Mujician / 10 10 10
CD/DL : Cuneiform Records Rune 492
Text by 剛田武 Takeshi Goda
MUJICIAN:
Keith Tippett : piano
Tony Levin : drums
Paul Dunmall : soprano and tenor saxophones, bagpipes
Paul Rogers : 7-string acoustic bass
1. 10 10 10
2. Remember
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Jonathan Scott at the University of Bristol Music Studios, Bristol, UK on October 10, 2010.
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The final work of the quartet of magical musicians of British jazz.
Keith Tippett's name is familiar to rock fans because of his guest appearances on early King Crimson albums, but my interest lies in Tippett as one of the originators of British jazz rock. Keith Tippett (real name Keith Graham Tippetts) was born in Bristol in 1947 and grew up playing the piano, organ and cornet. In 1967, he moved to London and started his musical career in earnest, forming the Keith Tippett Group with Elton Dean (sax), Nick Evans (tb), and Marc Charig (tp), whom he had met at a summer jazz course in Welsh. The members of this group later became associated with famous bands such as Soft Machine and King Crimson, and gave birth to an important trend in British Jazz Rock and Progressive Rock. What made them unique was that they did not stay in one band, but continued to work freely and multifacetedly in various projects and sessions. From the point of view of the (rock) show business, they could be called "session men," but from the perspective of jazz/improvised music, they are nothing more than legitimate "musicians".
Tippett married singer Julie Driscoll in 1970 (Julie has since taken the surname Tippetts). When their daughter Inca was young, she used to mispronounce her father's occupation as "Mujician". Tippett loved the term and adopted it as the title of his solo piano performances from the early 80s. in Tippett’s words: “a combination of magic and music...[and] also the word “mu” contained in it as well, which some people regard as a sacred word.”
The name was also adopted as the name of the quartet formed in 1988. The quartet consists of Tippett (p), Paul Dunmall (reeds), Tony Levin (ds), and Paul Rogers (b), all from the UK. It is confusing that two of them have the same name as rock musicians (Tony Levin of King Crimson, Paul Rogers of Free and Bad Company), but these four are the real "Mujician". The group is leaderless and believes in total improvisation without any rules.
This album was recorded on October 10, 2010 in the Victoria Room at the University of Bristol Music Studios during a short tour to celebrate Tony Levin's 70th birthday. The one-off improvisations, recorded without any prior arrangement as usual, were 25 and 30 minutes long respectively, but the color-filled musical ideas flowing from the rich pool of sound that each of them has cultivated, and the rich in ying-yong musical panoramas drawn by the musical sounds that emanate spontaneously from them like breathing, and the pastoral sound typical of the British jazz may fascinate the listener. Despite the fact that there is little in the way of the violent exchanges of play often associated with free improvisation, or deviant developments that destroy tonality or structure, the performance is full of fresh surprises and never falls into the trap of predetermined. In front of the expression of the four "musicians as magicians" supported by the traditional British climate and free and multifaceted musical experience, the serious statements such as Free Music or Non-Idiomatic Improvisation disappear into oblivion.
Mujician - "10 10 10" [excerpt] from '10 10 10' (Cuneiform Records)
However, four months after this recording, on February 3, 2011, Tony Levin died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 71. So this album became Mujician's last recording. Another ten years later, on June 14, 2020, Keith Tippett died of a heart attack at the age of 72. It seems strange that the recordings made eleven years ago was to be released after two of them departed to heaven. But all we can do now is to enjoy a cup of tea and a scone while listening to the performances of these mus(j)icians who paved the way for others in the history of British Jazz.
Photo by Franscisco Martinelli
Magician
Musician
Mujician
Note: I noticed that Paul Dunmall and Paul Rodgers participated in the posthumous album "Remembrance" (2013) by Elton Dean (died 2006), another originator of British Jazzrock. These two "mujicians" might be regarded as the direct heirs of British jazz rock.
Remembrance trio 2
