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Volume Two
1969
Soft Machine
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JAZZWISE - N° 113 - October 2007
The Story So Far... - Steve
Miller / Lol Coxhill
Daniel Spicer
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These two albums, re-released now on a double CD, capture
beaulifully a particular moment in British underground music when
jazz-rock more specifically, the Canterbury scene - enjoyed a mutually
beneficial flirtation with hard-line improv. Miller's best known
as keyboardist with Canterbury originals, Caravan, and it's fascinating
to hear some of that band's best known tunes deconstructed here
as solo piano pieces or as intimate, playful duets with "the
bald soprano." Coxhill, although by this time a formidable
presence on the improv scene, wasn't averse to fitting into exploratory
rock bands such as Kevin Ayers and the Whole World - and there are
plenty examples of that to be relished here too, including some
gritty, previously unreleased, live tracks from Delivery (essentially
a proto-Hatfield and the North), and a gorgeously good-natured cha-cha-cha
jammed up by Coxhill and Ayers with Robert Wyatt dropping in to
supply unmistakably hairbrained Dada-scat vocals. Just when you
thought you'd heard everything the Canterbury scene had to offer,
a little gem like this pops up and brightens your day.
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