The Squid's Ear Magazine


Marsh, Tony / Paul Dunmall / Phill Gibbs: For The Last Time (FMR)

The last recording of the trio of saxophonist and flutist Paul Dunmall, guitarist Phill Gibbs, and the late drummer Tony Marsh, a fitting tribute to the great drummer's long association with Dunmall and Gibbs.
 

Price: $14.95


Quantity:

Out of Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 3.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Tony Marsh-drums

Paul Dunmall-tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute

Phill Gibbs-guitar


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 649849982728

Label: FMR
Catalog ID: FMR 342-0812
Squidco Product Code: 17373

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2012
Country: Great Britain
Packaging: Digipack, not sealed
Recorded on August 1st, 2012 at Victoria rooms, Bristol.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Tony Marsh

One of the most musical drummers that ever was. His use of space brilliant touch dynamics and most of all his total concentration.

"He always seemed in control and somehow made it look effortless but I know he was really working hard to make the music special.

His life was music until the very end.

Everybody loved playing with him, he always gave everything and expected the same from whoever he played with.

The night before this recording we played a duet gig in Oxford. He had this new rack of small cymbals that he was very enthusiastic about and was saying this was to become a permanent feature of his kit.

He was always looking for new discoveries. It was Phil's idea 6 months before to record the trio again, we hadn't recorded for 10 years and I'm so glad he suggested it because this was the last time I played with Tony. We had played toegher for over 30 years, just like my other dear friend and master drummer Tony Levin. Now that both of them have passed away it has left a big hole in my musical life that can neve be filled.

Of course we move on but friends made over a lifetime are irreplaceable. Something precious that is lost but we can stil hear them at their best playing the drums. Listen to the great Tony Marsh here, he passed away just a couple of months after this recording.

Peace and Joy... "-Paul Dunmall



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

Tony Marsh, real name Anthony Vincent Stewart Marsh, was a British free jazz/improv drummer and percussionist (born 19 August 1939, Lancaster, died of cancer aged 72, 9 April 2012 in London, England).



"The percussionist Tony Marsh, who has died of cancer aged 72, was an inspired collaborator, combining intensity with restraint and stroking the drums more than he struck them. He worked with some of the most creative artists in European jazz of the past four decades, from the composer Mike Westbrook to the saxophonists John Tchicai and Evan Parker.

Marsh devoted his life to an art form short on cash and kudos, but long on creative satisfaction. In his last months he sought inspiration in the complex scores of the composer Iannis Xenakis; formed a new trio with two of London's most creative jazz 20-somethings; and, in March, played an impromptu London performance with the Chicago saxophone master Roscoe Mitchell that astonished those who witnessed it.

Marsh was born in Lancaster, the eldest of three brothers. The family moved to London after the second world war in search of better medical care for his tuberculosis, and he spent a long period of recuperation in St Thomas' hospital. That period of illness seriously hampered his formal education, but he became a good enough teenage footballer to enter trials for professional clubs.

He took up the drums as a military bandsman during national service in the 50s and would play them at Butlins' holiday camps and on cruise ships. In the 60s, he made a living in the West End of London as a jobbing drummer - also learning from records by the great American jazz bands of Clifford Brown (with the bebop drums pioneer Max Roach), Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

In the early 70s, Marsh joined the saxophonist Don Weller, the bass guitarist Bruce Colcutt and the guitarist Jimmy Roche in Major Surgery. The band only released one album, First Cut (1977), but it acquired lasting cult status. He also began productive relationships with the saxophonist Chris Biscoe, the Barbadian trumpeter Harry Beckett and the saxophonist Mike Osborne (in the last period of that cutting-edge artist's playing life, before mental illness incapacitated him in 1982).

Marsh then discovered Westbrook's brass band and big-band music, improv, cabaret and more. Marsh's relaxed dynamism powered an unusual Westbrook big band on an Ellington tribute at Amiens, France, in 1984. It became the landmark album On Duke's Birthday. Four years later, Marsh joined Biscoe's quartet, Full Monte.

Through his European tours with Westbrook, Marsh forged a link with the French jazz scene, regularly commuting between Paris and London until the early 2000s. In 1985, he joined Biscoe and a French brass section to record the bassist Didier Levallet's album Quiet Days, followed by a series of sessions led by Beckett - including one that Levallet considered among his best recordings, Images of Clarity (1992). He also played with the adventurous UK pianist Howard Riley, reeds player Paul Dunmall, and with the saxophonist Simon Picard and the bass virtuoso Paul Rogers on their recording News from the North (1991) for the Swiss experimental label Intakt.

