Some weeks ago I asked Carolyn and Steve to tell me something more about the "Alchemy" sessions for the Esoteric CD booklet I was writing. This is what Steve, former promoter and driver of the band, wrote me:
"The first Third Ear Band was trio, with Ben Cartland, [viola] Paul Minns [oboe] and Glen [hand drums]. Ben Cartland played in a raga style using his G string as the drone. This piece originally called the G Raga, later was called the Ghetto Raga. By the time the group signed with Blackhill Agency, it was a quartet with Richard Coff added on violin. They were the house band at weekly sessions at All Saints Hall, They also played a regular Saturday night residency at the Covent Garden Arts lab. On 18th December 1968 they played in the Royal Albert Hall for the Arts Lab organised ‘Alchemical Wedding’ . The recording sessions for Alchemy were in March and April of 1969.The mood at the recording sessions was - that this was what we have been building up to from the live performances, It was a completion as well as a beginning.
"By the end of 1968, Ben had left and been replaced by Mel Davis For the album the band really needed a cellist, and Mel arrived at the right time. Mel Davis’ previous experience was with playing piano with the free jazz and performance art group, ‘The People Band’, and he had taken up cello. In terms of technique, he was not a great player but with his experience in free jazz and in musical education, he as able to add bass drones and riffs which extended the range of mood of the pieces. He was an influential member of the band, and his work is evident on the album.
"On the track ‘Dragon lines’ Mel plays the Slide Pipes which I remember looked like a set of ‘Hoover tubes’, but they sound like a dragon’s breath! The track was recorded in one take, and when he dropped part of the instrument, he let out a whoop as he picked it up. Paul Minns had studied the oboe and the harpsichord, and his experience of playing baroque music, influenced his style. Paul is the only player who has been able to make the oboe sound like that.
"At the time the album was recorded. Paul had a part time job doing layout for a publisher. The first band that Glen was in was in the 1950s, He was the drummer in a skiffle group called the Anacondas, who although they never recorded, were well known and successful. After that, Glen moved into playing jazz. His first attempt at forming a band was a free jazz and poetry group called Sounds Nova. It was though this group that Glen met saxophone player Dave Tomlin. Like Mel, Dave Tomlin had extended his playing to performance art, which is combining music with acting. Dave and Glen once mounted the bandstand in Kensington Gardens and then started to play. Their show was the confrontation with the park keeper!
"After Dave left the Mike Taylor Quartet, he was squatting in the basement of the London Free School and on Saturday mornings he would march down Portobello Road playing his tenor saxophone followed by a crowd of kids. After being cautioned and harassed by the police, he thought, maybe it is the saxophone that is causing the problem, and so he decided to take up the violin instead He composed a number of folk style tunes, Glen asked for him to be brought to the studio toward the end of the recording sessions. That is when he recorded Lark Rise.
Richard Coff came from Miami but had studied classical violin in Boston. He had won a distinction for his composition. He was interested in Minimalism, a style of modern composition based on simple repeated motifs, This influence is reflected in the piece ‘Mosaic’
The esoteric images projected by the band reflected Glen’s interest in natural philosophy. He would describe the drone as an Om, and the drumbeat as the heartbeat. He had been to Egypt and seen the pyramids and temples. Glen’s approach was to go with whatever was happening If he needed a musician, and someone came along who wanted to play and who sounded good, he would invite them to play in their own way. The scene was starting to wake up to world music. The influence of Celtic, Indian, free, contemporary, all came together and expressed as an emotional force that became ‘Alchemy’."
no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)
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| Steve Pank |
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| The People Band in the Sixties |
"On the track ‘Dragon lines’ Mel plays the Slide Pipes which I remember looked like a set of ‘Hoover tubes’, but they sound like a dragon’s breath! The track was recorded in one take, and when he dropped part of the instrument, he let out a whoop as he picked it up. Paul Minns had studied the oboe and the harpsichord, and his experience of playing baroque music, influenced his style. Paul is the only player who has been able to make the oboe sound like that.
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| TEB in 1968: (L-R) Minns, Cartland, Sweeney, Coff. |
"At the time the album was recorded. Paul had a part time job doing layout for a publisher. The first band that Glen was in was in the 1950s, He was the drummer in a skiffle group called the Anacondas, who although they never recorded, were well known and successful. After that, Glen moved into playing jazz. His first attempt at forming a band was a free jazz and poetry group called Sounds Nova. It was though this group that Glen met saxophone player Dave Tomlin. Like Mel, Dave Tomlin had extended his playing to performance art, which is combining music with acting. Dave and Glen once mounted the bandstand in Kensington Gardens and then started to play. Their show was the confrontation with the park keeper!
 |
| Steve Pank |
Richard Coff came from Miami but had studied classical violin in Boston. He had won a distinction for his composition. He was interested in Minimalism, a style of modern composition based on simple repeated motifs, This influence is reflected in the piece ‘Mosaic’
The esoteric images projected by the band reflected Glen’s interest in natural philosophy. He would describe the drone as an Om, and the drumbeat as the heartbeat. He had been to Egypt and seen the pyramids and temples. Glen’s approach was to go with whatever was happening If he needed a musician, and someone came along who wanted to play and who sounded good, he would invite them to play in their own way. The scene was starting to wake up to world music. The influence of Celtic, Indian, free, contemporary, all came together and expressed as an emotional force that became ‘Alchemy’."
no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)
