George Lowen Coxhill (19 September 1932 – 10 July 2012)[1] known professionally asLol Coxhill, was an Englishfree improvising saxophonist. He playedsoprano andsopranino saxophone.
Coxhill was born, to George Compton Coxhill and Mabel Margaret Coxhill (née Motton), inPortsmouth,Hampshire, England.[2][3] He grew up in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and bought his first saxophone in 1947. He originally trained as abookbinder, and worked in a factory work until the mid-1960s.[4]
After national service he became a busy semi-professional musician, touring US airbases with Denzil Bailey's Afro-Cubists and the Graham Fleming Combo. In the 1960s he played with visiting American blues, soul and jazz musicians includingRufus Thomas,Mose Allison,Otis Spann, andChampion Jack Dupree. He also developed his practice of playing unaccompanied solo saxophone, often busking in informal performance situations. Other than his solo playing, he performed mostly as a sideman or as an equal collaborator, rather than a conventional leader – there was no regular Lol Coxhill Trio or Quartet as would normally be expected of a saxophonist. Instead he had many intermittent but long-lasting collaborations with like-minded musicians.
He became known for his solo playing and for work in duets with pianist Steve Miller[7][8] and guitarist G. F. Fitzgerald.
He was thought to have largely inspiredJoni Mitchell's song "For Free", while busking solo on the old footbridge which formed part of theHungerford Bridge between Waterloo and Charing Cross.[9]
He lived for a while in the Digswell Arts Trust in Welwyn Garden City and was a much liked member of the commune.
He often worked in small collaborative groups with semi-humorous names such as the Johnny Rondo Duo or Trio (with pianist Dave Holland – not the bassist of the same name), the Melody Four (characteristically a trio, withTony Coe andSteve Beresford), and The Recedents (with guitarist Mike Cooper and percussionistRoger Turner), known as such because the members were (in Coxhill's words) "all bald", though the name may additionally be a play on the American bandthe Residents. Typically these bands performed a mix of free improvisation interspersed with ballroom dance tunes and popular songs. There was humour throughout his music but he sometimes felt it necessary to tell audiences that the free playing was not intended to be a joke.
Coxhill was compere and occasional performer at theBracknell Jazz Festival, and a raconteur as well as a musician; he often would introduce his music by saying the words, "what I am about to play you may not understand". It was following a performance atBracknell that he recorded the melodramatic monologueMurder in the Air.
His son Simon is apunk drummer who played with Acme Sewage Co.[10] his daughter Claire is a vocalist and his daughter Maddie sings and plays in a ukulele band.[11] All three children appear with their father on "I am the Walrus", one of the tracks onEar of Beholder and later featured onThe Exotic Beatles part 2.[12]
On 26 July 2007, Coxhill married Ulrike Gertrud Scholz. They had been together since 1991.[13] He died in London on 10 July 2010, aged 79. He had been seriously ill for about six months.[4]