Marsh then committed himself increasingly to life in London. He hugely enjoyed his monthly involvement in the experimental London Improvisers Orchestra (involving the composer/pianist Steve Beresford, Parker and a loose repertory company of others). He was also a permanent member of one of the most thrilling European free-improv trios of recent times, with Parker and the double bassist John Edwards. Marsh was also the driving force behind a genre-crossing quartet with the flautist Neil Metcalfe, the violinist Alison Blunt and the cellist Hannah Marshall.

Since 2011, he had begun a productive relationship with two hotly tipped newcomers, the reeds player Shabaka Hutchings and the bassist Guillaume Viltard. They played freely without prolixity, combined fine detail with spontaneity, and eschewed amplification.

"Listen closely, take a chance, keep going even if money's tight, and you'll find the real reward - that's why Tony was hip in the most meaningful sense," Parker says. "And he didn't need to play loud, or be loud, to get that intensity. It's like splitting diamonds or something. If you know exactly the right place to make the impact, you don't need to hit anything hard." [...]"-John Fordham, The Guardian

-Discogs, The Guardian UK (https://www.discogs.com/artist/321589-Tony-Marsh)
12/11/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Paul Dunmall was born 1953, Welling, Kent; saxophones, clarinets, bagpipes, miscellaneous wind instruments.

As told to Watson (1989), Paul Dunmall was a working class lad from Welling who left school at 15 and spent two years repairing instruments at Bill Lewington's shop in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. He turned professional at 17 and, following two years touring Europe with a progressive rock band (Marsupilami), joined the Divine Light Mission, a spiritual movement led by Guru Maharaj Ji and moved from London to an ashram in America. He told Isham (1997), 'I moved to an ashram full of musicians - a music ashram - but it was still spiritual practice. That gave me a spiritual understanding through meditation, Coltrane's music, and all the rest of it, led me to that, and that's been a fundament in my life ever since - that I can actually sit down and meditate and forget my body. I realise how important meditation is in my life... but I don't do it so much these days.' During the three years he lived in America, Dunmall played with Alice Coltrane (in a big band with the Divine Light Mission) and toured for twelve months with Johnny 'Guitar' Watson.

Back in England, he played with Danny Thompson and John Stevens as well as folk musicians Kevin Dempsey, Martin Jenkins and Polly Bolton and then, in 1979 he became a founder member of Spirit Level (Tim Richards, piano; Paul Anstey, bass; Tony Orrell, drums), staying with the group until 1989. During his time with Spirit Level, Dunmall joined the two-tenor front line group Tenor Tonic with Alan Skidmore (1985), played and broadcast with Dave Alexander and Tony Moore in the DAM trio (1986) and formed the Paul Dunmall Quartet with Alex Maguire, Tony Moore and Steve Noble (1986).

In 1987 Paul Dunmall joined the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, being a constant member and appearing on all their recorded output from that date onward. The following year the improvising collective quartet Mujician was formed by Keith Tippett, Dunmall, Paul Rogers and Tony Levin and has continued to be a regular performing, touring and recording group, sometimes augmented by other musicians. Dunmall has also played in a trio with Keith and Julie Tippetts and in Keith Tippett's big band Tapestry. Two other duos have also sprung out of Mujician: Dunmall with Tony Levin (two CD releases) and Dunmall in folk-influenced outings with Paul Rogers. Another regular playing partner throughout this period and up until the present includes Elton Dean.

In 1995, two trios were formed, the first with Oren Marshall, tuba and Steve Noble, percussion, the second with John Adams, guitar and Mark Sanders, percussion, these sometimes coming together as a quintet. More recently, Dunmall has played in another reeds/guitar/drums trio with Philip Gibbs and Tony Marsh and there appears to be regular crossover between all these players. The Paul Dunmall Octet was founded in 1997."

Dunmall also has released a large number of albums and a box set on the UK FMR label, in various configurations and instrumentation.

