RIP Lol Coxhill

[Fer Urbina]

Jazzwise obituary.

F

[romualdo]

OMG!

he will be missed

Was listening to him long before I got into jazz - Kevin Ayers etc

Will spin one of his Caroline/Virgin discs ".....Oh Really" (looks so young on the cover, but it was the mid 70's - Didn't realise he was 79)

[king ubu]

Shit, never managed to catch him in person. r.i.p.

[sidewinder]

Very sad news - saw him just the once (at that 'Jazz Brittania' show in the Barbican) but he was memorable. RIP.

"possibly the only saxophonist who could claim to have played with Anthony Braxton, Tommy Cooper and punk rockers The Damned". Absolutely one of a kind.

Edited July 10, 2012 by sidewinder

[medjuck]

Shit, never managed to catch him in person. r.i.p.

I heard him busking in the streets of London sometime in the late '60s. Thought he was awfully good to be doing that, then read about him.

[Head Man]

I'd heard that he was ill but this is very sad news. I used to often see him playing on the bridge outside the Royal Festival Hall back in the day.

I believe he was the musician referred to by Joni Mitchell in her song "For Free" on "Ladies of the Canyon".

[mjazzg]

Lol Coxhill had been in hospital since before Christmas. Even just prior to his hospitalisation he was playing wonderfully (if seated and a little frail) with at a John Russell evening at the Vortex

It's a great shame when a true original leaves us

[clifford_thornton]

A player I've only recently begun to really appreciate. He will be missed.

RIP.

[JohnS]

Sad news. Years ago he was regularly busking outside the Festival Hall in London on jazz nights. You could find him in the old Ray's fairly often too. And then there were the lunatic introductions at the Bracknell Jazz Festival. A remarkable character.

[Hardbopjazz]

Wow. RIP LOl.

[A Lark Ascending]

Very, very sad. Lol came out of the same mould as Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, a quite unique way of approaching music. Still recall seeing him in a university cafeteria with just candles round the tables and an audience of just a few (think it might have been during the 1974 power cuts).

As well as being an intriguing free improvisor he could play marvellous bebop - still cherish a memory of him doing 'Embraceable You' with a band in the late 80s/early 90s in Nottingham.

And how many other jazz musicians would choose to live in Welwyn Garden City?

[Captain Hate]

Very sad news; I need to listen to his stuff some more.

[sidewinder]

Wish I'd got to see his UK Tour from a few years ago performed 'in a skip'. Great originals/eccentrics like Lol Coxhill are sadly a rapidly disappearing breed over here these days. Will give that 'Old Grey Whistle Test' DVD performance recorded with Kevin Ayers a spin later on.

Edited July 10, 2012 by sidewinder

[7/4]

David Toop's obit on his blog.

[rostasi]

Can't stomach Toop, but I got thru the bit where he speaks about Lol's tune "Murder in the Air."

I'd recommend a wonderful, silly version of him singing this tune on the album below.

It's a 12 minute medley of "We Did It Again" & "Murder in the Air" which is a beautiful chaos

with Lol happily telling us after his speech-song that he composed that tune followed by talking

about "5-bob flights" and people looking like dots on the ground, and other silliness while the band

is smashing around on their instruments in the background.

Quite fun (as is the rest of the double-disc set if you're an Ayers fan).

[RogerF]

I was fortunate enough to see Lol playing with Kevin Ayers and the Whole World, seeing him compere at Bracknell (priceless, bone dry humour) and even playing with the Brotherhood of Breath at the 100 Club and playing solo too. He was a true legend of British music (not just jazz). Anyone who hasn't heard it should immediately listen to his eccentric but irresistible double album Ear of Beholder which was reissued a relatively short while ago on Esoteric. RIP Lol.

[rostasi]

Yes, that and Welfare State got many plays at home back in the early '70s.

Here he is (48 minutes!) with Alan Niblock and Steve Noble at The City of Derry Jazz & Big Band Festival.

[Jazzjet]

And how many other jazz musicians would choose to live in Welwyn Garden City?

Shocking! I'll have you know that Chris Barber was born in Welwyn Garden City.

[A Lark Ascending]

And how many other jazz musicians would choose to live in Welwyn Garden City?

Shocking! I'll have you know that Chris Barber was born in Welwyn Garden City.

Has Welwyn Garden City been there long enough for anyone to have been born there? You'll be telling me next that Jamie Cullum was born in Milton Keynes.

**************

Another vote for 'Ear of the Beholder'. Could anyone get away with a record like that today? Too off-the-wall for the record company execs, too daft and self-deprecating for the serious avant world.

Must look out for that Welfare State record - I semi-remember it from the time. What with Welfare State and National Health, twas a different time. Someone missed the chance to form a band called The Bog Standard Comprehensive.

Edited July 11, 2012 by A Lark Ascending

[clifford_thornton]

Wasn't Ear put out in the US by Ampex?

[A Lark Ascending]

This one is highly recommended:

2 CDs drawing from well beyond the original LP.

Steve Miller (no, not that one) was a lesser known Canterbury keyboard player - think he was in Delivery, Caravan for one album.

I love this one:

Again 2CDs - draws off a long swathe of his career and encompasses the full range of his styles and interests.

And for the more 'mainstream' Lol:

[clifford_thornton]

The Coxhill/Miller stuff is great. I also really like the discs w/ G.F. Fitz-Gerald.

[A Lark Ascending]

Just started on:

My favourite Coxhill title.

[clifford_thornton]

Don't have that one...

[mjazzg]

there will only ever be one Lol Coxhill