SOMETHING ELSE
SOMETHING ELSE
Mick Beck
- tenor saxophone, bassoon, recorder
Simon H. Fell
- double bass
Paul Hession
- drumset
"There's passion, intellect and first-rate group interaction. What more can one ask from a contemporary improvising trio?" Robert Iannapollo CADENCE
"An energetic trio, this group plays improvised music with relentless passion and virtuosity." John Baxter OPTION
"There's an exceptional level of communication between the musicians here. When the group is in full flight the flux of energy is incredible." Francesco Martinelli IMPROJAZZ
Mick Beck formed Something Else in 1992 to explore his ideas about the relationship between improvisation and composition within the relatively conventional format of the sax/bass/drums trio. From its inception the group has mixed compositions and improvisation, and quickly developed a style where complex compositions played from memory could be cued at will by any member of the group, to be played, discarded or ignored by all musicians as they saw fit. The group’s appearances include Sheffield’s Foot & Mouth Festival, three UK national tours for The Arts Council, Oxford Jazz Festival, The Outside In Festival, Other Music Festival, East Coast Jazz Festival, JazzGalerie Nickelsdorf, WIM Zurich and many others.
Recordings include:
Something Else – Rear Quarters (Bruce's
Fingers 1992)
Something Else – Start
Moving Earbuds (Bruce's
Fingers 1994)
Something Else – Playing
With Tunes (Bruce’s
Fingers 1997)
Mick
Beck has
been working since 1980 in jazz, free music and as a composer and
club/festival organiser. As a composer he looks for structures that
can diversify and strengthen the impact of improvisation; as an
improviser his aim is to mix compelling rhythms, zany melodies,
changes of mood and flexibility in playing techniques to explore new
musical possibilities. After leading the touring quartet, Jazzmine,
in the early 1980s, he was a member of Will Evans multi-dimensional
group, Dan Kolobi,
and since 1984 has been a member from time to time of Derek Bailey's Company.
Blending performance with composition, in 1987 he founded FeetPackets,
a Sheffield-based large improvising band which toured England three
times between 1988 and 1990. It has given one-off performances since
then when opportunities arise, and produced a CD and two cassettes.
In 1993, he was a member of the 11-piece band which celebrated the
Leeds City centenary with a specially commissioned work, Music
for 10(0)
by Simon Fell.
Recent collaborations have
included a trio with Stuart Brown, keyboards and Will Evans,
percussion; pianist Alex Maguire, bass player Marcio Mattos, and
drummers Steve Noble and Louis Moholo; Hugh Metcalf and Bob Cobbing;
and duos with Tony Marsh, drums and Mary Oliver, voice.
Simon Fell is a composer and double bassist active in free improvisation and contemporary jazz and chamber music. He has worked in small or medium groups with John Butcher, Peter Brötzmann, Lol Coxhill, Billy Jenkins, Joe Morris, Keith Tippett, John Zorn, Derek Bailey, Joey Baron, Elliott Sharp, Billy Bang, Christian Marclay and numerous others, and is a founder member of London Improvisers Orchestra. Other regular groupings include SFQ, IST, Hession/Wilkinson/Fell and many more. He has presented compositions for improvisers at the LMC Festival, the Termite Festival, the Frakture Festival, Leo Records' Unsung Music Festival, Freedom of the City Festival and on many other occasions. His discography includes over 70 recordings. "A major contemporary musician" - The Penguin Guide To Jazz On CD.
Paul
Hession
started playing guitar and singing in the church choir at 7 and he
credits his choir leader - also an improvising organist - with his
continued interest in music. He started playing drums at the age of
15, being mainly self taught, and started off through the usual route
of rock groups, cabaret, and working men's clubs. 'Seeing Elvin Jones
at Ronnie Scott's Club in 1975 gave him food for thought for years.'
On becoming interested in free
improvisation, Hession formed Art
Bart & Fargo with
Alan Wilkinson and Pete Malham (tenor saxophone, congas) in 1979, and
in the late 1980s and early 1990s did much of the organising for the
Termite Club in Leeds, formed originally by Wilkinson and guitarist
Paul Buckton to perform and promote free improvised music in the
area. Hession has played with many key improvisors, including
Wolfgang Fuchs, Paul Rutherford, Evan Parker, Maggie Nicols, Phil
Wachsmann, Peter Kowald, Paul Dunmall, Alan Tomlinson, Paul Rogers,
Marcio Mattos, Lol Coxhill, and Peter Brötzmann.
soundsamples:
photos: Jo Fell (Something
Else, Beck, Hession) © 1993, 1991; Roger Parry (Fell) © 2001