-EFI (http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/musician/mdunmall.html)
12/11/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Don't take the easy road 20:46

2. Lizzie 7:57

3. Song of time 7:19

4. Song of light 10:51

5. See you again on the cosmic blue cloud 6:02

6. For the last time 10:08

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
FMR Records
Trio Recordings
Instant Rewards

Search for other titles on the label:
FMR.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Other Recommended Releases:
Dunmall, Paul / Phillip Gibbs
Electrosonics
(FMR)
An album of improvised electronics from frequent collaborators Paul Dunmall on a Yamaha WX11 electronic wind instrument, and Philip Gibbs performing on electric guitar, in 9-parts exploring the unusual tonalities in both expansive and highly technical approaches.
Dunmall, Paul / John Edwards / Tony Marsh
To Be Real
(FMR)
Hard working free improv session from the UK trio of Paul Dunmall on tenor sax, John Edwards on double bass and the late Tony Marsh on drums, performing live at the Vortex in 2010, and at UWE in Bristol, 2007, never released material reminding of Marsh's stature and skill.
Dunmall, Paul / Philip Gibbs
Dreamworld
(FMR)
Paul Dunmall concentrates on wind instruments - flute, clarinet & bassoon - in these dreamlike duos with guitarist Philip Gibbs, beautiful and passionate music from the heart.
Dunmall / Wooster / Sanders / Mapp
The Iceberg Quartet
(FMR)
A new quartet recording at The Lamp Tavern in Birmingham, 2011, interactive free jazz from saxophonist Paul Dunmall, trumpeter Sam Wooster, drummer Mark Sanders, and bassist Chris Mapp.
Dunmall / Gibbs / Rogers
Tribute to Tony Levin
(FMR)
The great, late UK drummer Tony Levin is paid tribute in an album of lovely, unique and oft eccentric compositions performed by a (drumless) trio of peers: saxophonist Paul Dunmall, guitarist Phil Gibbs, and bassist Paul Rogers.
Dunmall / Gibbs / Rogers / Sanders
Kithara
(FMR)
Quartet recordings from the Victoria Room in Bristol, 2010, from the remarkable grouping of Paul Dunmall on tenor sax, Phil Gibbs on guitar, Paul Rogers on 7-string bass, and Mark Sanders on drums.
Dunmall / Gibbs / Metcalfe / Rogers
Sun Inside
(FMR)
The quartet of Paul Dunmall on soprano sax and bass clarinet; Philip Gibbs on guitar; Neil Metcalf on flute; and Paul Rogers on 7-string bass; a unique orchestration with impressive improvisational results.
Anderson / Dunmall / Gibbs / Hymas
21st Century V-Bop
(Slam)
Covering a vast landscape sonically & stylistically, the quintet of saxophonist Paul Dunmall, guitarist Philip Gibbs, keyboardist Tony Hymas & drummer Mark Anderson were captured live in the studio.
Dunmall / Edwards / Gibbs / Sanders
Boundless
(FMR)
An incredible display of virtuosity and free jazz melodicism led by saxophonist Paul Dunmall, with dual guitars from Barry Edwards and Philip Gibbs, and Mark Sanders' propulsive drumming.



