In early 1985 four musicians gathered in Tony Levin’s home in Birmingham and experimented with a new kind of jazz music. Featuring the experienced Skid and the rather younger Paul Dunmall on the saxophones that gave the band its name, they were supported by Paul Rogers on bass and host Tony Levin on drums. Fortunately there was a tape recorder on hand and one of the tracks they laid down appeared on Alan’s six-CD boxset A Supreme Love https://confrontrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/a-supreme-love published by Confront Recordings in 2023. “Modal Tonic” also appears in a number of versions in a two-CD set That’s Our Life issued by Jazz in Britain in May 2026.
The band didn’t last for long but fortunately, as well the recordings from Tony Levin’s rehearsal session, recordings were made in two studios and at the inaugural Pendley Manor Jazz Festival near Tring in Hertfordshire in July 1985. Some forensic work by John Thurlow of Jazz in Britain tracked them down to a noted collector in France. John explains:
The recordings came from Philippe Renaud a fan, promoter, collector, discographer and writer about British Jazz since the 70s. He had amassed a huge collection of live sessions recorded by friends all over Europe and some 10 years ago offered to sell them to me. I cherry-picked the ones I wanted and went and visited him in Tours when I was over there on holiday and brought them back to the UK. I had included four Tenor Tonic sessions because it was Skid and because I knew they had never released an album so it was added to the Jazz In Britain ‘prospects’ list.
Thank goodness he did and the results of his detective work with the help of Skid and Paul in compiling the informative booklet gives us an opportunity to experience this unique sound of significant 1980s jazz. Apart from Modal Tonic none of this material has been released before. The reaction has been unanimously positive. In UKVibe Alan Musson wrote this:
The music here displays a special kind of exuberance which is dangerously addictive. How could it be otherwise, propelled by the often-unrelenting power of drummer Tony Levin? Bassist Paul Rogers goes far beyond establishing a framework for his colleagues to extemporise over. He is always an equal partner.This is the first time this music has been publicly released, and it remains a mystery why the group didn’t release an album during their mid-1980s heyday.
And in Jazz Views Jack Kenny asked:
Why did the quartet not record? Why did critics at the time not enthuse over the music? Were stylistic differences responsible for the split? Whatever the answer, now, some excellent high-powered music is saved for posterity.
In the Morning Star Chris Searle enthused:
These are unbridled, passionate sessions with all members in full throttle. The Poplar date unleashes both horns in full revelation of their sonic power, with an insurgent Levin and earthen Rogers adding an exuberant rhythmic uplift. Their sound may take us back forty years, but it holds a now-times vigour that never gets old. It blows your boots off!
Blow your boots off too! Head over to Jazz in Britain to get your copy.
