The other day I found a CDR in a cupboard at home with Folk Dance written on it in Phil’s handwriting. The next day I played it to Fred Baker who happened to be here. We were both spellbound by what we heard. It was Phil on his acoustic Yamaha playing what must be the earliest version of this little piece.
Fred often finds his way to my flat in Dalston because his role as bass player in Soft Machine – which is a London based band – and his home in Derbyshire mean he is often in London on his way to or from home on tours or gigs. When he is here we work together on our plan to create a library of Phil’s music scores for the Phil Miller Legacy Band which he runs with students from the Jazz Department of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
We use the digitised version of Phil’s scores, held in the Conservatoire’s Archives, which it took me over a year to create. I keep a copy of these digitised scores on my computer and Fred and I work together to select and print out the band parts, which he keeps at the Conservatoire, using them to print out parts for the band.
Yes, Fred and I were spellbound listening to this little recording. It was as if Phil was in the room. His acoustic Guitar was on the wall. His presence was palpable. I would have wept if I’d been on my own.
Phil and Fred recorded this number beautifully on the posthumous CD Double Up 2 and it was also played at Phil’s Tribute concert at the Vortex by Alex Maguire keyboard, Marc Hadley tenor sax, John Etheridge guitar, Patrice Meyer guitar, Jack Monck bass guita and Paul Dufour drums.
I used to have a recording of it played by Jack Monck and Friends but lost it when I had to buy a new computer.
I have added Phil’s solo performance on the Opus page which is my choice for OPUS Update this week.