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Tony Oxley: Unreleased 1974 - 2016

By Chris May
September 12, 2024
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The British drummer and bandleader Tony Oxley passed in 2023, aged 85, after a career which began in the mid 1960s as the drummer in the house band at

Ronnie Scott

saxophone, tenor
1927 - 1996

" data-original-title="" title="">Ronnie Scott's club. From this prestigious but relatively codified platform, Oxley soon steered into less travelled waters. In 1969 he was in the quartet which recorded

John McLaughlin

guitar
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">John McLaughlin's debut album, Extrapolation (Polydor). In the early 1970s, he began adding ring modulators, tone generators and other fx tools to his assemblage of drums and metal percussion, and electronics remained a fundamental part of his thing. Alongside career-long iterations of his own band, Oxley recorded with many fellow explorers from both sides of the Atlantic including

Derek Bailey

guitar
1932 - 2005

" data-original-title="" title="">Derek Bailey,

Paul Bley

piano
1932 - 2016

" data-original-title="" title="">Paul Bley,

Anthony Braxton

woodwinds
b.1945

" data-original-title="" title="">Anthony Braxton,

Peter Brötzmann

woodwinds
1941 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Peter Br?tzmann,

Gavin Bryars

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Gavin Bryars,

Bill Dixon

trumpet
1925 - 2010

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Dixon (five albums during the 1990s),

Bill Evans

piano
1929 - 1980

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Evans,

Tomasz Sta��ko

trumpet
1942 - 2018

" data-original-title="" title="">Tomasz Sta��ko,

Cecil Taylor

piano
1929 - 2018

" data-original-title="" title="">Cecil Taylor (a dozen albums from 1989 onwards)... and

Vangelis

" data-original-title="" title="">Vangelis. The list goes on.

And so does the beat. Unreleased 1974—2016 begins with three tracks recorded with bassist

Barry Guy

bass, acoustic
b.1947

" data-original-title="" title="">Barry Guy, trumpeter

Dave Holdsworth

flugelhorn

" data-original-title="" title="">Dave Holdsworth, pianist

Howard Riley

piano
b.1943

" data-original-title="" title="">Howard Riley and trombonist

Paul Rutherford

trombone
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">Paul Rutherford, recorded in 1974 but not edited into their final composed forms until decades later. The album ends with a duo track recorded in 2016 with acoustic percussionist

Stefan Hoelker

percussion

" data-original-title="" title="">Stefan Hoelker.

These are all daring and more or less sui generis pieces of music, full of delightful sonic surprises—but they bookend what is perhaps the highlight of the album, "Frame." This extended (14:53) track was recorded in 1981 with Howard Riley, saxophonist

Larry Stabbins

saxophone
b.1949

" data-original-title="" title="">Larry Stabbins, guitarist

Hugh Metcalfe

guitar, electric

" data-original-title="" title="">Hugh Metcalfe, and violinist/electronicist

Phil Wachsmann

violin
b.1944

" data-original-title="" title="">Phil Wachsmann. An influential figure across several strands of British jazz, whose importance to the music is only now beginning to receive its proper due, Stabbins in 2024 returned from a self-imposed exile which had begun in 2013—a principled departure which is discussed in a review of his comeback album Strangeness Oscillation (Noetic, 2024) here and a review of the Tony Oxley Quintet's Angular Apron (Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2024) here.

On "Frame," Stabbins plays what he describes as "some of the best and most extreme saxophone I ever recorded"—actually some of the best and most extreme saxophone anyone ever recorded. Wholly idiosyncratic, independent of headline extreme-saxophonists from

Albert Ayler

saxophone, tenor
1936 - 1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Albert Ayler and

David S. Ware

saxophone, tenor
1949 - 2012

" data-original-title="" title="">David S. Ware to Peter Br?tzmann, it is exciting listening.

P.S. For more about why Stabbins went to sea in 2013, read the feature-length article We Out Here: The Fast-Forward Evolution Of British Jazz here, written in 2019, before Stabbins decided to come ashore again.

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Track Listing

The Embrace; Ensemble 1; Ensemble 2; Frame; Combination.

Personnel

Tony Oxley

drums

Larry Stabbins

saxophone

Dave Holdsworth

flugelhorn

Paul Rutherford

trombone

Hugh Metcalfe

guitar, electric

Barry Guy

bass, acoustic

Howard Riley

piano

Phil Wachsmann

violin

Stefan Hoelker

percussion

Album information

Title: Unreleased 1974 - 2016 | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Discus Music

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