Musicians on Jake’s albums

[mark sturdy]

Reading Beware of the Bull has reminded me of a few things about Jake’s music that I’ve mused on over the years and haven’t been definitively answered as far as I know.

First of these stems from the fact that Jake’s albums are very slim on credits – only Jake’s Progress and On Again! actually credit the musicians. So who played on the other records?

On Last Will and Testament, putting aside the orchestral players, it sounds to me like the players on the ‘band’ tracks are the same ones who backed him on Braden’s Week – it’s certainly a very similar sound and style. Those guys, in turn, seem mostly to be same band who are credited on Jake’s Progress –

Ike Isaacs – guitar
Frank Clarke – bass
Frank Horrox – piano

However there’s also a drummer on both Last Will and Braden’s Week (and possibly in the distant background on Jake’s Progress?) who I don’t think is credited anywhere. Anyone know who this might be? Apparently Norman Newell tended to hire some real hot-shot jazz drummers on his productions more generally, so maybe if there’s a close-up of Jake’s drummer on the forthcoming BBC DVD, there might be a chance of identifying him.

Then we get to Bantam Cock, which sounds like a different crew altogether. It’s a bit of a puzzle because Jake definitely worked with Ike Isaacs both before and afterwards – even as late as That’s Life in 1977. However the guitarist here, while he’s playing stuff that would have been well within Isaacs’ capabilities, has a different style altogether – lots of 12-string, a bit of wah-wah, more folk-blues than jazzy. The piano style is quite different too – there’s less of it for a start, and it’s mostly much more simple and spare than Frank Horrox’s contributions. And then there’s another unidentified percussionist!

If Paul and John haven’t managed to uncover the identity of these players there’s not much chance anyone else will have, but if anyone has an idea, do pipe up…

[Paul]

Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to access EMI’s studio documentation when we researching the book because the archive was in the process of moving, and wasn’t even available to the staff of Warner Music Group (which has owned Jake’s catalogue since the demise of EMI).

Frank Horrox is definitely not he pianist on the Bantam Cock album because he died a month before the recording sessions. (He was only 48).

If anyone else has information about the musicians on Last Will and Bantam Cock, I, too, would love to hear what they have to say.

[mark sturdy]

I’m not sure even EMI’s paperwork would necessarily reveal the names of the musicians. There’s a book called Random Precision by David Parker which exhaustively documents Syd Barrett’s recordings for EMI, which took place contemporaneously with Jake’s. David had full access to the archives and none of the session players are named at any point – the booking forms mention the number of players (members of the “orchestra/chorus”, in EMI’s delightfully quaint terms), but not who they are.

I guess the documentation you found for Braden’s Week didn’t have any indication of who the.musicians were?

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