Slender Loris
A Natural Selection
© 2006 Andrew Morton (634479292002)
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Slender Loris specialised in a unique blend of rock and jazz-fusion with intelligent lyrics,vocally soul flavoured by Curtis Little, but mixing rock, funk and jazz on the instrumental side.
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Slender Loris, with their unique blend of rock, funk and jazz were an amalgam of the original progressive acoustic band featuring Andy Morton, Phil Kirwan and Martin Berry with the jazz rockers Dave Bristow and Micky Barker. Between 1975 and 1978, they were one of Birmimgham's major bands, touring extensively on the college circuit and running residencies at The Barrel Organ in Birmingham and The Imperial Hotel in Nottingham. They supported many major bands of the day including Procul Harum, Curved Air and Mike Nesmith.
Although never signed to a major label, they released a handful of vinyl singles and E.P.s, which are now collectors' items and cherished by Loris's still existing fan-base.
The recordings on this album were made in a variety of small studios and radio stations and have been polished up sonically by Andy Morton from the original reel-to-reel tape recordings.The band made the decision to release the music after a stretch of 25 years in 2000, and the website at slenderloris.com has refreshed old interest and generated some new. The recordings on A Natural Selection are a comilation of recordings on two previous albums, Recordings Voulme One and Survival of the Species, both of which are available through the website, as are more recent recordings by Andy, Phil and Martin.
The personnel on this album is as follows: Phil Kirwan on guitar and backing vocals -Phil's distinctive poetic/ironic lyrical songwriting talent is a strong feature of the album; Martin Berry plays bass, tightly knit with the original drumming style of Micky Barker - Martin is also a major songwritng contributor, with a gentler style of song; Dave Bristow adds panache on piano and the arrangenments on these later songs owe much to Dave's sophisticated jazz-based style. Topping it all off are Curtis Little's rich vocals.
The original three-piece Slender Loris, in the form of Andy, Martin and Phil still get together in an acoustic format for the occasional gig and all three of them still write separately and together. After the demise of the band, Dave Bristow spent some years wroking for Yamaha, and has the distinction of being the man who voiced the DX7, one of the best selling synths of all time. He now lives and works in the USA. Micky Barker spent some years drumming for the Birmingham band Magnum, and when last sighted, was playing with The Bushburies.Phil, Martin and Andy, for their sins, returned to the world of teaching, but have played in an assortment of local bands over the years. Andy has also written music for theatre and TV documentaries.Curtis still has his band, The Curtis Little Band,and can be heard regularly playing gigs around Birmingham and beyond. It's a tight set-up and worth seeing.
Andy Morton's contribution here is mainly in the organisation and remastering of the original recordings and making them available to a wider public. More information on the past and present of Slender Loris is available at slenderloris.com
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Excellent CD, good quality, excellent musicians
author: Duane StockExcellent CD and good quality as it was all recorded 30 years ago. Excellent talented musicians - shame they never hit the big time !