Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A jazz baritone saxophonist, composer and leader of various jazz groups.
On the island
Eight records
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra featuring Harry Carney
The first record is a record that features the late baritone player Harry Carney, who I suppose was at the beginning of my interest in the baritone saxophone, my greatest influence.
St. Matthew PassionFavourite
Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus (conducted by Otto Klemperer)
from the moment that I heard the throbbing E I I was just captivated, and it's stayed with me ever since. I've never failed to be moved by the beginning of this piece, or indeed as I've got to know it more and more by its entirety
for me will encompass all the things about the blues that I've enjoyed as well, because that's the basic folk form of jazz and that's very important to me too.
for me his sound and the way that he plays is a particular fondness to me because that's an era when I met him and he was such a marvelous person and it gave me tremendous encouragement.
I think the voice is the most flexible and most beautiful of instruments. Perhaps. The most difficult of all, and I've chosen Kathleen Ferrier singing uh a folk song.
I feel for me here we have this broadening of the jazz canvas away from the simple basic ideas of the blues... into something where the magic and the then the different sort of atmospheres which has attracted me very much.
Mother Has Decided to Marry Me Off
The Ensemble of the Bulgarian Republic
this record will cover for me an enormous area of all the folk music in the world that I like.
The last record is something which I would really need to keep my spirits up, I think. It's the intense driving rhythms of Elvin Jones and the equally intense and creative saxophone of John Coltrane...
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:40With what degree of dread would you face a desert island existence for a while?
Well, I think I might enjoy it for a while. I there could be something in the peace and quiet that would be a pleasure. But I don't think I would take too fondly to being away from society too much for too long, anyway. And one thing I can be sure of is that I should make definite attempts to escape.
Presenter asks
6:35When did you start to get interested in wind instruments?
Well, I think basically it was when my voice broke and there seemed to be a sort of a vacuum, I suppose, looking back on it, and I'd heard some Dixieland jazz. It was the time of a Dixieland revival. So I bought myself a second hand clarinet very cheaply and started on that.
Presenter asks
7:00How did you bump into [the baritone saxophone]?
Well, there were two in the shop window. There was a small alto saxophone, and there was a large baritone saxophone, at the same price. ... So I chose the better deal, and little did I know that that was a significant choice that I made there, one way or the other. And from that point on, the die was cast for me, I think.
The keepsakes
The book
John Wisden
I'm very keen on cricket I've decided that I'll take a set of wisdom with me and uh in the meantime I'll set Shakespeare and the Bible to music.
Presenter asks
13:42Why did you go off so far afield as the Belgian farmhouse [to form a trio]?
Yes, it was. It was very difficult for them to live and work in England, so that was the nearest focal point to go and to and to work. And uh it worked out very successfully, in fact, and we had several years of very productive music making.
Presenter asks
30:32Could you manage on this desert island?
I think so, yes. It would be most important for me to keep pretty busy, especially in the early stages. ... I can cook a little bit. ... fishing I could ma it's been a few years since I've fished, but uh I can swim okay and I can sail a boat, so I think I should definitely set about the raft building.
“For me, Bach is a musician, absolutely supreme, apart from his fantastic technical achievements, emotionally it's tremendous.”
“The important thing I think for me about jazz is the improvising aspect of it. And I think in the same way that it is easier to have a conversation with two or three people, it's the same thing in music. You can't concentrate on five or six in the same way that you can have a real dialogue with two people.”
“I think jazz is rather a hobby music in this country, and that doesn't serve too well for those of us who really are devoted to it and really see our way as being jazz musicians.”