HESSION/WILKINSON/FELL the info
Alan Wilkinson - soprano, alto & baritone saxophones
Simon H. Fell - double bass
Paul Hession - drumset
Hession/Wilkinson/Fell started playing improvised music together in 1989. Since then they have performed at clubs and festivals throughout Europe & in North America (including Freedom of the City 2001 & Sound Symposium 1994), as well as BBC Radios 3 & 4 and CBC in Canada. They appeared in a 1994 television documentary about the Newfoundland Sound Symposium. HWF have often augmented the trio with guests, including Stefan Jaworzyn, Bob Cobbing, Derek Bailey and a 1996 UK tour with Joe Morris.
recordings include:
Hession/Wilkinson/Fell &
Buckton/McMillan/Fell - Termite Two (Bruce's
Fingers 1990)
Hession/Wilkinson/Fell - Bogey's (Bruce's
Fingers 1991)
Various Artists - The
Saxophone Phenomenon (Slam
1992)
Hession/Wilkinson/Fell - foom!
foom! (Bruce's
Fingers 1992)
Unknown Public - Volume 2 (UP
1993)
Hession/Wilkinson/Fell - The
Horrors Of Darmstadt (Shock
1994)
Various Artists - Gramophone
Explorations (Gramophone
1997)
Hession/Wilkinson/Fell +
Morris - Registered
Firm (Incus
1998)
Hession/Wilkinson/Fell - St.
John's (Ecstatic
Peace! 2000)
to see the trio in action at London's Freedom Of The City 2001, click here
"Exceptional acoustic maelstrom . . . . . People who suggest that British jazz always lags behind American innovators should check this date. Their music is often categorised as 'free improvisation' but really is state-of-the-art jazz, blindingly swift and responsive." Ben Watson ARTSCENE
"They left the audience in a state of shock. Whiteheat improvisation, full throttle free jazz out of Archie Shepp 1969, but somehow more so: more venom, more noise, more discord, more evil heat . . . . . simultaneous musicality and cathartic excess . . . . . we are talking the essence of what makes jazz great here." THE WIRE
"Thrillingly intense recording by the inflammatory trio, a band that outdoes the old Brötzmann groups for sheer firepower. An outstanding record that demands a place in any comprehensive collection." THE PENGUIN GUIDE TO JAZZ ON CD, LP & CASSETTE
"Distinctive purveyors of improvised music. The power and passion of their playing called to mind the spirit of 60s US free jazz; their ferocious abstraction had much in common with European improvisers like Brötzmann/van Hove/Bennink and Schlippenbach/Parker/Lovens." Chris Blackford THE WIRE
"Back in 1991, Hession/Wilkinson/Fell played music of such rolling majesty and power that only national stereotypes (Americans play Free Jazz, Europeans play Improv) explain why the trio wasn't hailed by the press everywhere. Paul Hession's waves of cymbals and drums still sound deliriously beautiful, like some natural force. Alan Wilkinson's donkey-bray baritone and lyrical alto rev like a Harley-Davidson, and Simon Fell's bass stokes the fire with exceptional understanding of climactic modulation. Apologists for the uneven blow-outs currently promoted as Ecstatic Jazz in the States say that music as finely-wrought as the late Coltrane isn't possible for lesser mortals. Check this out and explode a few prejudices. " HIFI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW
"Spontaneous music of a scorching and unrelenting intensity.....conversational music of the most intuitive eloquence.....unquenchable energy.....There probably isn't such a thing as state-of-the-art free music, but as a term of convenient endearment, it's close enough." John Fordham THE GUARDIAN
For further information, recorded examples of the group's music, or details of fees, availability, contact:
Bruce's Fingers, c/o Simon Fell, 29 Teillet, 23400 St. Dizier-Leyrenne, FRANCE
e-mail: info@brucesfingers.com
Alan Wilkinson moved
to Leeds in 1975 to undertake a Fine Arts degree, concentrating on
painting. Shortly after completing his degree he began playing the
alto saxophone and joined the group Crow
with Mathew Coe (aka Xero Slingsby), Richard Ward, and long-time
associate, drummer Paul Hession. Following a short tour of Belgium
and Holland, he decided to quit painting and concentrate on the
saxophone. In 1979 he formed the group Art,
Bart & Fargo with
Hession and tenor sax player Pete Malham, experimenting with playing
a wide range of other instruments, mainly percussion, and mixing
composition with pure improvisation. After playing in England,
Belgium and Germany the trio disbanded after three years.
