Quote The music is rather like tightly structured avant-garde embroidery, requiring concentration to fully appreciate the skeins of ideas.

Jazz in Britain JIB-68-S-CD & JIB-68-S-DL

Tony Coe (Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Soprano and Tenor Saxophone); Gordon Beck (Piano); Chris Laurence (Bass); Phil Lee (Guitar); Bryan Spring (Drums)
Recorded at Camden Festival March 1977

Cela / Love Song (from the Zeitgeist Suite) / Your Dancing Toes / What Say We Play Today?

One album cannot fully capture the magnificence of Tony Coe. He was unique. He moved between bands and genres with fluidity and ease: Humphrey Lyttelton, Clarke -Boland, Dankworth, Mike Gibbs. His range of associates was wide: Henry Mancini, Derek Bailey, Peter Brotzman, Lol Coxhill. His clarinet playing was recognized by the instrument’s greatest exponents, while his tenor playing—with its serpentine lines and grey, foggy sound—spoke deeply of loneliness and vulnerability.

On this album, Coe’s playing rests on an unusually integrated conception of composition and improvisation. He creates a reed sound-world that runs from lyricism to abstraction without ever losing a sense of line. His writing and playing on saxophones and clarinet continually blend jazz language into European chamber and orchestral idioms, giving his work a distinct structural and timbral sophistication.

In the first two compositions, Coe’s writing shows an instinct for placing improvisers inside carefully voiced textures rather than simply playing on top of chord changes. While most listeners were enthused by his tenor playing, it was the clarinet that absorbed him, and in the band Axel, the clarinet often dominates. In these first two Coe-penned pieces, the writing and playing are dense; it is rather like tightly structured avant-garde embroidery, requiring concentration to fully appreciate the skeins of ideas.

Pieces like “Cela” and “Love Song” place Coe’s playing and writing outside of standard American influences, sitting closer to Messiaen, Berg, or Webern than to orthodox small-group jazz. Here, free improvisation unfolds over sensitive percussive textures while still retaining a sense of line and narrative. He writes for the ensemble with an ear for register and blend that mirrors his own multi-reed sensibility: inner voices are active, bass lines are melodic, and accompanying figures often carry as much expressive weight as the theme.

Chris Laurence’s bass playing possesses a depth, fluidity, and melodic lyricism that is entirely at one and serves the most melodic pieces on the album. Phil Lee’s playing is a highlight, and the daring quality of his improvisation adds to the impact. It is extraordinary that Lee was not given sufficient recognition during his career; throughout the album, his power, lyricism, and ability to blend with Laurence and Beck give him an authoritative voice.

Bryan Spring has percussive energy when it is needed and delicacy when it is appropriate.

Gordon Beck contributed the title track, “What Say We Play Today?” It is the longest track, opening with an almost Gil Evans-style ruminative intro that lasts for minutes before the piece coalesces and moves into Coe’s bass clarinet solo. Beck’s playing is characterized by his creativity and startling changes of mood; his invention is evident throughout, and his soloing seethes before emerging into clarity.

It is a sad commentary on British jazz in the late seventies that Axel was not invited to record commercially at the time. It has taken Jazz in Britain to finally bring Axel to the fore in 2025.

The excellent sleeve notes are provided by Dave Gelly and Chris Searle, alongside substantial extracts from John Wickes’ book “Innovations in British Jazz: Volume One 1960–1980”. John Thurlow of Jazz in Britain explains how the tapes were sourced from the archive of pianist Bob Cornford, who played with Axel after Gordon Beck left. The quality of the remastering is excellent, and the single CD comes in a four-panel Digi sleeve with a twenty-page booklet.

I would urge the people at JIB to scour the archives for more Tony Coe. His genius needs more recognition.