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Bob Downes
Bob Downes Open Music: Let Your Mind...Space Out
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 ...
read moreBob Downes Open Music: It's A Mystery
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 ...
read moreBob Downes Open Music: Blowin' With Bass
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 ...
read moreBob Downes: Bob Downes and The Alphorn Brothers
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 ...
read moreBob Downes: Deep Down Heavy
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 ...
read moreBob Downes Open Music: New York Suite
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 ...
read moreBob Downes: Open Music
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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