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Brian Case

Brian Case

Brian Case wrote extensively about jazz for rock'n'roll bible New Musical Express from the mid-'70s, later moving to Melody Maker.

82 articles

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Pharoah Sanders has been here and gone

Retrospective by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 22 June 1974

BRIAN CASE delves back into the jumping New York scene of the '60s, to a time when avant garde musicians like Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, ...

Albert Ayler: The Holy Ghost

Retrospective by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 6 July 1974

Gothic horror, funeral processions, The Exorcist ten years early on a crazed tenor. The critics loathed it. Audiences stayed away in droves. ALBERT AYLER. Have ...

Miles Davis: Young Man with a Horn

Retrospective by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 14 September 1974

THE EARLY YEARS OF MILES DAVIS: on the bandstand with Bird where changes came fast and tricky... to keep fools away. ...

Miles Davis: Not Waving But Drowning?

Retrospective by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 28 September 1974

Miles Dewey Davis, Part Two...in which the temperamental Frank Sinatra of jazz swings a pugnacious blow at the faithful by blowing a little jazz-rock ...

Hound Dog Taylor, Junior Wells: Chicago: Big City Blues

Report by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 4 January 1975

How ya gonna pull a black chick, honkie baby? The answer: Don't try. You could get wasted — BRIAN CASE prowls round the rough, tough blues joints ...

Art Ensemble of Chicago: The Art Ensemble of Chicago: Like Hi Man, I's Yo New Neighbour

Report and Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 11 January 1975

Yep, it's a tough town and the music fits like a glove. BRIAN CASE meets The Art Ensemble of Chicago on their home patch. ...

John Coltrane: The Trane now waiting on p.30...

Retrospective by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 25 January 1975

...was no cheap day-excursion, bub. This guy went all the way — heap far out, kemo-sabe. JOHN COLTRANE, him make mighty spirit music. BRIAN CASE, ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin: John McLaughlin: Phew! — This is a Jolly Interesting Article!

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 1 February 1975

— And BOY! has it got a lot in it! First, there's the full gen on Miles Davis, plus all the top-secret stuff about In ...

Chick Corea, Return to Forever: Chick Corea: Playing the Harmonics of a Hotel Ass Cushion

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 8 February 1975

...among other harmonics of course. The piano man describes the development of his new outlook to BRIAN CASE ...

Larry Coryell: Coryell and Spam... (With Not So Much Miles In It)

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 22 February 1975

"I'm always secretly happy when somebody comes to me after a concert and says 'I didn't like it because it was too commercial.' It means ...

Dollar Brand/Abdullah Ibrahim: Dollar Brand: Improvisations on Life

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 29 March 1975

DOLLAR BRAND don't take music lightly. No sir! So fasten your seat-belts please for a guided tour of Allah, the meaning of life, Africa, the ...

Alphonse Mouzon: Meet the Seaside Landlady's Nightmare

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 12 April 1975

Your delicate NME representative cowers under his seat in the hotel lounge while Alphonse Mouzon ('my real name's Manny Finkelbaum') lives up to his heavy rep as ...

Carla Bley: Arrangements for the Death Dance

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 26 April 1975

The socio-musical thoughts of Carla Bley ...

Ronnie Scott: The East End whizz kid who copped the bop

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 17 May 1975

FEATURING THE RONNIE SCOTT STORY, IN GLORIOUS BRIANCASERAMA ...

Cecil Taylor: Ladies and gentlemen, please adjust your re-entry goggles

Profile and Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 7 June 1975

...CECIL TAYLOR has left the Stanford-Binet scale and is still climbing fast. The treble clusters are zipping into the stratosphere. The memory banks have blown. ...

John Coltrane, Elvin Jones, Sonny Rollins: Elvin Jones: This Is The Surgeon Who Pared The Flab

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 21 June 1975

His name? ELVIN JONES — the man who dissected drum technique, put it together with new muscles, and has been demonstrating the product at Ronnie ...

Billy Cobham: When This Man Plays Drums, He Thinks Of A Box Trying To Roll

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 26 July 1975

BRIAN CASE interviews BILLY COBHAM, the Buddy Rich of the seventies. ...

Betty Davis: Ronnie Scott's, London

Live Review by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 25 October 1975

WITH THE Viking Warrior Case fresh in every mind, punters packed Ronnie's for the Betty Davis exposure. A threat to the moral health of the ...

Art Blakey: "All This Rock Noise. It's Gotta Go. It's Not True."

