Lol Coxhill

Lol Coxhill pictured at the Red Rose Club in 2007

Lowen Coxhill, generally known as Lol Coxhill (born 19 September 1932, in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England), is a free improvising saxophonist. He usually plays the soprano or sopranino saxophones.

Coxhill has collaborated with many other musicians during his career, including Kevin Ayers, Steve Miller (ex Caravan), Mike Oldfield, Morgan Fisher (ex Mott the Hoople), Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, The Dedication Orchestra, Django Bates, punk rock group The Damned, Hugh Metcalfe, Derek Bailey and street theatre performance art group Welfare State.

For many years Lol was compere and occasional performer at the Bracknell Jazz Festival, renowned as a raconteur as well as a musician, indeed it was following a performance at Bracknell that he recorded the legendary monologue Murder in the Air.

Partial discography

Solo or as principal performer

• Ear of the Beholder (Dandelion Records)
• Toverbal Sweet (Mushroom Records)
• Fleas In Custard (with G F Fitzgerald (guitar)) (Caroline Records)
• Miller/Coxhill (with Steve Miller (piano)) (Caroline Records)
• The Story So Far...Oh Really! (with Steve Miller (credited as Stephen Miller) (piano)) (Caroline Records)
• Welfare State/Lol Coxhill (with Welfare State Theatre Group) (Caroline Records)
• "Murder In The Air" (12" Single)
• Diverse (Ogun Records)
• The Joy of Paranoia (Ogun Records)
• Frogdance (soundtrack to Channel 4 TV production)
• The Promenaders (with miscellaneous other free-improvisers, busking on Brighton seafront)(Y Records)
• Digswell Duets (Random Radar Records)
• French Gigs (with Fred Frith) (A.A.A. Records)
• Echoes of Duneden (with G. F. Fitz-Gerald)
• Three Blokes (FMP[1] Records)
• The Dunois Solos (Nato)
• The Hollywell Concert (SLAM)
• "The Inimitable" (Chabada - 10" LP)
• "Before My Time" (Chabada - 10" LP)

Guest appearances

Coxhill also appears as a 'guest' musician on recordings including

• Shooting at the Moon by Kevin Ayers (1970)
• No Roses by Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band (1971)
• 1984 by Hugh Hopper (1973)
• The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories by Kevin Ayers (1974)
• Music for Pleasure by The Damned (1977)
• The Death of Imagination by Penny Rimbaud (1995, Red Herring Records)
• Boo by Juliet Lawson (1972, Sovereign Records)
• Tokoloshe Man by John Kongos
• Lol Coxhill & Totsuzen Danball Wax Records TKCA-30119

Television and film appearances

• A documentary about Lol Coxhill called Frogdance was shown by Channel 4 in 1987.
• He appeared as a butler in Sally Potter's 1992 film version of Virginia Woolf's Orlando (film).
• He had a cameo in the TV detective series Strangers which was a precursor to the series Bulman He appears in the season five episode A Much Underestimated Man.
• He played the part of a priest in the 1986 Derek Jarman film of Caravaggio (film).

Further reading

• The Bald Soprano: A Portrait of Lol Coxhill by Jeff Nuttall. Nottingham, Tak Tak Tak, 1989.

External links

• Lol Coxhill's home page
• Biography and discography from European Free Improvisation Pages
• Sample of Coxhill's playing 1
• Sample of Coxhill's playing 2
• Video sample from Frogdance
• The Wire's100 Records That Set The World On Fire (When No One Was Listening)
• Fund raising concert in aid of diabetes uk 7 June 2003 at Besbrode Pianos Leeds Clip of live performance