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For some reason, the South American countries were always well disposed towards the sort of things I liked: Yes, King Crimson and later on, Earthworks. Here we are with a Tim Garland composition Bajo del Sol, featuring bass clarinet, at an Earthworks concert in Buenos Aires. As the band progressed, the administrative and social media stuff became overwhelming. Tim is a gifted composer and instrumentalist who took on much of the Earthworks writing as I slowly ran out of steam.
An alumnus of Chick Corea’s band Origin, Tim's piece channels the Hispanic flavour of some of Chick’s composing. Tim can hold his own in stellar company on tenor or soprano saxophones, flute or bass clarinet, all of which he featured in the later editions of Earthworks. One of the great advantages of being a leader is that you can invite into the band those who seem to know more about the mysteries of music-making than you do; people like Tim, Gwilym Simcock, Allan Holdsworth, Django Bates. Then you let them loose. Then you listen and learn.
Bands tend to have a greater chance of staying together if the participants’ needs are in balance with the leader’s needs. In Earthworks we had an experienced leader who was learning from musicians half his age while benefitting from their youthful energy and (frequently) superior music skills. In return, those less experienced players were getting an international platform on which to display their abilities, reasonable pay, and a decent single hotel room with clean sheets. Everyone’s cool!
I wrote a chapter on this topic in "The Cambridge Companion to the Drumkit' (Cambridge University Press 2021) if you want to dig deeper.
Bass clarinet / sax: Tim Garland
Piano: Steve Hamilton
Bass: Mark Hodgson
Drums: Bill Bruford
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