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 8 November 1975

Sez who? Sez ART BLAKEY. Art's got an opinion on most subjects. So d'you wanna hear a discourse on world problems? Drummers who use huge ...

Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Weather Report: Wayne Shorter: From Mr. Weird to the Hollywood Hills

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 13 December 1975

Here's WAYNE SHORTER taking care of business. TCB. And what business — taking in the days with Maynard, the Messengers, and Miles right through to today's WEATHER ...

Horace Silver: Phil T. McNasty, Hippy Dippy outa Detroit, and other characters

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 1 May 1976

HORACE LOOKED like a greyhound in a basket. Knees pulled up to his chin, high shoulders canted up under the lobes of his ears, hands ...

Sonny Rollins: Outlook Sonny

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 29 May 1976

SONNY ROLLINS. Mister Big. BRIAN CASE'S main man on a bad line. Case fumbles the introductory bouquet... emerges with a satisfied smile. ...

Robert Wyatt: The Wild Spume of His Hair Broke Over My Bowsprit

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 26 June 1976

...and I felt the tape line tauten on my cassette recorder as ROBERT WYATT plunged forward into the waves. ...

Mel Tormé: Velvet Peasouper Blankets West End

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 24 July 1976

MEL TORMÉ talks LIKE THIS. He has VERY STRONG OPINIONS and also DOESN'T LIKE cigarette SMOKE. ...

Cannonball Adderley, Count Basie, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Sun Ra: OK, smarty, so how do y'shift the whole world off its axis?

Report by Brian Case, New Musical Express, August 1976

Simple. SUN RA knew that one way back. Every musician on the planet just gotta play a C7th — all at the same time. While ...

Weather Report: This Man Is Watching Out For Custard Pies

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 7 August 1976

It seems most successful artists participate in the ritual — with Presley coming to mind as a particularly adept dodger. Right now, though, we're watching ...

Dr. Feelgood: Dr Feelgood: 'Ere, who you screwing, John?

Report and Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 2 October 1976

Once again our halls of entertainment echo to the banshee wail of urban youth. Here BRIAN CASE, always the man to spot the first robin ...

Demis Roussos: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 23 October 1976

MUZAK OF THE GODS ...

Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Muddy Waters: Muddy Waters, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Rollins: New Victoria Theatre, London

Live Review by Brian Case, Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 6 November 1976

GETTIN' BACK TO IT: MUDDY WATERS, McCOY TYNER & SONNY ROLLINS brought Newport to London's New Victoria Theatre on Saturday. CSM & BRIAN CASE went ...

Luther Allison, Eddie Boyd, Eddie "Guitar" Burns, John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim, Muddy Waters: Woke Up This Mornin', Blues Gone Down The Drain

Report and Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 4 December 1976

The Blues is getting old, and young black kids ain't taking over where the old-timers are leaving off. BRIAN CASE talks on the subject with ...

Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Kirk's Works

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 15 January 1977

In spite of a stroke, multi-instrumentalist RAHSAAN ROLAND KIRK is still hangin' in there, copying carpets and capturing the sound of the sun. ...

Valerie Wilmer: "Art is a luxury. Music is a functional thing."

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 7 May 1977

Photographer-writer VALERIE WILMER opts for unlearning and the sovereignty of the heart ...

George Benson: Benson Hedges His Bets...

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 28 May 1977

When 'jazz guitar' rises on the Dow-Jones Index you know there's been a crossover. GEORGE BENSON made the switch from beret to broader base but ...

Stan Getz: You Getz what you deservz

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 26 November 1977

...Says Stan the Tenorman, with no time for hard luck stories and strong opinions on everything. He talks to BRIAN CASE ...

Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Requiem For Rahsaan

Obituary by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 17 December 1977

THE DEATH of Rahsaan Roland Kirk at the age of 41, shortly after playing two concerts with his group, The Vibration Society, at Indiana University ...

Blues Incorporated, Graham Bond, Colosseum, Cyril Davies, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Alexis Korner, John Mayall: Dick Heckstall-Smith: He Didn't Make A Million...

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 28 January 1978

Although he paid a lot of dues — with Korner, Bond, Mayall, Colosseum and a handful of Rolling Stones — veteran R 'n' B tenorman ...

Art Pepper, Before And After Life

Profile and Interview by Roy Carr, Brian Case, New Musical Express, 11 February 1978

And still going strong. The alto legend is working again after beating heroin addiction and 12 years in jail. ...

Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Billericay Dickie vs. Uncle Sam

Report and Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 15 April 1978

Two Cultures Collide: BRIAN CASE on IAN DURY & THE BLOCKHEADS' U.S. tour ...

Bo Diddley's a Gunslinger

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 6 May 1978

That was the title of one of the influential, flamboyant R'n'B man's hits, for you punks too young to remember. But nowadays, believe it or ...

Dexter Gordon: The Exile's Return

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 27 May 1978

Fashion and fate have dealt a few blows — but now DEXTER GORDON is cutting in, recapturing America and standing CBS on its head. The ...

Randy Newman: Randy Takes The Fifth Amendment

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 10 June 1978

RANDY NEWMAN talks to BRIAN CASE...but BRIAN CASE does the talking ...

Howard Johnson, Taj Mahal: Howard Johnson: He's Got His HoJo Working..

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 17 June 1978

HOWARD JOHNSON has played with everybody — from Mingus and Taj Mahal to Lennon and The Band. And he won't hear a word against his ...

The Stonehenge Summer Solstice Festival: Hippies — Will This Sinister Cult Catch On?

Report by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 29 June 1978

NME's fluid druid, BRIAN CASE gets unhinged at Stonehenge, meets strange young people with long hair, observes weird rites and inexplicable occurrences and stands in ...

Annette Peacock: The Lyceum, London

Live Review by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 12 August 1978

ONE OF THOSE musical experiences devised as a tape-loop for the Pavlov Institute, Pekin, the oddly assorted fare at the Lyceum drew a deservedly tiny ...

Freddie Hubbard: Chokin' On The Eezi Spred...

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 26 August 1978

FREDDIE HUBBARD tried a slice garnished a la Creed Taylor but the taste proved unsatisfactory. Here's how. ...

David Toop: Gorilla Noises & Mains Hum

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 23 September 1978

Free musician DAVID TOOP fingers the West while Lol Coxhill unleashes a gorilla tape in the toilet. ...

Bonzo Dog Band, Vivian Stanshall: Vivian Stanshall: Afloat!

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 25 November 1978

Yes, it's the tang of the salt spray in a Force 9 from Finisterre with regard to this one, hipmates; A rollicking tale which tells how Silver's parrot changed his ...

John Cooper Clarke: The Salford Surrealist

Report and Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 16 December 1978

A poet and his roots ...

Ian Dury: The Quare Fella

Report and Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 23 December 1978

BRIAN CASE goes on the road with Ian Dury and the Blockheads in Dublin. ...

Art Ensemble of Chicago: Lester Bowie: Gittin' to Know Y'all

Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 24 February 1979

LESTER BOWIE plays trumpet the way Leo Watson scats. His music is a funfair hall of mirrors with as many straight lines as a switchback ...

Art Ensemble of Chicago: The Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 31 March 1979

PROBABLY THE only unanswered question by now for most of their followers on this side of The Big Moist, is how they look when they ...

Art Ensemble of Chicago: The Art Ensemble of Chicago: The Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 31 March 1979

PROBABLY THE only unanswered question by now for most of their followers on this side of The Big Moist, is how they look when they ...

Chet Baker: The Price Of A Golden Horn

Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 14 April 1979

If they gave rebates on overpaid dues, Chet Baker could buy Monte Carlo. BRIAN CASE found the Cool Generation's tragic hero still fighting off the ...

Tom Waits: Wry & Danish To Go

Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 5 May 1979

...

Ian Dury & the Blockheads: Do It Yourself (Stiff SEEZ14)

Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 19 May 1979

Dury: the tra-la days are over ...

Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson: 100 Club, London

Live Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 16 June 1979

CLEANHEAD MAY have lost his hair, but whisps of Charlie's Wig cluster about his alto. In fact, everything about his performance preserves the flavour of ...

Babs Gonzales: Gone — Babs Gonzales

Obituary by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 9 February 1980

BABS GONZALES, who died of cancer on January 23, was one of those frantic Forties bebop hipsters who seem to broom but fractionally ahead of ...

Art Ensemble of Chicago: The Art Ensemble of Chicago: Dressing Up To Play

Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 30 August 1980

The Art Ensemble's percussionist, Famoudou Don Moye, levels, bevels and revels in costume. BRIAN CASE sits and watches ...

Ornette Coleman: Focus on Sanity

Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 27 June 1981

The legendary innovator ORNETTE COLEMAN at the ballet. Up on his points in bright green tutu is Brian Case. ...

Billy Eckstine: Hot under the collar

Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 2 January 1982

BILLY ECKSTINE lets the good anecdotes roll. Notebook: Brian Case ...

