Lol Coxhill

Lowen Coxhill, generally known as Lol Coxhill (born September 19, 1932, in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England), is a free improvising saxophonist. He usually plays the soprano or sopranino saxophones.

Coxhill has collaborated with many other musicians during his career, including Kevin Ayers, Steven Miller, Mike Oldfield, Morgan Fisher (ex Mott the Hoople), Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, The Dedication Orchestra, punk rock group The Damned, Hugh Metcalfe, Derek Bailey and street theatre performance art group Welfare State.

For many years Lol was compere and occasional performer at the Bracknell Jazz Festival, renowned as a raconteur as well as a musician, indeed it was following a performance at Bracknell that he recorded the legendary monologue Murder in the Air.

Partial discography

olo or as principal performer

*"Ear of the Beholder" (Dandelion Records)
*"Toverball Sweet" (Dandelion Records)
*"Fleas In Custard" (with G F Fitzgerald (guitar)) (Caroline Records)
*"Miller/Coxhill" (with Steven Miller (piano)) (Caroline Records)
*"The Story So Far...Oh Really!" (with Steven Miller (piano)) (Caroline Records)
*"Welfare State/Lol Coxhill" (with Welfare State Theatre Group) (Caroline Records)
*"Murder In The Air" (12" Single)
*"Diverse" (Ogun Records)
*"The Joy of Paranoia" (Ogun Records)
*"Frogdance" (soundtrack to Channel 4 TV production)
*"The Promenaders" (with miscellaneous other free-improvisers, busking on Brighton seafront)(Y Records)
*"Digswell Duets" (Random Radar Records)
*"French Gigs" (with Fred Frith) (A.A.A. Records)
*"Three Blokes" (FMP [http://www.fmp-label.de] Records)
*"The Dunois Solos" (Nato)
*"The Hollywell Concert" (SLAM)
*"The Inimitable" (Chabada - 10" LP)
*"Before My Time" (Chabada - 10" LP)

Guest appearances

Coxhill also appears as a 'guest' musician on recordings including

* "Shooting at the Moon" by Kevin Ayers (1970)
* "No Roses" by Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band (1971)
* "1984" by Hugh Hopper (1973)
* "The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories" by Kevin Ayers (1974)
* "Music for Pleasure" by The Damned (1977)
* "The Death of Imagination" by Penny Rimbaud (1995, "Red Herring Records")
* Lol Coxhill & Totsuzen Danball Wax Records TKCA-30119Shooting at the Moon (album)

Television and film appearances

* A documentary about Lol Coxhill called "Frogdance" was shown by Channel 4 in 1987.
* He appeared as a butler in Sally Potter's 1992 film version of Virginia Woolf's "Orlando".
* He had a cameo in the TV detective series "Bulman".
* He played the part of a priest in the 1986 Derek Jarman film of Caravaggio (film).

Further reading

* "The Bald Soprano: A Portrait of Lol Coxhill" by Jeff Nuttall. Nottingham, Tak Tak Tak, 1989.

External links

* [http://www.lolcoxhill.com/ Lol Coxhill's home page]
* [http://efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mcoxhill.html Biography and discography from European Free Improvisation Pages]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/jazz/reviews/rams/gcoxhill_spect2.ram Sample of Coxhill's playing 1]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/jazz/reviews/rams/gcoxhill_spect1.ram Sample of Coxhill's playing 2]
* [http://efi.group.shef.ac.uk/video/vcoxhil1.mov Video sample from "Frogdance"]
* The Wire's [http://www.rtxarchive.com/archive/articles/wire175.html "100 Records That Set The World On Fire (When No One Was Listening)"]
* [http://www.besbrodepianos.co.uk/events.htm#diabetes Fund raising concert in aid of diabetes uk 7 June 2003 at Besbrode Pianos Leeds Clip of live performance]