Soft Machine: Drop

by AAJ Italy Staff
May 4, 2009

Questo bellissimo CD documenta il tour europeo dei Soft Machine dell'autunno 1971. Da pochi mesi il batterista Robert Wyatt aveva lasciato la band, pressato e spinto fuori dai dubbi dei due compagni storici Hopper e Ratledge. Al suo posto, su suggerimento di Elton Dean, era arrivato il giovane batterista australiano Phil Howard, una vera e propria forza della natura, un impetuoso motorino sempre pronto a spingere in avanti, senza mai guardarsi indietro. I brani dei Soft Machine acquistano durante questo ...

Command All Stars: Curiosities 1972

by Nic Jones
April 18, 2009

That infinite moment with which a lot of the music AAJ covers is preoccupied is amplified here, rife with a depth which far outstrips the casual manner in which the music came together. Afforded the relative luxury of three days of studio time in February 1972, some of that time's most creative individuals on the British scene came together to work both spontaneously and collectively. The results, even while inevitably reflective of that casual approach, demonstrate the primacy of that ...

Elton Dean / Steve Miller Trio / Soft Heap: British genre-benders

by Clifford Allen
August 24, 2008

Though non-idiomatic is a term often thrown around when referring to post-1960s British improvisation, the more apt one might be cross-idiomatic, insofar as significant players have worked across genres with regularity. Take alto saxophonist Elton Dean, for example. He was part of the three-horn front line of pianist Keith Tippett's group, which was co-opted by the Soft Machine (a band for whom even the term “progressive rock" doesn't do justice). Though trumpeter Marc Charig and trombonist Nick Evans eventually left, ...

Elton Dean & The Wrong Object: The Unbelievable Truth

by Nic Jones
October 6, 2007

Poignant doesn't cover it. This was one of Elton Dean's last gigs before his death and all the qualities that made him such a distinctive voice on alto sax and saxello--his wit, his ascetic, unsentimental lyricism and the like--are caught in abundance and in the company of a band who do a whole lot more than simply provide a framework for his invention.

“Millennium Jumble (The Wrong Object)" is a case in point. Dean's saxello work in particular was always ...

Elton Dean �C Hugh Hopper - Hoppy Kamiyama - Yoshida Tatsuya: Soft Mountain

by AAJ Italy Staff
February 27, 2007

Nel 2003 il saxofonista Elton Dean e il bassista Hugh Hopper erano in tour in Giappone, assieme ad Allan Hodsworth e a John Marshall, con il progetto Soft Works e il bassista decise di contattare il noto tastierista giapponese Hoppy Kamiyama per programmare un incontro in studio capace di generare materiale da pubblicare. Il tastierista non si lasci�� scappare l��occasione, propose di imbarcare anche il batterista Yoshida Tatsuya (che Hopper aveva gi�� conosciuto a Londra in occasione di un concerto ...

Elton Dean & Sophia Domancich: Avant

by John Kelman
April 30, 2005

Saxophonist Elton Dean first came to fame in the late '60s as a member of pianist Keith Tippett's sextet, and perhaps more prominently as part of what is now considered to be the classic Soft Machine lineup that recorded Third, Fourth and Fifth. Since that time he's been involved in a variety of projects--both as a group member and leader--that have maintained his ties to the British Canterbury scene, while at the same time continuing to forge his own identity ...

Elton Dean: Sea of Infinity

by John Kelman
November 9, 2004

Artists including John Abercrombie and Bill Evans have said that the best free music still requires a reference point. Whether it is a harmonic centre or rhythmic conceit, it needs something to provide a focus; after that, the players are free to expound as extravagantly and with as much abandon as they can muster. And that's where British saxophonist Elton Dean's latest disk, Sea of Infinity is a mixed success. While these four collective improvisations--two quartet pieces, one duet and ...