Bob Stewart: Tuba, or not tuba?

Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 9 January 1982

This could be the age of the tuba players... time for the likes of BOB STEWART. Brian Case is on oom pah. ...

Ornette Coleman: Of Human Feelings (Antilles AN 2001)

Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 8 May 1982

Sounds in motion ...

Miles Davis: We Want Miles (CBS 88579)

Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 22 May 1982

Miles and miles of smiles ...

Sun Ra: Strange Celestial Road (Y Records Y19)

Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 5 June 1982

OFTEN IN Sun Ra performances I've found myself keeping the faith up to the mark with reminders of the bandleader's pioneering work to avoid concentrating ...

Tom Waits: Swordfishtrombones (Island ILPS 9762)

Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 8 October 1983

WITH 15 TRACKS, this is sketchbook Waits and indicates the range of his writing gifts. Maybe it's the influence of writing music for movies, but ...

Orchestra Jazira: Nomadic Activities (Beggars Banquet BEGA 56)

Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 15 September 1984

WANDERING STARS ...

Wynton Marsalis: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 22 September 1984

TRUST WYNTON Marsalis to try the most difficult crossover of all. There has been very little successful commuting between jazz and classical music, although the ...

Gil Evans: Birth Of The Cool At 72

Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 20 October 1984

The film version of Colin MacInnes' classic Fifties novel, Absolute Beginners, has attracted a wealth of talent including Elvis Costello, Mick Jagger and American jazz ...

Archie Shepp: Sax in the Afternoon

Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 25 May 1985

ARCHIE SHEPP has grown... smarter, smoother, slicker. But he still blows a mean sax. Brian Case shares his cab and a Scotch with the jazz ...

Miles Davis: You're Under Arrest (CBS)

Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 15 June 1985

JUDGING BY the cover shots of Miles looking studiedly dangerous with a sub-machinegun, and judging by the music too, the great man is after the ...

Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto: Stan Getz: The guy from Ipanema

Retrospective by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 27 July 1985

Brian Case (grass skirt, hula-hoop) examines the resurgence in popularity of latinate saxman Stan Getz ...

Marvin Gaye: Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye (by David Ritz, Michael Joseph £6.95)

Book Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 7 September 1985

BIOGRAPHER RITZ, who was collaborating on a life of Marvin Gaye with the soul singer when events overtook him, was certainly in the cat-bird seat ...

Bobby Womack: So Many Rivers (MCA)

Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 14 September 1985

IS BOBBY Womack, in the words of his song, the only survivor left standing here? Soul has suffered a death rate comparable with early bebop, ...

Cecil Taylor: Into The Hot

Overview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 5 October 1985

CECIL TAYLOR isn't easy listening, but he's unique in remaining committed to pushing back the boundaries of jazz at a time when his former contemporaries ...

Miles Davis: Golden Miles

Overview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 19 October 1985

MILES DAVIS has been one of the single most influential figures in the history and development of modern jazz, not only through his playing and ...

Charlie Watts Big Band: Ronnie Scott's, London

Live Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 30 November 1985

PARTY TIME AGAIN ...

Art Pepper: The Art of darkness

Retrospective by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 11 January 1986

His story is a 'feast of rape, voyeurism, compulsive masturbation and armed robbery'. Brian Case on the legend of former drug addict, jailbird and sax ...

Bobby "Blue" Bland: Bobby Bland: Members Only (Malaco)

Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 1 February 1986

MEMBERS' ENCLOSURE ...

David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Working Week: Absolute Beginners

Special Feature by Brian Case, Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 22 March 1986

AT LONG last, it's almost here. Poor old JULIEN TEMPLE has been working on his movie of Colin MacInnes' novel Absolute Beginners apparently since the ...

Max Jones, 1917-1993

Obituary by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 14 August 1993

IT WAS ALWAYS impossible to tell Max Jones, who died this month aged 76, anything about jazz that he didn't already know, or indeed get ...

Chet Baker, Trumpeter, 1929-1988

Book Excerpt by Brian Case, On the Snap (Caught by the River, 2015), 2015

I CAN REMEMBER that Chet was major despondent. A black cloud marking time. Why was I interviewing him? No particular reason. The Jazz Centre Society ...

The NME, Music Paper, 1952–

Book Excerpt by Brian Case, On the Snap (Caught by the River, 2015), 2015

THERE WAS a general impression among the rock writers when I arrived that jazz was something that went with pottery in St Ives, whereas I ...

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