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Circuit (Seagroat / Chatzigiannis / Taylor / Hutchinson / Medley / Wachsmann)
Cell
(FMR)
UK percussionist and electronic artist Trevor Taylor's Circuit project in an extended electroacoustic version with Jon Seagroat on reeds & electronics, Tim Chatzigiannis on computer & electronics, Mathew Hutchinson on piano, Paul Medley on reeds, and Philipp Wachsmann on violin & electronics, in carefully controlled and sublimely detailed improvisation.
Fischerlehner, Rudi
15 8 Slum
(Not Applicable)
Austrian drummer percussionist Rudi Fischerlehner (RM, Xenofox, Parrot Feathers, &c) in his first solo album of energetic, polyrhythmic construction, titled for a chance proximity to a note on 15/8 rhythms and Rene Pollesch's book "www-slums", apt for the blend of precise playing and creative abstractions heard in this engaging and propulsive album.
Hirose, Junji / Yoshinori Mochizuk / IRONFIST Tatsushima
HMT
(Doubtmusic)
Three free improvisations at the burning heart of the Japanese Free Improv scene from the trio of Junji Hirose on sax, Yoshinori Mochizuki on bass, and Ironfist Tatsushima on drums, balancing two tracks of frenetic playing with a lowercase extended instrumental piece.
Ferrian, Stefano / Simone Quatrana
A-SEPTiC
(Den Records)
Italian saxophonist Stefano Ferrian in a duo with pianist Simone Quatrana, Ferrian bounding terse phrases against Quatrana's concise but tenacious dissections of pattern and rhythm, using angularity, counterpoint and expansive harmonics in a rewarding dialog.
Rara Avis (Ken Vandermark / Stefano Ferrian / Simone Quatrana / Luca Pissavini / Sec)
Rara Avis
(Not Two)
Chicago multi-reedist Ken Vandermark in a quintet with Italian musicians Stefano Ferrian (tenor saxophone), Simone Quatrana (piano), Luca Pissavini (double bass), and SEC_ (Revox tape recorder, instant sound treatment) in an uninhibited live concert in 2013 at Dragon Club in Poland.
Turner, Roger / Otomo Yoshihide
The Last Train
(Fataka)
UK free improvising drummer Roger Turner meets Japanese guitarist Otomo Yoshihide at the Hara Museum, Tokyo in the winter of 2013 for a performance that balances introspective improvisation with assertive and authoritative playing for a captivating and dynamic album.
Gray / Hobbs / Hostetter / Braman
Lawnmower II
(Clean Feed)
The second take of Boston area drummer Luther Grays' project Lawnmower with Jim Hobbs on sax, Kaethe Hostetter on violin and Winston Braman on electric bass, excellent jazz with unique instrumentation and a diversity of approaches.
Amado, Rodrigo / Mota / Faustino / Ferrandini
Wire Quartet
(Clean Feed)
Saxophonist Rodrigo Amado in a quartet with 2/3's of Red Trio - bassist Hernani Faustino and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini - and guitarist Manuel Mota adding unusual angles to their exemplary blues-based free improvisation.
Revis, Eric / Taylor / McHenry / Jones / Branford Marsalis
In Memory of Things Yet Seen
(Clean Feed)
A superb modern jazz release from NY bassist Eric Revis with Chad Taylor (drums), Bill McHenry (sax) and Darius Jones (sax), plus special guest Branford Marsalis on two tracks.
Chrysakis, Thanos / Wade Matthews / Javier Pedreira
Garnet Skein
(Aural Terrains)
The trio of Thanos Chrysakis on synth, radio, gongs & laptop; Wade Matthews on synth & field recordings; and Javier Pedreira on guitar, in studio recordings of edgy electroacoustic improvisation using a wide sound palette of indescribable sources.
Bailey, Derek / Trevor Watts / John Stevens
Dynamics of the Impromptu
(FMR)
Live recordings from 1973-74 from the trio of drummer John Stevens, guitarist Derek Bailey, and saxophonist Trevor Watts, dynamic works performed "impromptu" with a wealth of ideas as these innovators demonstrate the skills that helped define them as masterful players.
Dessen, Michael Trio
Resonating Abstractions
(Clean Feed)
West Coast trombonist and electronic artist Michael Dessen's electroacoustic trio with bassist Christopher Tordini and drummer Dan Weiss, balancing detailed compositions and radically open improvisation that equally embraces groove-based improv and soundscape.
Hebert, John Trio
Floodstage
(Clean Feed)
Bassist John Hebert continues to explore his Louisana/Cajun roots with his trio of Benoit Delbecq on piano (plus synth & electronics) and drummer Gerald Cleaver, challenging and enigmatic improvisation with a solid rhythmic center.
Bauder, Matt and Day in Pictures
Nightshades
(Clean Feed)
Known for his more abstract Memorize the Sky project, tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Matt Bauder's band Day in Pictures adheres to jazz traditions with the superb quintet of Nate Wooley (trumpet), Kris Davis (piano), Jason Ajemian (bass) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums).
Davis, Matt / Phil Durrant / Mark Wastell
Confront Collectors Series
(Confront)
Re-issue of one of the earliest Confront releases, the trio of trumpeter Matt Davis, violinist Phil Durrant and cellist Mark Wastell performing subtle and sophisticated free improvisation at St. Michael's and All Angels church, Chiswick, London in 2000.
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra & George Lewis
Artificial Life 2007
(FMR)
The large Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, led by Raymond MacDonald, met trombonist George Lewis in 2012 at CCA in Glasgow to record this two part work based on a set of instructions presented graphically, plus an extended free improvisation.
Vigroux, Franck
Prisme
(D'Autres Cordes)
Prisme is the music for a sound installation by sound artist Franck Vigroux and a collaboration with Fabien Zocco in a live audiovisual performance.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC