Alan Wakeman

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Alan Wakeman (2017, in a performance of Mike Westbrook's Paintbox Jane )

Alan Wakeman (born October 13, 1947 in Hammersmith , London ) is a British jazz and rock saxophonist ( soprano , alto, tenor and baritone saxophone ).

Live and act

Wakeman began playing the clarinet at the age of fourteen; in high school he played traditional jazz in a band with his cousin Rick Wakeman . At the age of sixteen he switched to the alto saxophone and later to the tenor saxophone . In 1968 he became a member of Paul Lytton's quartet and initially moved towards free jazz . In 1970 he founded his own trio with bassist Harry Miller , with whom he studied at the Royal College of Music . He was also part of Graham Collier's ensemble , on whose albums Songs for My Father and Mosaics (then New Conditions in 1976 and The Day of the Dead in 1978 ) he was involved. Then he played with Johnny Dankworth . In 1972 he was a member of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra ( Ode ). He also worked as a studio musician for Pete Atkin and in 1972 and 1973 in Alan Gowen's band Gilgamesh (before the group's first album). During this time he was already part of Mike Westbrook's ensemble and was involved in the recording of his albums Citadel / Room 315 and Love / Dream and Variations . He was also active in Brian Miller's Impulse , before founding his own trio with Nigel Tickler on bass and John Snow on drums.

In 1976 he replaced Karl Jenkins at Soft Machine and was involved in the Softs album . He then played with David Essex and continued his collaboration with Mike Westbropk until the end of the 1990s, but increasingly concentrated on the work as a theater musician and played for example in the ensemble of the musical Grease . In 1997 he was part of John Williams ' Baritone Band . In 2010 he appeared in Richard Baker's band Interplay . In recent years he has played with Westbrook and Annie Whitehead .

Discographic notes

  • The Octet Broadcasts 1969 & 1979 (Gesrbox, ed. 2020)

Lexical entry

  • John Chilton (Ed.), Who's Who of British Jazz. London; New York: Continuum 2004 (2nd edition)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ after Harry Miller Different Times, Different Places Vol. 2
  2. ↑ Discussion of Softs at Allmusic (English)
  3. ↑ Here are albums like The Westbrook Blake: Bright As Fire (1980), Off Abbey Road (1989) or The Orchestra of Smith's Academy (1998). See discography Westbrook
  4. ↑ See John Surman Discography 2 ( Memento from May 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Leam Jazz
  6. ↑ Matthew Wright, Annie Whitehead's Interplay bring Township sounds to Leamington , JazzWise Magazine , May 2, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Wakeman, Alan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British jazz and rock musician
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Hammersmith