OVARY LODGE

(Sound bites further down page)

Ovary Lodge was co-founded between Keith Tippett and myself some time in 1971. I had moved back down from Mildenhall in Suffolk in early January 1970 to live in North London, being as there were only a handful of musicians creating the kind of improvised music that I was into and they were all based in London.

Keith Tippett had formerly created Septober Energy featuring a very large band and was looking to explore small group improvisation. He founded the Keith Tippett Trio which featured Roy Babbington on Bass and Keith Bailey on Drums. Apparently Keith was having trouble with Keith Bailey at the time in the group and Harry Miller and a few other musicians recommended he try me. He rang and then came to visit me. We talked and I played a bit for him. Keith immediately replaced Keith Bailey with myself and within days we were doing gigs. Two weeks later and we were in the recording studio finishing the LP Blueprint! This is why Keith Bailey features on some tracks and myself on others. Shortly afterwards Keith wanted to change the name of the group and to find something of an umbrella name that would allow other musicians to join and occasionally expand the trio. He wanted to call it White Lodge. However, Roy Babbington wasn't happy with this, feeling it wasn't sexy enough. I came up with Ovary Lodge and everybody was happy with that. So we went on to record the LP Ovary Lodge for RCA/Victor to follow up from Blueprint. Some time later Roy left to play more with Soft Machine and the B.B.C. Radio Orchestra and Harry Miller replaced him. When Harry was tragically killed in a Road accident, Marcio Mattos took over the Bass stool. Keith's wife Julie Tippetts joined the group on occasions. Keith has always said that there is no Ovary Lodge without me. And nothing has come out or performed under that name that hasn't had myself playing in it.

Cover of OVARY LODGE - RCA/Victor

(photo Andy Burns - 1973 upstairs @ Ronnie Scotts Club)

My idea for the name of this group was along the lines that an impregnated Ovary gets Lodged within the Womb where it then begins to form and grow. This process of Life, or of Creation, is then linked with the Seed ideas that arise during free-form group Improvisation and are then given more form as they unfold. A kind of variation on the 'Mother of Invention' term. The 'form' of the group and its musical 'forms' are then the Womb for the Creative Spirit to manifest or enter within the realm of Spontaneous Music-making. I had been a member of the White Eagle Lodge for some time and I had spoken with Keith regarding my spiritual ideals and experiences. This was probably his reason for wanting to call the group White Lodge. I was aware that White Eagle's idea of a Lodge is a space where souls in need can find comfort and spiritual sustenance. This aspect of the name was also considered by myself but I didn't express all of my thoughts on this name. Of course, the building of a child in the womb is naturally a result of love-making between the mother and the father and so we have a link to the ancient concepts of the Father Mother God - or the trinity of Father, Mother, & Child.

It was in the early days of Ovary Lodge (1971-1972) that I was signing on for Unemployment Benefit in Finchley, North London. And a few times the lady signing me on called me a 'Mujician'. She would then say: "I'm sorry. I can't remember if you are a Magician or a Musician." I told Keith this and he was really amused and he also really liked the name. Many years later I believe he went on to use this name of Mujician under which to create some of his music.

In 1974 I found myself at the crossroads in my playing. I had had a rare weekend at home and so turned my attentions towards my solo playing. I found myself out of contact with the deeper levels of my instruments, which constituted my main purpose and direction in music. So I had to choose between continuing as a busy percussionist or to follow my heart. I decided there and then to follow my heart. The result was that Ovary Lodge didn't work for a while. Then in 1975 Keith called me for a gig. He didn't mention that it was also to be a recording for another release. It wouldn't have mattered to me if he had. It came out as Ovary Lodge on Ogun Records (run by Harry Miller). But it was like we had never stopped playing. Julie Tippetts (ne Julie Driscoll) was also on this release. We did a few gigs since that time but not for some decades now. I also played in Ark - Keith's large orchestra which recorded for Ogun and was released as a Double Album (and now a Double CD) called Frames. However, aggravation from the other drummer (Louis Moholo) meant that I vowed to Keith that I'd never play with him (Moholo) again. I had had high hopes of what two drummers could achieve in that orchestra - but it ended up being something of a wasted opportunity.

Within Ovary Lodge we never discussed the music. The most that would happen would be for Keith to say "You start it." to either myself or the Bassist. The group played each week on a Wednesday Upstairs at Ronnie Scott's Club, London, for 10 months and Keith would invite guest musicians to perform between our sets. We did several tours around Europe, several B.B.C. Radio broadcasts and gigs around the UK. The music of Ovary Lodge was stylistically different from the major trends of improvised music at the time.

