CD Title     COXHILL ‘85
Catalogue  No    SLAMCD 2114
Lol Coxhill Solo Soprano and sopranino saxophones

TRACKS
1 DIALOGUE 1  01:51 COXHILL
2 UNCONFIRMED  12:09 COXHILL
3 I THOUGHT ABOUT YOU 08:03 MERCER
4 DIALOGUE 2  04:20 COXHILL
5 MY OLD SOPRANINO  11:16 COXHILL
6 DIALOGUE 3  03:04 COXHILL
7 STILL FOR BUNK  05:39 COXHILL
8 NIT PICKING  07:35 COXHILL
9 BEYOND THE RAINBOW 10:34 COXHILL
10 DIALOGUE 4  12:28 COXHILL
11 NO STRANGER  05:27 COXHILL
12 JUAN FOR THE ROAD 07:13 COXHILL

Recorded   Gibbs Club, Cardiff 29 June 1985.
Recorded by Nick Lea, mastered by Tim Turan, Turan Audio.

Lol Coxhill was noted as an immensely versatile player and a decidedly talented improvisor with a sense of humour.  Both of these characteristics are immediately obvious from the opening echoes of this album from 1985, recorded live at Gibb’s Club, Cardiff.  The positive ambience of the club and its audience is heard here and revealed again in the musician’s responses to the environment.
One factor of Coxhill’s music is that it seldom recognises any particular genre; he seems to draw from an eclectic range of music, of many different kinds.  It may seem odd, then, that he was also widely described as a free improvising saxophonist, but I think this may be, in part, due to his so often playing solo: busking.  Also, he played with such as Mose Allison, Kevin Ayers (Whole World), Derek Bailey, Django Bates, Brotherhood of Breath, the Damned, Champion Jack Dupree, Morgan Fisher (Mott the Hoople, Queen), Joe Harriott, Tubby Hayes, Steve Miller (Delivery, Carol Grimes), Howard Riley and Otis Spann.  Fair to say that he knew no musical barriers and understood, clearly, the sheer wit of punk.
Coxhill ’85 exhibits one of his commonplace techniques, the use of vibrato, possibly achieved in different ways in woodwind (though the rule book says ‘never on the clarinet – except in jazz’!).  Here his playing comes in waves; at times, it’s like the sudden arrival of a quarrel of sparrows, upside your head – then, no, it’s a mutation of song thrushes.  That’s different.
Many musicians and audience members would be seriously distracted by the buzz of some of the listeners in the club, just audible in the background.  Not Coxhill.  He continues blithely, ensuring that he is heard clearly, helped by the timbre of his instruments.  He picks up some lengthy, sequential lines, uncoils them and takes them for a walk.  His music, his playing is a breath of fresh air and it is so good to have another opportunity to hear this recovered from the past.  It’s excellent.   Ken Cheetham  https://www.jazzviews.net/lol-coxhill---coxhill-lsquo85.html

LOL COXHILL - Coxhill ’85 (Slam 2114; UK) Featuring Lol Coxhill on soprano & sopranino saxes and recorded at Gibbs Club in Cardiff, UK in June of 1985. I have been a big fan of British saxist, Lol Coxhill, ever since buying his first record, ‘Ear of the Beholder’, a 2 LP set for just $1.00 at a Sam Goody’s budget outlet in midtown NYC in the early seventies. Mr. Coxhill played exclusively soprano sax (like Steve Lacy) and was a member of Kevin Ayers’ band, the Whole World, endearing himself to Canterbury fans worldwide. He also worked with Robert Wyatt, members of Henry Cow and an odd combination of musicians from varied genres. I was fortunate to have heard Lol Coxhill perform in a duo with guitarist Gerry Fitzgerald at the 100 Club in London in December of 1975, after which we hung out and became friends. We got together later that week so I could loan Mr. Coxhill a cassette of the gig that I taped, drinking several large pints of tasty beer and getting somewhat sh*tfaced. Sometime in the early nineties, after losing touch for many years, Mr. Coxhill called me (out of the blue) at the first location of our store and said he had won a trip to New York and asked if I could get him some gigs. I was honored to do that so I got him a gig opening for Carbon at the Old Knit and a set at the store, a duo with saxist Ivo Perelman. I did catch Mr. Coxhill in a trio called the Recedents at the Victo fest way back when and invited to play at The Stone when I curated there for a month in December of 2006. Mr. Coxhill couldn’t make it then due to health issues but we remained friends anywhere. Sadly, Lol Coxhill passed in July of 2012 and I have continued to collect his often rare albums ever since. Considering that Mr. Coxhill played mainly soprano sax only for his entire music career, he did have his own distinctive sound. Lol also had an odd yet distinctive sense of humor and would break into a song, singing the words, telling a joke, just being himself, all within a set. There have been very few posthumous releases featuring Mr. Coxhill, mostly a quartet date on Otoroku (with Joe McPhee & Evan Parker) and a few guesting with the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. Which brings us to this CD…
   This is a previously unreleased live set recorded at a small club in Cardiff in England in June of 1985. Mr. Coxhill starts things off with a short spoken word introduction which is rather funny and somewhat revealing his charming self-effacing sense of humor. When he does start playing, we hear his unique style: playing those curlicue notes in a most enchanting way. Unlike many free improvisers who like to push the limits on their respective instruments, Mr. Coxhill sounds like he comes from a more festive, almost vaudeville-like tradition at times. His playing is often melodic with unexpected twists and turns going on. The one cover that Coxhill does is called, "I Thought About You". This is a delight, sad yet so lovely. Although it is quite rare, Mr. Coxhill switches to a sopranino sax for one long piece here, his playing stretching out into the higher range and going further out. At times, I hear Mr. Coxhill playing a fragment of a recognizable song and then scooting off elsewhere. Coxhill does four monologues here which are charming in their own way bridging the gap, feeling-wise between the extended improvisations. There is some audience talking in the background here at times, yet Lol Coxhill remains focused at creating his own world, which seems to bridge the gap between ancient and more modern times. Mr. Coxhill covers "A Night in Tunisia" and does a splendid version of it. This is some 70 minutes long, containing two complete sets and does a fine job of showing Lol Coxhill as his best. This will be one of the last discs that the Slam label will be releasing so it is a fitting tribute to a fine label that has documented quite a bit of the British Creative Music Scene. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG Newsletter for April 23rd, 2021