16/12/2008 Dusty Groove

Two different meetings between British pianist Steve Miller and reedman Elton Dean -- recorded almost a decade apart, but both great in their own way! The first 2 tracks on the set are from a 1985 live performance -- one that features Miller on piano, Eddie Prevost on drums, Tony Moore on bass, and Elton Dean on saxello -- a crisp-toned instrument that works especially well for his open-ended musings! The performance is relatively spare, and often led by Dean's improvisations, then colored in with Miller's piano and some especially nice drum work from Prevost -- working in that post-AMM mode that made him a standout talent on the British scene during the 1980s. The last track on the set is from 1976, and features Dean on alto, Miller on piano, and Pip Pyle on drums -- all working together in trio mode with a slightly warmer, more inside feel. Miller's piano is especially nice, filled with those stretched-out lines we love in his studio recordings from the time -- and Dean's alto is less daring than later, but in a nice way.

24/08/2008 Jon Dale ~ Attic Plan

Steve Miller Trio Meets Elton Dean...fierce stuff from the English free underground, 1970s style. Particularly staggering to hear Eddie Prevost on highly active form through the Bull and Gate gig documented on the Miller set. Simultaneously bracing and joyous.

http://atticplan.blogspot.com

30/06/0008 Nic Jones

"Here's another exercise in musical archaeology from Reel Recordings and it is worthy of loud and prolonged applause. British pianist Miller was always a worthwhile player, shaping up here as he often did as the British Mal Waldron in terms of his purged-of-excess approach to the keyboard. He always kept sound musical company and the presence of both Dean and drummer Eddie Prevost testifies to that here.

Made in the moment, “Dedicated To Few” is a highly persuasive manifesto for such an approach. When the music bucks and boils it's only as an outcome of what's gone before, with each musician's powers of response really tested. For the record, none of them are found wanting. Despite the billing, this is music that willfully and indeed joyfully subverts the soloist with accompaniment trope, although anything that might imply that voices are raised in serving the end of empty cacophony doesn't apply here. Instead the optimum term could just be 'organic.'"