Elton Dean
b. 28 October 1945, Nottingham, England. Dean is a fiery, self-taught saxophonist, who mainly features alto but sometimes uses saxello. He had lessons on piano from four years old and on violin from the age of 11. He hated these and took up clarinet and tenor sax, picking up the techniques himself and playing in various trad bands as a semi-professional. He went to Germany with a soul band, Lester Square and the GTs, and then joined the Irish Crickets, a showband. Regular work and wages enabled him to return to England, where he formed his own group, the Soul Pushers. In 1967 he joined Bluesology, who were at the start of their association with Long John Baldry. It was here that he first played with Marc Charig, later a front-line partner in the Keith Tippett Sextet. (For collectors of trivia, when Bluesology split up, the organist, Reg Dwight, took his stage name from colleagues Elton Dean and John Baldry to become Elton John.) Dean first met Tippett at the 1967 Barry (Wales) Summer School. He was a member of the Tippett Sextet which, in 1968, was the first beneficiary of the London Jazz Centre Society's scheme to give six-week residencies to new bands at its Monday sessions at London's 100 Club. As a result of these exciting gigs the reputation of the band and its individual members spread rapidly. From 1969-72 Dean was with Soft Machine at a time when the group's evolution from art rock to jazz-rock was becoming settled. Dean was with the edition of the Softs which was invited to play at the Proms, and it was usually his acerbic sax which would pull the band's fascinating but often diffuse improvisations into focus. After leaving Soft Machine, he led or co-led a series of bands, including Just Us, EDQ, Ninesense, and El Skid (co-led with Alan Skidmore.) More recently he has toured Europe and South America with his own bands of various line-ups, and has started his own label to issue new recordings of his group. Since 1990 he has had a powerful trio with Paul Rogers and Mark Sanders featuring Dean's long, astringently lyrical improvisations. He has also worked with the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, Georgie Fame, Carla Bley and with Dutch rock band Supersister.