Lol Coxhill

Lol Coxhill pictured at the Red Rose Club in 2007.

Lowen Coxhill, generally known as Lol Coxhill (born 19 September 1932, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England) is an English free improvising saxophonist and raconteur. He plays the soprano or sopranino saxophone.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was a member of Carol Grimes and Delivery and then Kevin Ayers and the Whole World.

He became known for his solo playing and for work in duets with pianist Steve Miller and guitarist G. F. Fitzgerald.

Coxhill has collaborated with other musicians including Mike Oldfield, Morgan Fisher (of Mott the Hoople), Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, The Dedication Orchestra, Django Bates, The Damned, Hugh Metcalfe, Derek Bailey and performance art group Welfare State.

Coxhill was compere and occasional performer at the Bracknell Jazz Festival, and a raconteur as well as a musician; indeed it was following a performance at Bracknell that he recorded the monologue Murder in the Air.

Discography

• Ear of Beholder (Dandelion)
• Toverbal Sweet (Mushroom Records)
• Fleas In Custard with guitarist G.F Fitzgerald. Caroline)
• Miller/Coxhil (with Steve Miller on piano). Caroline
• The Story So Far...Oh Really! with Steve Miller (credited as Stephen Miller) piano. Caroline
• Welfare State/Lol Coxhill with Welfare State Theatre Group. Caroline
• "Murder In The Air" (12" Single)
• Diverse. Ogun
• The Joy of Paranoia. Ogun
• Frogdance. Channel 4 soundtrack
• The Promenaders with other free-improvisers busking on Brighton seafront. Y Records
• Digswell Duets. Random Radar Records
• French Gigs with Fred Frith. AAA
• Echoes of Duneden with guitarist G. F. Fitzgerald
• Three Blokes. FMP
• Chantenay 80 (with Maurice Horsthuis and Raymond Boni) (nato)
• Instant replay (nato)
• The Dunois Solos (nato)
• Cou$cou$ (nato)
• 10:02 (with Daniel Deshays) (nato)
• Café de la place (nato)
• Halim (with Pat Thomas) (nato)
• The rock on the hill (with Barre Phillips and JT Bates) (nato)
• The Hollywell Concert (SLAM)
• The Inimitable (Chabada - 10" LP)
• Before My Time (Chabada - 10" LP)
• Slow Music with Morgan Fisher (Pipe Records)
• two tracks for Miniatures 1 & 2, produced by Morgan Fisher (Cherry Red Records)

Guest appearances

• Shooting at the Moon by Kevin Ayers and the Whole World (1970)
• No Roses by Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band (1971)
• Tokoloshe Man by John Kongos (1971)
• Boo by Juliet Lawson. Sovereign Records (1972)
• 1984 by Hugh Hopper (1973)
• The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories by Kevin Ayers (1974)
• Music for Pleasure by The Damned (1977)
• The Death of Imagination by Penny Rimbaud. Red Herring Records (1975)
• Lol Coxhill & Totsuzen Danball. Wax Records TKCA-30119 (1983)
• The Wimp and The Wild John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett (1989)

Television and film appearances

• Frogdance, a documentary about Coxhill, was shown by Channel 4 (1987)
• Appearance as a butler in Sally Potter's 1992 film Orlando
• Cameo appearance in the season-five episode "A Much Underestimated Man" of the TV detective series Strangers (a precursor to the series Bulman)
• Appearance as a priest in Derek Jarman's 1986 film Caravaggio

Further reading

• The Bald Soprano: A Portrait of Lol Coxhill by Jeff Nuttall. Nottingham, Tak Tak Tak, 1989.

External links

• Lol Coxhill's home page
• Biography and discography from European Free Improvisation Pages
• Sample of Coxhill's playing 1
• Sample of Coxhill's playing 2
• Video sample from Frogdance
• The Wire's100 Records That Set The World On Fire (When No One Was Listening)
• Fund raising concert in aid of diabetes uk 7 June 2003 at Besbrode Pianos Leeds