Monthly Archives: February 2013

Shatner’s Bassoon + The Black Neck Band of the Common Loon

Oliver Dover: saxophone
Craig Scott: guitar
Johnny Richards: keyboard
Mick Bardon: bass
Andrew Lisle: drums
Joost Hendrickx: drums


Shatner’s Bassoon are a group of six Leeds based composers/improvisers. The group have built up their own sound based on developing complex compositional structures through improvisation. Influences include Mr. Bungle, John Zorn and Frank Zappa.

When they played the excellent Tinderbox festival in Oxford, they garnered this review:
They have plenty of all-out free passages, but also some tightly arranged heads and traditional jazz solo spaces. There’s a Hancockesque Rhodes sound ladled liberally, and some nods towards supper jazz, reggae and even calypso in the maximalist compositions, proving that sense of humour is as high on their list as a sense of exploration. Shatner’s Bassoon are funny without being silly and musically intricate without being introspective. Chris Morris would be proud.

Plus

The Black Neck Band of the Common Loon
Blue Pin: percussion and recorder
Andy Pyne: drums
Jason Williams: saxophone

“A healthy, and at times horrifying, forest full of instruments and sounds” – Foxy Digitalis

Plus

The Wildcard Quartet
At the end of every Safehouse open session four members are picked at random to form a one-off quartet to play at the show at the end of the month. This is them.