Nik Turner: Bringing the Music to the People

Jack Gold-Molina

Jack Gold Molina is a photojournalist, drummer, percussionist, and founder of the Sol Disk free jazz/outside music label.

Recent articles (23 total)

Published: February 24, 2010

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NT: One of my favorite practice pieces is Coleman Hawkins' "Body and Soul." Do you know that tune? Do you know the Coleman Hawkins version of it? Well, Coleman Hawkins had a hit record with it in the '30s, but he doesn't play the tune at all. It's just a complete improvisation that goes from three flats to three sharps to two sharps to three flats. And it's just an improvisation. It was his sort of seminal jazz piece which, in the '30s and '40s, if you wanted a gig in a band, and the big bands were all breaking up and be bop bands were taking over, if you wanted a gig in a band you had to know that solo. And it's not the easiest solo.

I do it as a practice piece [laughs]. I mean, I can play it by heart, you know, and I'm trying to learn to play it in every key, at the moment. But it's actually an extremely difficult piece. When I was playing in a big band there were all these old guys who played saxophone that were all trying to learn it, or just trying to read it, in fact. You know, they were having a problem reading it. I'm now playing it by heart every day just as a practice piece because I think it is such a difficult piece. But it's just that I get such a lot of satisfaction out of being able to play it.

Selected discography
Space Ritual, Otherworld (Esoteric, 2007)
Hawkwind, Warrior On The Edge Of Time (Atco, 1975)
Hawkwind, Space Ritual (United Artists, 1973)
Hawkwind, Hawkwind (Sunset Records, 1970)
Nik Turner, Xitintoday (Charisma, 1978)
Inner City Unit, Pass Out (Riddle Records, 1980)
Inner City Unit, The Maximum Effect (RFM, 2010)
Inner City Unit, The Fury Of ICU (RFM, 2010)
Inner City Unit, The Naked Truth Vol. 1-3 (RFM DVD, 2010)