| Simon: |
I'll
just switch on the machine and leave it running... |
| Lol: |
I'm
pretty useless at interviews anyway - you might be on a lucky
day. |
| |
(Silence) |
| Simon: |
How do you describe
what you do? |
| Lol: |
Work
wise? I'm involved with lots of things. What interests me most
is playing improvised music but I still do the solo things sometimes
then playing with either the London Improvisers Orchestra or
other various pick-up bands. Then just occasionally I like to
play old standard tunes for dances and things but not very often
- mostly improvised music now. And the Dedication Orchestra -
if it's still happening next year again. You're playing with
a lot of good players there, playing the old charts from Dudu
and people. |
| |
(Sound
of banging of pots from table behind) |
| Lol: |
Very interesting
interview... |
| |
(Silence) |
| Simon: |
What will people
hear on the 2nd of November? For those who've never had any encounter
with improvised music, how would you describe it to them? |
| Lol: |
It's very difficult because there
are so many angles to improvisation. There's standard jazz approach
to it where you're working on changes anyway, various chord structures.
Free Improvisation - I wouldn't know how to describe it. You
make it up as you go along but try to make it up good! (laughs)
...but not worry about it too much, you should be more busy doing
it than worrying about it.
What I like most is when I'm
not thinking about it at all, it's like really of the moment.
And I usually find when it is like that, that that's when I play
the best I think - if I'm in that kind of mind, not thinking
about where I am, just channelled into the music itself.
But I still like doing structured
things occasionally. The Dedication Orchestra is good because
there are specific themes but they're treated in an improvisatory
manner anyway.
|
| |
(Silence) |
| |
I told you I'm a
duff interviewee |
| Simon: |
Tell me some
of the unusual places you've played. |
| Lol: |
Oh! I did a gig once in a skip!
Oh! that was today wasn't it! (laughs)
That was about the most. I played
in an abattoir but it had closed down fortunately. I wish I'd
played there a few months later - there were still signs of what
it had been. That wasn't a very good gig.
|
| |
Swimming
pools... in and out of the water. There's a little film I made
that was OK/interesting enough but mostly I just like playing
with good people when it happens. |
| Simon: |
I've
seen on the web a tiny snatch of a video of you playing outside
the Pompidou
Centre in Paris with a... |
| Lol: |
..a
little girl, yes, funny little girl. I wanted her to go away
(laughs). Yes, she's definitely the star. I used to like busking
when I could just do it, I used to go if I played in another
country somewhere, if I had plenty of time but there are too
many problems with it now. You can't just stand there and do
it... well some can. |
| |
I did
apply for a busking licence in London and they didn't give me
one (laughs). |
| Simon: |
Is
there any particular reason? |
| Lol: |
This is last year
(laughs) - they didn't think I was good enough for a busking
licence. I have only been doing it for twenty years anyway but
I just couldn't get the hang of it I suppose. (laughs) |
| |
|
Skipping
in the 