NOW THEN

(Homage to Xero Slingsby)

By Solomon Robson

 

" Wherever I go I am here, for I cannot go anywhere else. Wherever I move my conscience in time, it is now. Whatever I handle or hold, it is this. 'There' becomes 'Here' when I get there. 'Then' becomes 'Now' when it is. 'That' becomes 'This' when I look at it. " From "Zen Buddhism" by Christmas Humphries

" The music of a well-ordered age is calm and cheerful and so is its government. The music of a restive age is excited and fierce and its government is perverted. The music of a decaying state is sentimental and sad, and its government is imperilled."

Hermann Hesse "The Glass Pearl Game"

This is the Age of Thatcher, Reagan, the Evil Empire, the Berlin Wall, and Mutually Assured Destruction.

" The saxophone is an instrument whose tone colour is between that of the brass and the woodwinds. But it even reminds one, though more remotely, of the sound of the strings. I think its main advantage is the greatly varied beauty in it's different possibilities of expression. At one time deeply quiet, at another full of emotion; dreamy, melancholic, sometimes with the hush of an echo."

Hector Berlioz ( 1842 )

This represents the Zenith of the Saxophone - the instrument's exponent extraordinaire.

"One has the impression of a man who not only could translate his ideas into notes at superhuman speed, but who was simultaneously aware of half a dozen ways of resolving any given musical situation, and could somehow refer to all of them in passing beyond it."

Philip Larkin, referring to Charlie Parker

This is the Next Big Thing : Punk Jazz, Jazz Punk, contemporary music + found objects = Junk Music - a whole new genre.

" Xero Slingsby is better than Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Jimi Hendrix, Duke Ellington and Count Basie put together.....'cause he's still alive!" (Play Audio - mp3 - 26kb)

Xerophones Jedekiah Slingsby (1984)

This is........Now Then

Chapters 1.Now Then 2.SHOVE IT ! 3.Triumph of the Proletariat 4.The Bass Clarinet 5.Joshua Tetley 6.The Mauve Mercedes with the Padlock on the Boot 7.Three Men in a Tub 8.Hurricane Damage in Leeds 9.Revenge of the Kerbstones 10.Xero and the Law (part one) 11.Out of the Wok and into the Aga 12.Xero and the Law (part two) 13.Is this Jazz ? 14.Introducing our compere for tonight....the fabulous, the one and only Tubby Titters 15.You used to be able to get them from Chemists 16.Found Objects 17.Did you watch the World Cup Final? 18.Ant at home, Elephant abroad 19.Xero and the Law (part three) 20.A Dove Tail Joint 21.Tom Waits for no Man 22.Image Kitchen and Bedroom Fittings 23.A High in the Low Countries 24.Gentse Feesten (the energique super fast funky punky speedy free jazz chapter) 25.Xero and the Law (part four) 26.Shadows and Hungry Ghosts 27.The Cri de Coeur 28.The Snake 29.The Operation 30.Dearly Beloved, We Are Gathered Here Today.... 31.The End 32.Somewhere Over The Rainbow