AL NEIL - SACRED & PROFANE
Part Two: Al Neil Trio, Retrospective 1965-1968

Part One| Part Three

"Well," he said with equanimity, "you see in my opinion there is no point at all in talking about music. What reply then, was I to make to your very able and just remarks? You were perfectly right in all you said. but, you see, I am a musician, not a professor, and I don't believe that, as regards music, there is the least point in being right, or having good taste and all that."

"Indeed? Then what does it depend on?"

"On making music, Herr Haller, on making music as well and as much as possible and with all the intensity of which one is capable." (Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse)

Canada is a peculiar and desolate country, approximately 3.6 million square miles in area, with a population of only 30 million, and a handful of major cities spread from coast to coast, mostly hugging the US border. So sparsely populated that its legends and heroes frequently pass unnoticed, have no international profile, and often are thought of as being Americans. Examples abound, not only in the arts but, on almost every level. Did you know that basketball was invented by James Naismith, Superman created by Joe Shuster, that Mary Pickford the darling of Hollywood films was an Ontario girl; or how about Winnie-The-Pooh, or that Star Trek guy? All Canadians! Add in a scarcity of discerning media, tourism disguised as nationalism, and it soon becomes apparent why it is so difficult for an intelligent creative artist to make an impact. In the world of music, heroes and legends seem invisible these days, or it could be that what is considered important has simply passed me by, does not contain the qualities I consider significant. The world of designer clothing, video games, youth obsession, the latest everything masks the serious details that constitute reality. So it is quite possible that you have never heard of Al Neil.

Three years ago he celebrated his 75th birthday with a showing of his collage art at a downtown Vancouver gallery. The music being played continuously throughout the party was Elmo Hope and Bud Powell, a clear indication of his musical foundation. In the fifties with the assistance of friends he created and performed at the Cellar Club, an establishment that was the focus of the Vancouver bebop scene, often featuring visiting American guests that included Art Pepper, Carl Fontana, Harold Land, the Charles Mingus group and the first performance of the Ornette Coleman quartet outside of the United States. In 1959, with altoist Dale Hillary, he recorded his first lp with the "legendary" Beat poet Kenneth Patchen. He is the author of three books; "Changes" (1970), "West Coast Lokas" (1972) and "Slammer" (1980). There is also a film by David Rimmer; Al Neil: A Portrait. In the middle sixties, after a short sabbatical, he reappeared with Richard Anstey (bass), who also produced this set, and Gregg Simpson (drums), both twenty years his junior and both also visual artists. The Al Neil Trio, Retrospective 1965-1968, Blue Minor Records 121 2001 (2 CDs) is a documentation of those heady times.

Jazz in the sixties was more than just music. Embracing the art and politics of the time, it became a demonstration of discontent with the dominant evolving system. Black Power fueled much of the American action, and in Canada a small group of artists were beginning to make personal statements. The convenience of historical reference, comparing musicians' actions with that of others, is a mistake, for it was a time of personal internal feelings. Often unaware of the others' intentions, the activity was an international phenomenon. Although the Al Neil Trio was among the earliest of the Canadian "free music" propagators there were other groups such as the Artists' Jazz Band and the Toronto New Music Ensemble lead by Stuart Broomer in Toronto, and Jazz Libre in Montreal.

It should be said that half of this music was previously released under the same title, "Retrospective", as a 200 copy limited edition lp by Anstey on his label Loadstone. Now a rare collectors item. The earliest track, "Dreamers Exposed" (26:45), is from December 1965, and was recorded at Simpson's storefront studio, the Sound Gallery, located on Vancouver's West 4th Avenue, which was at that time their equivalent to Greenwich Village. Although crudely recorded it gives us the first glimpse of the trio's intentions. Simpson described Al's piano playing as "…a kind of mystical music, a cross between Bud Powell, Edgar Varese and Claude Debussy", and the music as "…nothing short of extraordinary, combining snippets of melodies like Summertime, which appeared through waves of arpeggios, polychromatic chord clusters, whirling dervish modal lines, and atonal free passages." A spirited free-wheeling high energy extension of all their bebop histories.

Almost a year later finds the trio in action at the Vancouver School of Art, coalesced into an identifiable unit. Three pieces; "Ballad for Marguerite", Al's wife of the time, just that, "Zen Ballad" creating an imaginary Japanese flavoured soundscape with internal string plucking and high placed pizzicato bass, and "Minor Mode", an almost familiar melody. Free-bop could be the description.

Fifteen tracks of this collection originated in 1967, three of them sound collages involving narrative. They take the form of political and social satire: Bela Lugosi and Rin Tin Tin visiting the evil/comic figure LBJ at his ranch; a Downbeat Blindfold Test (hilarious), and the antics of a infamous Vancouver narcotics cop. Musically, the trio have arrived at a sparkling integrated configuration rarely achieved, not only in its powerful surging lyricism, but now containing messages for future language that would be considered prototype concepts for generations of musicians. Utilizing voices, radios, tapes, toys, noise-makers and lp records, all being manipulated as improvising sound sources — likely early examples of turntable DeeJaying and sampling — they collectively generate an astonishing, intimate and personal concept. The samples are broadly based; from the Tibetan Lamas, Spike Jones, to an lp issued by Mad Magazine. The trio has now actively become the total of all their artistic philosophies — harkening back to the sound poems and noise music of the Dadaist and Futurist movements; Switters, Kerouac, Burroughs and Beckett — embracing their multiple and diverse histories. And as though in summation, the two pieces from 1968 are one of each; music and narrative.

This is not a document to be dissected, but rather to be relished as an example of a most distinct period (December 1965 - June 1968) in a somewhat invisible Canadian history, a personal development of three of our most creative artists.

It would be quite like Al Neil to have a retrospective view of himself not arranged in chronological order, and indeed that is the case. The enclosed 36 page booklet contains photographs, reminiscences by Gregg Simpson and Richard Anstey who paint clear pictures of the circumstances surrounding the adventures, process and evolution of the trio, plus a selection of reviews from the Vancouver Sun ("Armageddon is at Hand" or "An Astonishing Artist & Amplified Success"), Coda Magazine, International Musician, and reviews of the original lp release.

For information or to order the CD:

www.blueminor-records.com/retrospective.htm

Gregg Simpson: greggsimpson@shaw.ca

Snail Mail: Condition West, 2232 Old Dollarton Road, North Vancouver, BC V7H 1A8, Canada

This review appeared as Letters From Friends #7 in Coda Magazine Issue #307 - January/February 2003