Albums Released:

BLUEPRINT RCA/Victor (CD currently available on La Cooka Ratcha)

OVARY LODGE RCA/Victor (CD currently available on Whatever)

OVARY LODGE Ogun (CD currently available on Ogun OGCD 021)

FRAMES Ogun (Double CD currently available on Ogun)

Early January 1970, on the very day that I moved down to London, I had a gig at Ray Man's club (called The Crucible). I began playing at 7:30 that night and stopped at 7:30 the next morning by which time Ray had made me House Drummer! It was great because his club stayed open all night with the result that once Ronnie's closed at 3am the guys would come round to Rays. I played with all sorts - including Roland Kirk. I also first played with Chris McGregor here. He came up with Mongezi Feza and asked if we could play. It was great - I'd never heard his music before and our music that evening had the spiritual energy of the Albert Ayler trio. I recorded it on a cheap Philips recorder for myself and Chris often asked me about releasing it. I then went on to play with Chris and Mongezi whenever Louis Moholo was giving Chris a hard time - or couldn't make the gig. I also had a duo with Mongezi whilst I also played in the Johnny Dhyani Group (Chris McGregor was from South Africa and came over with his group The Bluenotes - Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana, Mongezi Feza, Johhny Dhyani and Louis Moholo [I believe Louis is the only surviving member] - to live in London in the 60s). Mongezi also played in the group Musicians Union co-founded between Alto Saxophonist Mike Sullivan and myself in 1968.

I also had a few of my own trios at the time: the Frank Perry Trio (Evan Parker saxophones and Derek Bailey guitar) a piano trio called 'I is Another' with the late Ron Herman on bass and Chris Goodie on piano. At that time I played regularly at Peanuts (a club near Stockwell - South London, run by Harry and Hazel Miller) with the likes of Marc Charig, Elton Dean, Mike Osborne, Gary Windo, and Nick Evans.

In the very early 1970s I co-founded the group Balance with guitarist Ian Brighton. We rehearsed in my bedsit in Crouch End, North London, every week and gradually the group (often referred to as The Crouch End All Stars) expanded over time - from the stable duo of Ian & myself - to include Radu Malfatti (Trombone) and Phil Wachsman (electric violin) and finally Colin Wood on Cello. Eventually we recorded for INCUS the LP Balance in 1973 (deleted ?). Ian had studied with Derek Bailey and, if I remember aright, Derek had suggested Ian look me up. However, in the summer of 1970 Trevor Taylor had asked me to dep for him for a season with Goudie Charles' group the Jazz Root in Penzance, Cornwall and Ian also played in an improvising group with Ian. So Trevor may well have suggested Ian look me up. Whoever, did I am grateful for the warm memories of our duets in Tivoli Road. I also played in The Derek Bailey Group and then in Company (led by Derek Bailey) whenever Derek asked me.

Ovary Lodge was dissimilar to these other improvising situations leaning towards a more overtly spiritual and loving feel - consciously created from a loving heart. It certainly wasn't wimpish, as we were also capable of very strong and forceful improvisations (check out the sound-clip). The music had the freedom to explore any combination of musical techniques or compositional tools within the temperaments of the players and the loose spiritual umbrella.

OVARY LODGE LIVE on OGUN - to listen click HERE

This is a short part from the opening of the piece Fragment #6

Harry Miller on Double Bass

Frank Perry on Percussion

Keith Tippett on Piano

Julie Tippetts on Recorder & Voice

TO LISTEN TO BALANCE PLEASE CLICK HERE

This is the opening part of track #1 (Constellations of Force) from the LP on Incus Records featuring

Ian Brighton on Electric Guitar

Radu Malfatti on Trombone

Frank Perry on Percussion

Philip Wachsman on Electric Violin

TO VISIT BALANCE PAGE PLEASE CLICK HERE

TO LISTEN TO FRANK PERRY TRIO PLEASE CLICK HERE

This is a short extract from a 46 minute recording of an improvisation 22/1/1972

Derek Bailey - Amplified Guitar

Evan Parker - Soprano Saxophone

Frank Perry - Percussion

TO VISIT FRANK PERRY TRIO PAGE PLEASE CLICK HERE

I had begun my musical career in London playing regularly at Ray Man's Crucible Club in Soho and then Ray opened his shop selling Chinese instruments etc. I bought some Chinese flutes (Hsiao), a Chinese mouth-organ (Sheng) and enjoyed playing with these. And so it was that I came to incorporate them into my improvisations with Ovary Lodge and then with David Toop (in Tee-Pee - a duo of David and Myself). It was entirely unselfconscious - although some reviewers of the Ogun Ovary Lodge album weren't sure whether this was a conscious move to get away from virtuosity. I can only state that it was not the case with myself - not that I would have considered myself a virtuoso anyway. I also went on to include voice, as I had been singing Bass in the White Eagle Lodge choir in London since around 1970.

I could say that, at this point in time, I found myself between two rather polarised camps of group improvisation. With Balance and Derek, etc, the music was more point-to-point (as Evan Parker would describe it) whilst with Ovary Lodge the music was more focussed upon sticking within a particular groove that had been set up spontaneously during the naturally unfolding improvisation. At that time (apart from duets with Ian Brighton - as Balance had originated from) I could only be free to explore any combination of these approaches within the context of my solo improvisations. This continued until I became more involved with the work at the White Eagle Lodge at which point I chose to bring the spiritual disciplines more fully into my musical expression. The result of this was to place limits upon my musical vocabulary, or forms of expression, rather as any spiritual discipline likewise restricts one's behaviour e.g. one must restrain from killing, eating meat, untruthfulness, etc. However, freedom of musical expression within improvised music is always relative and inevitably restricted by the values and lifestyle choices and habitual patterns of behaviour of the individuals concerned.

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