Michael Zwerin on Soft Machine in Saint-Tropez (1967)

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3 жыл бұрын

American jazz critic Michael Zwerin wrote the first major article on Soft Machine for Down Beat in the summer of 1967, when he chanced upon the band in Saint-Tropez performing in front of the Café des Arts. Subsequently he witnessed the band playing as part of the avant-garde play by Picasso "Le Désir Attrapé par la Queue" and took Robert Wyatt to the Antibes Jazz Festival to meet saxophonist Paul Desmond who was performing there with the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

Пікірлер: 18

@brucevair-turnbull8082 3 ай бұрын

Robert Wyatt's adoration of Paul Desmond I get. His 'Take Ten' album is a must have!

@yazidmanou9371 Жыл бұрын

Mike Zwerin was a great guy. I loved him. He died 13 years ago (April 2, 2010).

@simonagree4070 7 ай бұрын

I wish I could give this ten thumbs up.

@DanielGenis5000 4 ай бұрын

Great interview!

@nickthelick 7 ай бұрын

Holy shit! $2000 in 1967?! Playboy gave him THAT for an article!? That WAS a lot!• Enough to rent a smart place (easily for a year, or several!) or actually buy a place, a BIG place almost anywhere in Europe, and certainly a very nice place in the US too. I mean, just a *_few_* articles at that rate and you'd set yourself up very comfortably for almost the entire 1970's±! • = (According to Google $2000 is the equivalent to _roughly_ $18000?! 🤔😲 Probably closer to $15000 I imagine but even so! Wow!)

@leslumieres1237 6 ай бұрын

Buying a house in Europe for $2000,- in 1967? Dream on!

@Graesie 11 ай бұрын

Such a great interview and document. Thanks for putting this together. I am so readily transported to that time and place.

@mathughes-artist7244 5 ай бұрын

What a brilliant recollection.

@christiancoulomb7770 3 жыл бұрын

De lux observationes, cheers sir Leroy

@aymericleroy8500 3 жыл бұрын

Note - The ad for the Hunter College gig at the end, the one Mike says he attended, does mention Soft Machine, so he probably did see them there.

@croiners4166 3 жыл бұрын

Very interesting , thanks!

@simonagree4070 7 ай бұрын

Robert was quite beautiful in those days, and he knew it and celebrated it. He was also an amazing jazz/rock drummer (and singer) before there was such a category -- I would have liked to have heard him jamming, before his accident, with a jazz musician like Miles Davis.

@garygomesvedicastrology 4 ай бұрын

7:51 There is an album called Violin Summit with Jean Luc Ponty and Michael White among others that Wyatt played on. I believe that was before Ponty got involved directly with the Mothers or Mahavishnu. Ornette Coleman, I recently learned, liked Soft Machine when he met them and got them some gigs in the United States in 1971. I believe Soft Machine also played on the same bills as Davis. While I think Robert probably would have been thrilled to play with Miles, I was personally never that big a Davis fan, but I would have loved to hear Wyatt, Ratledge, Hopper play with Ornette, Shepp, Ayler, etc. Wyatt did sing - and sometimes played percussion on Carla Bley and Mike Mantler albums with musicians like Terje Rypdal, Jack Dejohnette, Steve Swallow, Ron McClure, etc. You might want to check out Centipede which is a free jazz orchestra in the UK that Wyatt played on (with a couple of other drummers) and his first solo album, End of an Ear, has free jazz influences on it. It's a totally unique record and not everyone finds it listenable but I love it.