1. Yellow Hill
2. Discovering Metal
3. Last Word
4. Shelley
5. Godbucket
6. Like Life
7. Village
Eddie Parker - Flutes
Dai Pritchard - Clarinets
Steve Buckley, Iain Ballamy, Mark Lockheart, Julian Nicholas, Ken Stubbs - Saxes
Lance Kelly, Chris Batchelor, Ted Emmett, Paul Edmonds, Noel Langley - Trumpets
John Harborne, Steve Day, Paul Taylor, Richard Pywell. Ashley Slater - Trombones
Dave Powell - Tuba
Django Bates - Keyboards
John Parricelli - Guitar
Steve Watts - Bass
Martin France - Drums
Thebi Lipere - Percussion
It is a tragedy that no albums by one of Britain's best big bands have been available for many years. I am referring to Loose Tubes, which released three albums during its existence from 1983 to 1990, all of which rapidly went out of print. Thankfully, one of the band's last gigs - at Ronnie Scott's London club in 1990 - was recorded, and here makes its first appearance on disc.
Loose Tubes was formed when Graham Collier got Arts Council funding to set up a rehearsal band, for those young musicians who didn't want to play in the conventional sort of big bands exemplified by the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Loose Tubes became a democratically-run organisation to which musicians could contribute their own arrangements and ideas. The result was a ground-breaking ensemble which mixed jazz with influences from many other strands of music.
As heard on this CD, the results could sometimes appear to be a free-for-all. Certainly the listener may feel as if the musicians are playing with their tongues in their cheeks (John Fordham calls it "creative disrespect"), and they always sounded as though they were having a very good time. Yet the apparent anarchy is firmly based on self-discipline which ensures that the complex arrangements are played with the sort of precision that Frank Zappa often achieved with his equally joyous groups.
The personnel suggests how valuable Loose Tubes was as a hotbed for young jazzmen wanting to extend and explore the music they loved. The band included a large number of people who have gone on to play a significant role in British (and world) jazz, with names like John Parricelli, Iain Ballamy, Martin France and Django Bates. In fact Bates wrote five of the seven pieces on this album and his eclectic vision was typical of the band's approach.
Django's Yellow Hill is a very catchy tune, even though it seems to hop around between various keys and moods. Iain Ballamy shines in his solo on soprano sax ,and John Parricelli inserts some twisting phrases. The evident discipline in the ensemble passages is balanced by the sound of a wayward seagull floating above.
Discovering Metal starts off like the Anvil Chorus but Eddie Parker's high-flying flute offsets the lunacy which breaks out more fiercely with shrieking brass and African chants. Last Word has a see-sawing ska beat and good solos from trombone and soprano sax (Paul Tay;lor and Iain Ballamy).
Last Word segues directly into the slower Shelley, which might be called the only ballad on the album but which proves that Loose Tubes could be restrained when it suited the music. Parricelli is again prominent here. Madness returns with Godbucket, which sounds rather like a dislocated version of Stan Kenton's Peanut Vendor: brass shouts over busy Latin percussion.
Like Life is a comparatively placid waltz, with what sounds like alluring flugelhorn from Paul Edmonds before a strange tempo shift leading into wailing soprano from Steve Buckley. The album ends with Village, which has echoes of a New Orleans street band, although some members of the band become somewhat unruly. The tempo quickens into a jigging rhythm which suggests an African township instead of a New Orleans funeral. It's disconcerting but it's fun.
Listening to this album, one realises how over-conventional many big bands are. Loose Tubes was a group which mixed the exuberance and free spirit of jazz with the collective discipline required for a large ensemble. In this respect, the Tubes taught a salutary lesson to those bands which are all discipline and no fun.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Lost Marble LM 005
