Unsafe 2 was trumped this year with the husband and wife Tippett’s topping the bill. Keith turned 60 this year and he’s seen the ups and down in jazz as featured on Jazz Britannia a couple of years ago. He even played in the early days of King Crimson with local (Wimborne) hero and experimentalist Robert Fripp.

Introduced as a rare example of musical and life partners, Keith chipped in Cleo and Johnny but I think we’d throw in Joyce and Tutty, Airto and Flora or even Fripp and Toyah Willcox, these two were clearly in tune with one another. Keith played ‘straight’ piano for the first half as Julie at times sang, read a poem, scatted and warbled. The second half, although there was no interruption to the piece, Keith experimented with blocks of wood inside the piano and Julie played assorted percussion instruments taking on an Afro feel.

And by coincidence, by the time I got home, Julie was on the box being interviewed as Julie Driscoll in the Soul Britannia programme (that followed the year after Jazz Britannia). If memory serves you well, you’ll know Ms. Driscoll as the voice of Brian Auger’s Trinity and their classic interpretation of Dylan’s ‘Wheel’s Of Fire’. Auger’s organ was inclined to go on mod inspired psychedelic free-for all solos so it must have been a great learning experience at the time.

Talking of learning experiences, Alex Ward was playing with Derek Bailey at 16 while Steve Noble has studied African drumming as well as being a member of post-punk band Rip, Rig & Panic (who took their name from a Rahaan Roland Kirk album). See below except from the “On the Edge” documentary by Derek Bailey with an early Steve Noble and Alex Ward duo performance.

Last night Noble spent more time behind the kit and the rock/afro-beat (at time anyway) feel perfectly matched Ward’s far less inhibited performance. He definitely let himself go at times and then others, the clarinet sounded Bernsteinesque. The crowd loved it.

The first duo of the night was, Mark Wastell (returning from last year with his big cymbal) and Matt Davis on Trumpet and laptop (not at the same time of course). Matt definitely adds a different dimension with his style of playing as the pair of them reach extreme ambient at times.

Not everyone’s cup of tea but as Mr, Tippett said, this type of music (experimental) isn’t very popular at the moment. What can we do about that? Well, on the Friday night, members of Poole Safehouse co-op performed to short films by students from the Bournemouth Arts Institute. Even though the headliners we’re Jan Kopinski (sax) and Steve Harris (drums) this duet of music and film might be the way to go as it was far better attended and included young folks!

This night was the first time ex-Pinski Zoo members had played as a duo and reminded some of the Coltrane collaboration with drummer Rashied Ali on Interstellar Space from 1969. I don’t know about that but Harris was a good as every (fresh from his latest ZAUM and Torgue gigs) and Kopinski was going for a more Hendrix of the sax approach with feedback and the like.

A couple of mentions from session one with the films, part of Stuart Riddles sax solo perfectly matched a bird hopping about in the accompanying film which was cool (Stuart introduced My Name Is Albert Ayler last year and tells me Donald Ayler died last month, RIP), the aforesaid mentioned Mr. Fripp is apparently the boss of Alex Mundy (electronic percussion) and Adrian Newton (laptop, theremin and t-shirt) got a well deserved round of applause both nights.

One final thought, Poole Lighthouse’s bookings didn’t help as on the Friday, they decided to have a Classical Jazz Crossover night (Sax Assault, Steve Melling, Pavao String Quartet) and on the Saturday, the main hall was packed with A Concert For Peace with David Fanshaw’s Pacific Song (Chants from the Kingdom of Tonga) and Karl Jenkins’ Mass For Peace. Karl may recall was an important figure in 70’s jazz (being a member of Ian Carr’s Nucleus and Keith Tippett’s Centipede (with Ian Carr, Robert Fripp and Julie Tippett to name but three) and Soft Machine. On Jenkins’ recent appearance on Desert Island Disc, he said that he found his time on stage in these bands quite boring during the improvised passages. It’d be interesting to know what Keith and Julie would have thought about this!

P.S. Also check the rest of The Wire 25 as you’ve already missed Lydia Lunch: An Evening At The Hangover Hotel and Sunny Murray, John Tchicai and Han Bennink are playing with Spring Heel Jack on Monday 12th. See www.electra-productions.com and www.thewire.co.uk for more details as additional events are added to celebrate 25 years of The Wire as the next best read now Straight No Chaser is no more (RIP).

Links:
www.myspace.com/safehousepoole
www.jankopinski.com
Tippett Discography
Robert Fripp at www.foxytunes.com
www.johncoltrane.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Ayler Donald Ayler (October 5, 1942 — October 21, 2007)
www.sound323.com
www.myspace.com/dirtydemos
www.myspace.com/brendaband