with Maurice Horsthuis and Raymond Boni) (nato)
- Instant replay (nato)
- The Dunois Solos (nato)
- Cou$cou$ (nato)
- 10:02 (with Daniel Deshays) (nato)
- Café de la place (nato)
- Halim (with Pat ThomasPat ThomasPat Thomas is an American football player. Thomas primarily played cornerback but also played at running back and placekicker. He attended Plano High School where he played on the 1971 state championship team. Thomas was an All-American player at Texas A&M University. He played in the NFL for the...
) (nato) - The rock on the hill (with Barre PhillipsBarre PhillipsBarre Phillips is a jazz and free improvisation bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he migrated to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. Since 1972 he has been based in southern France....
and JT Bates) (nato) - The Hollywell Concert (SLAM)
- The Inimitable (Chabada - 10" LP)
- Before My Time (Chabada - 10" LP)
Guest appearances
- Shooting at the MoonShooting at the Moon (album)Shooting at the Moon is the second solo album of Kevin Ayers.In early 1970, Ayers assembled a band he called The Whole World to tour his debut LP Joy of a Toy that included, a young Mike Oldfield, David Bedford, Lol Coxhill, Mick Fincher, the folk singer Bridget St. John and Robert Wyatt...
by Kevin Ayers and the Whole WorldKevin AyersKevin Ayers is an English singer-songwriter and was a major influential force in the English psychedelic movement...
(1970) - No RosesNo RosesNo Roses is an album by Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band. It was recorded at Sound Techniques, and Air Studios in London, in the summer of 1971. It was produced by Sandy Roberton and Ashley Hutchings...
by Shirley CollinsShirley CollinsShirley Elizabeth Collins MBE is a British folksinger who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s...
and the Albion Country BandAlbion Country BandThe Albion Band, also known as The Albion Country Band and The Albion Dance Band, were an English electric folk band, brought together and led by musician Ashley Hutchings...
(1971) - Tokoloshe Man by John KongosJohn KongosJohn Kongos is a singer-songwriter. He is best known for his 1971 Top 10 hit single, "He's Gonna Step On You Again".-Career:...
(1971) - Boo by Juliet Lawson. Sovereign Records (1972)
- 1984 by Hugh HopperHugh HopperHugh Colin Hopper was a progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and various other related bands.-Early career:...
(1973) - The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other StoriesThe Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other StoriesThe Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories is the fifth studio album by Kevin Ayers. Ayers moved to Island Records for this release which employed a vast array of session musicians. The album also marked the arrival of Patto guitarist Ollie Halsall, who would become a constant musical partner...
by Kevin AyersKevin AyersKevin Ayers is an English singer-songwriter and was a major influential force in the English psychedelic movement...
(1974) - Music for Pleasure by The Damned (1977)
- The Death of Imagination by Penny RimbaudPenny RimbaudJeremy John Ratter , better known under his pseudonym of Penny Rimbaud, is a drummer, writer, poet, former member of performance art groups EXIT and Ceres Confusion, and co-founder of the anarchist punk band Crass with Steve Ignorant in 1977.-Biography:Rimbaud Jeremy John Ratter (born 8 June 1943,...
. Red Herring Records (1975) - Lol Coxhill & Totsuzen Danball. Wax Records TKCA-30119 (1983)
- The Wimp and The Wild John OtwayJohn OtwayJohn Otway, is an English singer-songwriter, who has built a sizeable cult audience through extensive touring, a surreal sense of humour and a self-deprecating underdog persona.-Biography:...
& Wild Willy BarrettWild Willy BarrettWild Willy Barrett is an English folk singer from Hemel Hempstead best known for his collaborations with John Otway. His musical style is witty and his humour onstage is dry. He is known for virtuoso fiddle playing, ability with a great number of stringed instruments, and playing slide guitar with...
(1989)
Television and film appearances
- Frogdance, a documentary about Coxhill, was shown by Channel 4Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
(1987) - Appearance as a butler in Sally Potter's 1992 film OrlandoOrlando (film)Orlando is a 1992 film based on Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando: A Biography, starring Tilda Swinton as Orlando, Billy Zane as Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, and Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth. It was directed by Sally Potter....
- Cameo appearance in the season-five episode "A Much Underestimated Man" of the TV detective series Strangers (a precursor to the series BulmanBulmanBulman was a Granada TV series which ran from 1985-1987 and followed the fortunes of the major character from the earlier XYY Man and Strangers series....
) - Appearance as a priest in Derek JarmanDerek JarmanMichael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
's 1986 film CaravaggioCaravaggio (film)Caravaggio is a British film directed by Derek Jarman. The film is a fictionalized re-telling of the life of Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.-Plot:...
Further reading
- The Bald Soprano: A Portrait of Lol Coxhill by Jeff Nuttall. NottinghamNottinghamNottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, Tak Tak Tak, 1989.
External links
- Lol Coxhill's home page
- Biography and discography from European Free Improvisation Pages
- Sample of Coxhill's playing 1
- Sample of Coxhill's playing 2
- Video sample from Frogdance
- The Wire'sThe Wire (magazine)The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...
100 Records That Set The World On Fire (When No One Was Listening) - Fund raising concert in aid of diabetes uk 7 June 2003 at Besbrode Pianos Leeds