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Bob Downes

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4
Album Review

Bob Downes Open Music: Let Your Mind...Space Out

Read "Let Your Mind...Space Out" reviewed by Roger Farbey


Any CD release by Bob Downes is a significant event but the psych-entitled Let Your Mind...Space Out is important because it also celebrates the 80th birthday of this virtuoso jazz multi-instrumentalist. It's hard to credit that Downes, like his contemporaries Mike Westbrook and Mike Gibbs has now achieved octogenarian status, given that his early oeuvre was populated by freewheeling jazz rock albums such as Electric City and Deep Down Heavy, both released in 1970. But Downes also made ...

6
Album Review

Bob Downes Open Music: It's A Mystery

Read "It's A Mystery" reviewed by Roger Farbey


Pursuing his self-styled Open Music route, multi-instrumentalist Bob Downes treads a very thin and courageous line between written jazz and total improvisation. Of his many recordings, some funky jazz rock, others wholly extemporized, there are several which involve organised pieces evolving into often lengthy improvisations. It's A Mystery (not to be confused with the pop song by punk star Toyah Willcox) contains archival previously unreleased recordings spanning the length of his career from the early 1970s onwards. The ...

1
Album Review

Bob Downes Open Music: Blowin' With Bass

Read "Blowin' With Bass" reviewed by Claudio Bonomi


Bob Downes, compositore e polistrumentista britannico, estrae dal proprio magic box un'altra chicca che farà fellce gli appassionati di jazz, o meglio, di British Jazz. Il movimento che, a partire della fine degli anni Sessanta, produsse un pimpante manipolo di musicisti-pionieri che ancora oggi calcano le scene internazionali come Evan Parker, John Surman, Keith Tippett, John Marshall, Ray Russell e altri. Tra i protagonisti di quella scena, che aveva il suo epicentro a Londra, c'era anche un ...

2
Album Review

Bob Downes: Bob Downes and The Alphorn Brothers

Read "Bob Downes and The Alphorn Brothers" reviewed by Roger Farbey


This surely must be one of the strangest team-ups in jazz? A trio of German alpine horn players and British expatriate and jazz phenomenon Bob Downes. It may be an unconventional alliance, but somehow this album works at a very convincing level. Recorded in 2004 in his adopted home country of Germany, Downes wrote and arranged all the music and lyrics presented here. The almost surreal photomontage cover enhances the attractiveness of the CD but gives no adequate clue as ...

2
Album Review

Bob Downes: Deep Down Heavy

Read "Deep Down Heavy" reviewed by Vic Albani


Quando AAJ mi ha spedito questo CD, non volevo credere che sarebbe stato possibile arrivare alla ristampa di uno dei CD più particolari, curiosi e per certi versi assurdi pubblicati nell'ormai lontano 1970. Fu un anno davvero particolare per la musica europea che, sin dai primi mesi, dimostrò di credere seriamente a una sorta di “cambio del decennio." I Beatles stavano per annunciare ufficialmente alla stampa il loro scioglimento. I Nucleus di Ian Carr chiesero alla particolarmente creativa Vertigo (label ...

156
Album Review

Bob Downes Open Music: New York Suite

Read "New York Suite" reviewed by Roger Farbey


British flautist/saxophonist Bob Downes recorded some compelling albums in the early '70s and then, coinciding with his permanent relocation to Germany at the end of the decade, disappeared from the UK jazz scene. The music didn't stop with his migration though, as he subsequently produced several solo flute albums for his own label, Openian. In this archival recording from 1979 recorded in London, Downes augments his usual trio into a quintet with the addition of the late trombonist ...

367
Album Review

Bob Downes: Open Music

Read "Open Music" reviewed by Roger Farbey


Open Music was Bob Downes' debut album, recorded for the Philips label in 1969 and his impact on the UK scene was such that he was voted top place in the flute category of the Melody Maker jazz poll's British musician section for three consecutive years from 1972. It has until now never been reissued on CD and rare vinyl copies have attracted high sums in second-hand markets. Although Downes is best known for his flute playing, he is a ...

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