Steve Noble (solo)
Arthur Doyle (solo)
Doyle-Noble (duo)

ARTHUR DOYLE

Arthur Doyle is one of free music's true iconoclasts. Having played with Sun Ra in the 60s, he cut some remarkable tenor on Noah Howard's landmark 'The Black Ark' and Milford Graves 'Babi Music'. Doyle then went on to issue one of the most sought after free jazz LPs with his own 'Alabama Feeling' in 1978 (thankfully back in print, though original editions still trade hands for crazy money). Off the hook and out of its time, Alabama Feeling is a good touchstone for the kind of raw energy that Doyle still brings to all his dates whether playing horn or engaging in wild vocalising.

In the 80's Doyle hooked up with guitarist Rudolph Grey to form the no wave over jazz unit The Blue Humans with drummer Beaver Harris (they were also later joined by Alan Licht). Playing as part of NY's No Wave scene, they were later documented on The Blue Humans Live NY 1980. Doyle then went underground before emerging in upstate New York in the early 90s. A number of records emerged on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label. 'More Alabama Feeling': rough, lo-fi blasts recorded on a portable cassette recorder, but bristling with doyles trademark ecstatic energy and 'The Songwriter'. Further releases followed on Audible Hiss including 'Plays and sings from the Songbook'.

In the last decade, Doyle hasn't slowed down, performing solo, drum/sax duos with Sunny Murray (captured beautifully at Stockholm's tiny Glenn Miller Cafe on Ayler Records), with his Electro-Acoustic Ensemble and in other combinations.



"Arthur Doyle is the most immediately recognizable sax player alive. His sound is a mixture of African folk song delicacy and pure Albert Ayler overload. His vocal style (both as pure element and incorporated into his sax and flute styling) is unidentifiable and seemingly from an alternate (jazz) world. His style is impossible to ignore." Perfect Sound Forever

"Doyle is another matter. This man is dangerous - he never plays anything you could recognize, just furious blasts of rage. His solo on "Domiabra" couldn't be written down, or even sorted out. It sounds more like raw energy than anything I've ever heard. He's nasty, man." liner notes to the original issue of Noah Howard's 'The Black Ark'

STEVE NOBLE

Steve Noble is London's leading drummer, a fearless and constantly inventive improviser whose super-precise, ultra-propulsive and hyper-detailed playing has galvanized encounters with Derek Bailey, Matthew Shipp, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, Stephen O'Malley, Joe McPhee, Alex Ward, Rhodri Davies and many, many more.


Recommended by: