INFLUENCES

John Walters describes some of his earliest musical memories, from childhood to the early days of Landscape

My earliest musical memories are of Dad singing the hook from Nat King Cole’s ‘Mona Lisa’ and Mum playing the piano: Chopin or Cole Porter. Grandad led the village choir for a while; I still use the music stand they gave him as a leaving present. He could use tonic sol fa to write down tunes he heard at the cinema or on the radio. My parents had Frank Sinatra records, and Mum pointed out the arranger: Nelson Riddle.

There were some excellent BBC schools programmes – I was particularly taken by Kodály’s Háry János suite and persuaded my parents to buy an LP. BBC Radio played records like Anthony Newley’s ‘Strawberry Fair’, Bernard Cribbins’ ‘class war’ classic ‘Hole in the Ground’ (produced by George Martin) and ‘African Waltz’ by John Dankworth.

The first records I bought were by twangy guitar band EPs – The Shadows and Jet Harris & Tony Meehan. I bought budget LPs by Manfred Mann, full of jazzy instrumentals, and Brubeck. I obsessed over The Beatles and loved the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band on Do Not Adjust Your Set.

Kodály led to Bartók and Stravinsky. Radio 3 was a treasure trove: Christopher Hogwood; Tim Souster; Jazz Record Requests with Charles Fox, whose slim Jazz In Perspective I bought by mail order.

Late night radio from DJs such as John Curle, Mike Raven, John Peel, Pete Drummond and ‘Specialist Bob’ on AFN (American Forces Network) played music both esoteric and fashionable: Shirley and Dolly Collins, MJQ, Fairport Convention, Quintessence, Cannonball Adderley, Egg, White Noise … from acoustic blues to Bitches Brew. I enjoyed Julie Driscoll’s ‘This Wheel’s on Fire’, Colosseum and Jack Bruce’s angular songs for Cream.

Some great live bands toured small venues in the late 1960s, and Chesterfield’s ‘Velvet Underground’ club had them all: Jethro Tull, Family (my favourite), King Crimson, Blodwyn Pig. Through Tull’s Ian Anderson I discovered Roland Kirk’s ‘Serenade to a Cuckoo’ and borrowed a flute to learn the tune. I never saw Donovan, but enjoyed his live band with Harold McNair, who also played flute on CCA’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’, then the Top of the Pops theme tune.

The bigger bands played Sheffield City Hall; I organised coach trips to take 40 fellow schoolkids to see Traffic there, and the Incredible String Band. I discovered systems music via Terry Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air, and when Radio 3 played Steve Reich’s Piano Phase one night, Dad stuck his head round the door to see what was wrong with the radio.

Peter Clayton’s programme championed British jazz. My friend Albert Opalko had a Saturday job and bought all the cool records, including Michael Gibbs, The Soft Machine’s Volume Two and The Trio. Violet May’s record shop in Sheffield had jazz bargains, including Miles in the Sky and Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot.

All these sounds inspired me to write music of my own – some of the tunes on Landscape’s 1975 cassette release Thursday the 12th date back to when I was in the sixth form at Shirebrook Comprehensive – but back then I didn’t know anyone who could play them. I started to attend jazz courses: the first, in Theydon Bois, was run by Graham Collier, so I got to meet his band, which included Harry Beckett and Alan Wakeman. (Alan later played on ‘Soul Train’, which I arranged and produced for Swans Way. Harry later depped for Dick Pearce in the eight-piece Landscape at the Troubadour.)

Alan told me to listen to A Love Supreme, so I ordered it from Berry’s in Worksop. The British jazz scene (later celebrated by Gilles Peterson in his Impressed compilations) was in creative ferment. The BBC’s jazz shows played Mike Westbrook, Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, Ian Carr’s Nucleus, Neil Ardley, Indo-Jazz Fusions, John Surman, John McLaughlin and more. Visiting London I got to see Graham record a live album (Mosaics) and Bob Downes with Barry Guy.

At the Barry Jazz Summer School of 1971 I met some amazing individuals, including Ian, Neil, Mike, trombonist Alf Waite, Ivor Cutler, Karl Jenkins, Gordon Beck (on whose Jaguar label Landscape later released Thursday the 12th) and bassist Roy Babbington. Neil gave a lecture during which he played magical pieces that thrill me to this day: The Unanswered Question (Charles Ives); the third movement of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms and Gil Evans’ magisterial arrangement of Kurt Weill’s ‘The Barbara Song’, which featured Wayne Shorter. Neil had just made an extended piece with electronics, The Time Flowers. Roy invited me to see him play with the Paul Jones Band; the support act was a very early Roxy Music.

In London I found my ‘jazz village’, but I also went to discos that gave me a fresh understanding of soul and R&B: Junior Walker; The Temptations; Sly and the Family Stone, leading to Earth Wind & Fire, Graham Central Station and the genius of Stevie Wonder. I noticed the names of arrangers: Paul Riser, Charles Stepney, Hall Overton, Paul Buckmaster, Jimmy Haskell. I studied privately with Neil, who had recently moved to Derbyshire, and listened closely to jazz composers: Ellington, Monk, Mingus, Gil Evans and Joe Zawinul, who had just formed Weather Report with Wayne Shorter.

At a jazz course run by the Dankworths at Wavendon, I met stern tutor Ken Gibson and fellow student Lewis Riley. Attending evening classes, some run by Don Rendell or Barbara Thompson, I met saxophonist Jimmy Jewell, who was a great source of jazz history lore, especially Charles Mingus (never ‘Charlie’). It was thrilling to see Jimmy on Top of the Pops later, soloing with Joan Armatrading.

At my second Barry Summer School, I met Chris Heaton, who introduced me to Crossings by Herbie Hancock and much more – I vividly recall Chris (when he was working at Universal Edition) dropping by with an open-reel tape of a Steve Reich work-in-progress: Music for 18 Musicians.

At King’s College London I took advantage of the music department’s library, which is how I came to hear Messiaen’s Turangalila-Symphonie, with its captivating Ondes Martenot part. I joined a student band and reviewed concerts by Ornette Coleman and Miles Davis for King’s News. I caught live jazz at Ronnie Scott’s, took part in jam sessions at St Katherine’s Dock; heard Derek Bailey, John Stevens and David Bedford at the Little Theatre Club; Steve Lacy at the V&A. I listened to Zappa, Chick Corea, The Band, Little Feat, Steely Dan, Bobby Charles (courtesy Charlie Gillett’s radio shows) S.O.S., Bach’s B Minor Mass and the great Carla Bley. I wrote scores and took them along to rehearsal big bands.

At my third Barry Summer School (August 1973), I met Richard Burgess (who I’d been advised to seek out by mutual friend Lewis Riley) and on the first day put together a student band to play my tunes, with Chris on keyboards.

What would become Landscape was beginning to take shape.

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Landscape A Go-go: the story of Landscape 1977-83. is out now, available from the Landscape official store, landscape.lnk.to/landscapeagogo