Steve Miller, Lol Coxhill & Phil Miller
All Saints Church, Old Harlow – 16 September 1987
Many years after originally playing together in Delivery, the Miller brothers and Lol Coxhill were often reunited in later years when Phil joined the existing Coxhill-Miller duo for trio improvised sessions, such as this one, recorded at Steve’s workshop in All Saints Church near Old Harlow. The accompanying notes (which you’ll find in the download) present this as a “recording session” although it sounds like an ambient recording rather the close-miked-into-a-desk kind that usually ends up on album releases. Certainly this doesn’t appear to have been released, and had been heard by few until now, which makes this quite a treat to fans of the freer end of the music Phil was involved in. It’s interesting to listen to the music in relation to the handwritten descriptions of each of the four pieces (well, the first three).
As could be expected, Steve and Lol dominate the proceedings, but Phil contributes typically tasteful playing, with occasional excursions into the foreground. Within a couple of weeks of recording this, he would return to his own, very different music for the first rehearsals of In Cahoots with Steve Franklin, following Pete Lemer’s departure after the Bracknell Jazz Festival concert. But more such sessions would take place right until Steve’s untimely passing in 1998.
Steve Miller – piano
Lol Coxhill – soprano sax
Phil Miller – guitar
Is this All Saints Church also known as St. Johns ARC? Or is that a different place?
No. All Saints it is not the same as St John’s ARC. All Saints was Steve Miller’s workshop, in an old church building which was no longer functioning as a church.