In 1982 Wilkinson attended the
Improvised Music Summer School in South Wales and this introduced him
to musicians such as Peter Brötzmann, Barry Guy, Fred Van Hove,
Keith Tippett, Phil Wachsmann and Radu Malfatti among others. This
led directly to gigs on the London improvised music scene, a trio
with Paul Hession and Japanese pianist Akemi Kuniyoshi, and many gigs
with drummer Steve Hubback in a wide variety of combinations. In
1983, in duo with Hession, he appeared at the 10th annual Free Music
festival in Antwerp, Belgium and at the Holland Art Initiative in
Eindhoven. The same year he was among the original organisers of the
Termite Club in Leeds, specialising in improvised and experimental
music and performing arts. A trio with Steve Noble and Tony Moore
existed from 1985 to 1988, having toured in Britain, Belgium, Holland
and Denmark and in 1985 Wilkinson also joined the large improvising
ensemble The Ubiquity Orchestra.
From 1987 to 1989 Wilkinson's activities included a widely toured
quartet with Willi Kellers, Christoph Winckel and Alex Maguire
(through to 1992); a tour of England and Wales with Phil Durrant,
Thebe Lipere, Will Evans, Louis Moholo and Keith Tippett; gigs with
Mick Beck's large group Feet
Packets; and a tour
of England with Alex Maguire's nine-piece Cat
o'Nine Tails.
Alan Wilkinson has been invited
to play in Derek Bailey's Company
on a number of occasions, firstly in 1987 on a tour of Switzerland
and Italy with Steve Noble, Barre Phillips and Ernst Reijseger; again
in 1988 at the ICA in London in a Company Week which included Dennis
Palmer, LaDonna Smith, Gregg Bendian and Milo Fine; and in 1993 he
helped organise and participated in Company Week at the Place Theatre
with, among others, Don Byron, Robyn Schulkowski, Ikue Mori and Phil Minton.
Simon Fell is a composer and double bassist active in free improvisation and contemporary jazz and chamber music. He has worked in small or medium groups with John Butcher, Peter Brötzmann, Lol Coxhill, Billy Jenkins, Joe Morris, Keith Tippett, John Zorn, Derek Bailey, Joey Baron, Elliott Sharp, Billy Bang, Christian Marclay and numerous others, and is a founder member of London Improvisers Orchestra. Other regular groupings include SFQ, IST, Mick Beck's Something Else and many more. He has presented compositions for improvisers at the LMC Festival, the Termite Festival, the Frakture Festival, Leo Records' Unsung Music Festival, Freedom of the City Festival and on many other occasions. His discography includes over 80 recordings. "A major contemporary musician" - The Penguin Guide To Jazz On CD.
Paul Hession
started playing guitar and singing in the church choir at 7 and he
credits his choir leader - also an improvising organist - with his
continued interest in music. He started playing drums at the age of
15, being mainly self taught, and started off through the usual route
of rock groups, cabaret, and working men's clubs. 'Seeing Elvin Jones
at Ronnie Scott's Club in 1975 gave him food for thought for years.'
On becoming interested in free
improvisation, Hession formed Art
Bart & Fargo with
Alan Wilkinson and Pete Malham (tenor saxophone, congas) in 1979, and
in the late 1980s and early 1990s did much of the organising for the
Termite Club in Leeds, formed originally by Wilkinson and guitarist
Paul Buckton to perform and promote free improvised music in the
area. Hession has played with many key improvisors, including
Wolfgang Fuchs, Paul Rutherford, Evan Parker, Maggie Nicols, Phil
Wachsmann, Peter Kowald, Paul Dunmall, Alan Tomlinson, Paul Rogers,
Marcio Mattos, Lol Coxhill, and Peter Brötzmann.