Soft Machine are a British rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen. As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive rock and jazz fusion. Their varying line-ups have included former members such as Andy Summers, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, Karl Jenkins and Allan Holdsworth, and currently consists of John Marshall, John Etheridge, Theo Travis, and Fred Thelonious Baker.
Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins is a Welsh multi-instrumentalist and composer. His best known works include the song "Adiemus" and the Adiemus album series; Palladio; The Armed Man; and his Requiem.
Hugh Colin Hopper was a British progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and other bands.
Richard Malden "Dick" Heckstall-Smith was an English jazz and blues saxophonist. He played with some of the most influential English blues rock and jazz fusion bands of the 1960s and 1970s. He is known for primarily playing tenor soprano and baritone saxophones, as well as piano, clarinet and alto saxophone.
Colosseum are an English jazz rock band, mixing blues, rock and jazz-based improvisation. Colin Larkin wrote that "the commercial acceptance of jazz rock in the UK" was mainly due to the band. Between 1975 and 1978 a separate band Colosseum II existed playing progressive rock.
Elton Dean was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello and occasionally keyboards. Part of the Canterbury scene, he featured in, among others, Soft Machine.
Seven is the seventh studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1973. Roy Babbington, who had previously contributed to Fourth (1971) and Fifth (1972) on double bass as a session musician, replaced Hugh Hopper on bass guitar, who left to begin a solo career.
Fifth, is the fifth studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1972. In the US the album was identified on cover and label by number (5).
John Stanley Marshall is an English drummer and founding member of the jazz rock band Nucleus. From 1972 to 1978, he was the drummer for Soft Machine, replacing Phil Howard when he joined.
Philip John Albert "Jon" Hiseman was an English drummer, recording engineer, record producer, and music publisher. He played with the Graham Bond Organisation, with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and later formed what has been described as the "seminal" jazz rock/progressive rock band, Colosseum. He later formed Colosseum II in 1975.
Roy Babbington is a rock and jazz bassist. He became well known for being a member of the Canterbury scene progressive rock band Soft Machine.
Barbara Gracey Thompson MBE was an English jazz saxophonist, flautist and composer. She studied clarinet, flute, piano and classical composition at the Royal College of Music, but the music of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane made her shift her interests to jazz and saxophone. She was married to drummer Jon Hiseman of Colosseum from 1967 until his death in 2018.
John Michael Glyn Etheridge is an English jazz fusion guitarist, composer, bandleader and educator known for his eclecticism and broad range of associations in jazz, classical, and contemporary music. He is best known for his work with Soft Machine from 1975 to 1978, 1984 and 2004 to present.
Theo Travis is a British saxophonist, flautist and composer. He is best known for being a member of Soft Machine which he joined in 2006 while the group was still using the "Legacy" suffix and for being a member of Gong from 1999 to 2010.
Softs is the ninth studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1976. It is the final album to feature founding keyboardist Mike Ratledge.
Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris is a (mostly) live album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1978.
Burden of Proof is the sixth album by the Canterbury associated band Soft Machine Legacy and their third studio album, released on CD in March 2013. This was the last album to use the "Legacy" suffix before it was dropped in 2015. Soft Machine returned with Hidden Details in 2018 featuring the same line-up that recorded this album.
Hopper Tunity Box is a 1977 album by jazz/rock musician Hugh Hopper. Ex-Soft Machine bassist augments his rather infamous fuzz-bass attack by performing on guitar, recorders, soprano sax, and percussion. The album recorded in 1976 and re-released on CD by Culture Press in 1996 and Cuneiform Records in 2007, this outing features the bassist's fellow Soft Machine bandmate, saxophonist Elton Dean, along with others of note.
Hidden Details is the eleventh studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in September 2018.
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