Short Wave – Live (1993)

More tales from the depths of the Canterbury rabbit hole. In the early 1990s. all four participants in this album had their own bands, and were struggling to get work. They had approached the organiser of the Le Mans Jazz Festival, who broached the idea of putting together this 'all star' band, which he felt would attract interest.

So it's a short lived, one tour project featuring Hugh Hopper (Soft Machine) on bass, Phil Miller (Hatfield and the North and National Health) on guitar, Pip Pyle (also Hatfield and Health, as well as Gong) on drums, and Didier Malherbe (Gong) on saxes and flute). There's no pretense of prog or space rock here, it's just easy to listen to jazz, recorded live in Perpignan and Lille in October 1992.

It opens brightly, with Miller's enjoyable and melodic The Fox, before Pyle's more laidback, and less catchy Saiseyes, then my highlight of the album, Hopper's Frankly Speaking, where Malherbe's smooth sax drives the melody along, with an almost Bachian interlude, as well as leaving room for a Miller guitar solo.

But after that, it's less captivating. The Balladin is a gentle flute piece, while 2 P.M. does the jazz thing of taking a interesting theme, and letting each member in turn solo over it, for ten minutes. Partout again, has an enjoyable riff and does it to death, and neither of the subsequent Hopper compositions, Midnight Judo and Shuffle Demons inspire. There's an outing for Miller's old favourite riff, Nan's True Hole, dating from Matching Mole days, before the album ends with two Malherbe compositions, the bizarre spoken word VZG, and the aimless noodle Et Alors.

Like so much of the later jazz output of the Canterbury scenesters, there are moments of joyous delight here, alongside some more mundane tunes. But it's certainly worth a listen.

Link to album tracks

3* - a likeable jazz album by Canterbury Scene alumni, with a couple of fantastic tunes