Baggage and Boating, at the Red Rose, at Ryan’s Bar, London 1989 +LMC1979, OTO, Alan Tomlinson plus various artists (Scatter Archive)
The trombonist Alan Tomlinson, who died recently, had been a major figure in the world of free improvisation since the early 1970s, touring around the world and working with other musicians such as Steve Beresford, David Toop and Roger Turner, to name but a few. He kept one foot in the world of contemporary classical music, too, working with not only with the likes of Tony Oxley’s Angular Apron but also with the Ballet Rambert Orchestra. The Bandcamp label Scatter Archive have recently released five albums celebrating his work as an improviser, bringing together a number of live recordings going back to the late seventies. They initially promised four, but who’s complaining?
The first of these, the playfully entitled Baggage and Boating, has Tomlinson performing with Steve Beresford on electronics and Steve Noble on drums. As David Toop is quoted as saying in the notes on the album, ‘I would argue that the incidental music, montage and sound effects created for radio comedy shows such as Hancock’s Half Hour, The Jack Jackson Show and The Goon Show were as influential on the musical experimentation of my generation in Britain as Stockhausen or Cage.’ Tomlinson was a theatrical performer and there was a strong element of comedy in what he did. Of course, the trombone has always carried comic associations but Tomlinson’s clowning went way beyond any stereotype. The times I’ve seen Beresford he was been performing with toys and associated noise-makers (again, with a strong element of fun) and here he’s playing, in much the same spirit, with a selection of keyboards and cheap electronic gizmos. Noble’s playing is, as a ever, witty, playful and sonically inventive. This is music that may well appeal to people who wouldn’t otherwise go near such noise-based free improvisation. It’s as if the good-natured sense of fun that pervades it suckers you in and opens your ears.
The second album, at the Red Rose, collects together four solo performances. This is still music with that strong sense of fun (Tomlinson gets a laugh from the audience within seconds of the start of the first track). More seriously, he was certainly one of those musicians who make you question what music actually is. The way he does what he does, the spirit in which he does it, is always more important than the material he works with. A comparison with the spoken word perhaps explains what I mean more clearly. Imagine an actor giving a solo performance during which what they actually say is not particularly important. It’s the way they say it, their tone of voice and their body language, which combine to make it a spellbinding performance: the communication of human experience. That seems to be the way Tomlinson worked. He leaves his own particular stamp on whatever gesture he selects from moment to moment.
On the third, at Ryan’s Bar, Tomlinson is joined by harpist Rhodri Davies and percussionist Roger Turner. Of the albums so far, it’s perhaps the most serious in mood. Davies, as Tomlinson did, has a background in contemporary classical music as well as improvisation. Talking about improvisation in an interview with James Saunders back in 2009, he said that ‘in very simplistic terms, when I share a space with a loud instrument, I tend to explore quiet areas, and vice versa,’ and – no surprise – this is very much his approach here: soft, harp and harp-derived sounds emerge from the spaces in the more dominant, often action-packed textures spun by Turner and Tomlinson. The sound world the trio create together is at least as intriguing and absorbing as the line-up of trombone, harp and percussion might suggest. As David Toop says in the notes to the album, to list who is playing and what they play ‘says nothing about the fluid assemblages that accumulate here, gathering and dispersing.’ Time, thought and effort has been given to the accompanying notes to most of these albums and these constitute an absorbing read.
The fourth album, London 1989 +LMC1979, brings together three live recordings: the first, the longest, of a gig by Tomlinson and Roger Turner given at the Tom Allen Centre in Stratford, London, in 1989, the second and third of Tomlinson playing with unspecified ensembles at the London Musicians’ Collective back in 1979. They were all recorded on cassette, and the results are a little warmer than the more recent recordings. It’s interesting the difference a recording medium can make. The definition is just a little less sharp than the more recent, digital recordings. I’m not complaining: it has a very pleasant feel to it which takes you back to the time it was recorded and which, by so doing, creates the impression of bringing you closer to the musicians you’re listening to.
The fifth, OTO, is the most recent. On it, Turner and Tomlinson are joined by guitarists Sandy Ewen and Arthur Bull. Recorded at Café Oto in 2017, there are four tracks. The first two tracks are trios performed by Turner and the two guitarists, the third, a trombone solo by Tomlinson. The fourth features all four musicians in an extended, album-length performance. As with the other albums, the music is always inventive and never boring.
I found myself wondering if, for me, any one of the five stood out from the others. I don’t think any do, although one might say they all do, but in different ways. They’re all albums I see myself coming back to. Looking back through various discographies, I get the impression that making albums didn’t figure high on Tomlinson’s list of priorities. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t appear on numerous recordings: he was a generous contributor to other people’s projects. However, the Alan Tomlinson Trio, although active for nigh-on three decades, seem to have made only three albums. It’s a measure of his achievement as a performer that, if all that existed of Tomlinson’s work were the five albums issued here they would, I think, be enough to cement his formidable reputation.
Dominic Rivron
LINKS
Baggage and Boating:
https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/baggage-and-boating
at the Red Rose:
https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/at-the-red-rose
at Ryan’s Bar:
https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/at-ryans-bar
London 1989 +LMC 1979:
https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/london-1989-lmc-1979
OTO:
https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/oto
Alan Tomlinson’s obituary in IT:
https://internationaltimes.it/alan-tomlinson-1947-2024/