[Slowhand] Mike Taylor

[Bruce Wilson]

Recently was pleasantly surprised to stumble across, on CD,  the 1965 album 
"Pendulum" by Mike Taylor who will always best be known for co-writing 3 
tunes with Ginger Baker that appeared on "Wheels of Fire":  Passing the 
Time, Pressed Rat and Warthog, and Those Were the Days.  Both Baker and Jack 
Bruce performed with him prior to joining the Graham Bond Organisation.  On 
"Pendulum" we hear:


1)  But Not For Me (Gershwin)

2)  Exactly Like You (Fields/McHugh)

3)  A Night In Tunisia (Gillespie/Paparelli)

4)  Pendulum (Taylor)

5)  To Segovia (Taylor)

6)  Leeway (Taylor)



by the Mike Taylor Quartet:

Mike Taylor: piano

Dave Tomlin: soprano sax

Tony Reeves: bass (later in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Colosseum, Curved 
Air, et al)

Jon Hiseman: drums ( later in the Graham Bond Organisation, John Mayall's 
Bluesbreakers, Colosseum, et al)



For the past three weeks, "Pendulum" has been in heavy rotation, shared with 
musicians who played Sun Ra, a DJ who played the title cut on his show, my 
dad whose ears opened as soon as he heard Gershwin, a drummer who plays in a 
local jazz trio.  "Pendulum" is '60s avant-garde jazz -- no blues, guitar, 
or EC -- but this is seriously beautiful music, golden cymbals flying on 
ocarina sounds.  For me, the Taylor originals initially were the most 
impressive with the standards arriving later, as they did in Mike Taylor's 
own musical development.  When you hear his compositions, you hear some 
things of his songs on "Wheels."  Mike Taylor released only one more album, 
"Trio," in July '66 just as Cream was getting together; Jack Bruce played 
bass on it.  I've always enjoyed Cream's outlying musical universe; 
"Pendulum" has some of its finest music.  If interested, get it before it 
goes out of print for another 40 years.



laughing and stomping off with a nautical gait,

brooz