George W. Lowen Coxhill (19 September 1932 – 10 July 2012), generally known as Lol Coxhill has left the stage. Thanx Lol for all the music and good times from myself and Roger Turner. You will be missed.
The Recedents were one of the longest running free improvisation group in the U.K. – We started in 1982 and managed at least one concert every year until 2012. Scandalously under-recorded, underpaid and under-employed we continued to groove.
“Lol Coxhill died last night (9th July), our greatest, most inventive, most persuasive and most discursive saxophone player. Not simply a musician, but a dyed-in-the-wool subversive of the spectacle capitalism makes of music. Lol was there at the origins of practically every worthwhile style of Anglo pop – Ska, Bop, Hippie, Improv, Punk, Noise – but peeled off as soon as the movement came to be about fame and money rather than playing. He was our Ornette Coleman, and everyone who saw him loved him. You could make a book of stories called “The first time I saw Lol …”. His proudest moment was when the Sun Ra Arkestra watched him play solo, then came and said to him afterwards: “We saw what you were doing, man. It’s hard.” It was hard because Lol was playing with everything in the room, weaving it into something boisterous, alive and swinging….Gosh he’ll be missed so much … for reasons we’re probably only starting to count.”
