Harold Simon Miller (25 April 1941 - 16 December 1983) [1] was a South African jazz double bassist, who lived for most of his adulthood in England.
A native of Cape Town, South Africa, Miller began his career playing bass for the rock group Manfred Mann. [2] After settling in London, he became part of a groups of musicians in the 1960s and 1970s who combined free jazz with the music of South Africa. He recorded with Elton Dean, [1] Chris McGregor, [3] Louis Moholo, [3] John Surman, [1] Keith Tippett, [4] and Mike Westbrook, [2] and also led his own band, Isipingo, named after a vacation spot in South Africa. [5] At the end of the 1970s, he moved to the Netherlands for economic reasons and worked with musicians in Willem Breuker's circle. In 1971, he made a guest appearance on the album Islands , by the progressive rock band King Crimson. [6] He and his wife founded Ogun Records. [1]
Miller died in a car crash in the Netherlands in 1983. [3]
Evan Shaw Parker is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation.
Mthutuzeli Dudu Pukwana was a South African saxophonist and composer.
Louis Tebogo Moholo, is a South African jazz drummer. He has been a member of several notable bands, including The Blue Notes, the Brotherhood of Breath and Assagai.
Christopher McGregor was a South African jazz pianist, bandleader and composer born in Somerset West, South Africa.
Mongezi Feza was a South African jazz trumpeter and flautist.
Johnny Mbizo Dyani was a South African jazz double bassist, vocalist and pianist, who, in addition to being a key member of The Blue Notes, played with such international musicians as Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, David Murray, Finnish guitar player Jukka Syrenius, Pierre Dørge, Peter Brötzmann, Mal Waldron, fellow South African Dollar Brand, and Leo Smith, among many other prominent players.
Irène Schweizer is a Swiss jazz and free improvising pianist. She was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
Keith Graham Tippetts, known professionally as Keith Tippett, was a British jazz pianist and composer. According to AllMusic, Tippett's career "...spanned jazz-rock, progressive rock, improvised and contemporary music, as well as modern jazz for more than half-a-century". He held "an unparallelled place in British contemporary music," and was known for "his unique approach to improvisation". Tippett appeared and recorded in many settings, including a duet with Stan Tracey, duets with his wife Julie Tippetts, solo performances, and as a bandleader.
Alan Richard James Skidmore is an English jazz tenor saxophonist, and the son of saxophonist Jimmy Skidmore.
Paul William Rutherford was an English free improvising trombonist.
Ogun Records is a jazz record label created in London in 1973 by South African expatriate bassist Harry Miller, his wife Hazel Miller, and sound engineer Keith Beal. They recorded British avant-garde jazz musicians Keith Tippett, Mike Osborne, Elton Dean, Lol Coxhill, Harry Beckett, Trevor Watts and their collaborations with expatriate South Africans, including the Blue Notes, Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana, Mongezi Feza, Louis Moholo, and Johnny Dyani in groups like McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, Dean's Ninesense, and Miller's Isipingo.
The Brotherhood of Breath was an English-South African big band established in the late-1960s by South African pianist and composer Chris McGregor, an extension of McGregor's previous band, The Blue Notes.
Mark Charig is a British trumpeter and cornetist.
Nick Evans is a Welsh former jazz and progressive rock trombonist.
Michael Evans Osborne was an English jazz alto saxophonist, pianist, and clarinetist who was a member of the band Brotherhood of Breath in the 1960s and 1970s.
Larry Stabbins is a British jazz saxophonist, flutist and composer.
Radu Malfatti is an Austrian trombone and harmonica player, and composer. He was born in Innsbruck, in the province of Tyrol, on December 16, 1943. Malfatti is associated with the style of music known as reductionism and has been described as "among the leaders in redefining the avant-garde as truly on-the-edge art." His work "since the early nineties... has been investigating the edges of ultraminimalism in both his composed and improvised work." He also operates B-Boim, a CD-R-only record label focusing on improvised and composed music, much of it his own.
Live at Willisau is a live album by South African pianist and composer Chris McGregor's big band Brotherhood of Breath. It was recorded on January 27, 1973, in Willisau, Switzerland, and was released on LP by Ogun Records in 1974. In 1994, the album was reissued on CD with extra tracks. The recording took place eight days after the concert heard on Travelling Somewhere.
Bremen to Bridgwater is a double-CD live album by South African pianist and composer Chris McGregor's big band Brotherhood of Breath. It was recorded in 1971 and 1975 in Bremen, Germany, and Bridgwater, England, and was released on CD by Cuneiform Records in 2004.
Procession (Live at Toulouse) is a live album by South African pianist and composer Chris McGregor's big band Brotherhood of Breath. It was recorded on May 10, 1977, at Halle aux Grains in Toulouse, France, and was released on LP by Ogun Records in 1978. In 2013, Ogun reissued the album on CD with three extra tracks.