SLAMCD5117 Kevin Figes & Julie Tippetts – Happy Apples

‘Happy Apples’ presents a collection of improvised duo exchanges between legendary free jazz vocalist Julie Tippetts, whose spell-binding vocals intermingle perfectly with saxophonist Kevin Figes’ atmospheric playing.

Both musicians supplement the recording with an array of percussive devices, including the quirky tinkling 1970s toy that lends the album its name. The epic opening track “The Third Harmony” sets the mood for the recording as Tippetts displays a dazzling array of vocal techniques throughout, with Figes switching to flute and percussion accompaniment. Other tracks involve strange sounds – a crackling transistor radio, squeaking plastic chicken and toy duck that complement the traditional instruments and Julie’s voice, which is the most powerful and striking of them all.

Julie Tippetts is undoubtedly one of the most inventive and exploratory vocalists working in improvised music. As Julie Driscoll, she helped define the 1960s performing psychedelic soul with Brian Auger. Since the 1970s, she has focused on experimental and improvised music. She performed with various groups led by Keith Tippett (whom she married) and also performed with the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Robert Wyatt, Carla Bley, Maggie Nichols, Phil Minton and Martin Archer.

Kevin Figes studied with Elton Dean and Tim Garland. In the early 1990s, he moved to Bristol and began a long and fruitful association with Keith Tippett. A supremely versatile musician, he has played everything from funk, Brazilian music, jazz-rock and avant-garde music.

‘Happy Apples’ is available on a limited edition 4-panel digipak CD with sleeve notes by Daniel Spicer (The Wire / Jazzwise).

Kevin Figes: soprano and alto saxophones, flute, bass flute, piano, transistor radios, chicken
Julie Tippetts: voice, zither, Happy Apples, ducks, percussion

Press Quotes:

“This is an extraordinary recording from Figes and Tippetts, an aural delight that will tease, tantalise, beguile and bewilder in equal measures…music of rare originality and beauty.” – Nick Lea, Jazz Views

“Opening track ‘The Third Harmony’ is an epic and impressive journey as Tippetts deploys some of the enormous range of vocalizing styles at her disposal. Wordless operatic swoopings lead to bluesy meanderings and neo-Bulgarian ululations, all woven through with atmospheric zither, rainmaker and flute. After that, though, things get increasingly playful, culminating in a series of brief pieces including the eponymous ‘Happy Apples’ and ending with the irreverent ‘Duck Off’ duo of m’bira and duck call. They clearly had a whole lot of fun.” – Tony Benjamin, Jazzwise

“The fact that many of the 15 tracks clock in at under a minute, offsetting the almost 15 minutes taken up by the opening The Third Harmony, almost makes regarding the whole album as one continuous piece logical regardless of the sometimes abrupt changes of volume, mood, colour and the like. The titular apples are apparently a children’s toy-cum-random-sound-generator from the 1970s. Tippetts’ use of them here, along with Figes’ use of a squeaking plastic chicken, makes for a strand of anarchic intimacy.” – Nic Jones, Jazz Journal

All tracks composed by Kevin Figes & Julie Tippetts
Recorded 22nd February 2023
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Jim Barr at J & J Studio, Bristol

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