Black Top's debut will be called Black Top No. 1 with the recording taken from the opening night concert of Black Top at Jazz in the Round in the Cockpit on 30 January last year. Black Top was initiated in the latter part of 2011 by Jazz Warrior and multi-instrumentalist Orphy Robinson and pianist/sound sculptor Pat Thomas, their official biography states, continuing: "Conceived as a shape shifting ensemble, Black Top explores the intersection between live instruments and lo-fi technology. They combine twisted loops, samples, dub-effects that draw on their Afro-Caribbean roots and with the spirit of pure improvisation which is rooted in the free jazz experiments of NYC musicians like Sam Rivers."
The ensemble made its debut in Dalston’s Café Oto and Black Top see the club as "a regular home for their excursions". While Orphy and Pat throw around random and memorable phrases like 'Archaic Nubian Step Dub' this "meeting of musical minds" is "dedicated to developing working relationships with virtuoso musicians from across the cultural and generational spectrum who can match their own technical dexterity and handle the element of surprise."
Last year Black Top performed at the Gateshead Jazz Festival in the Sage, and at the Jazzfestival Konfrontationen in Nikelsdorf, Austria, where they as well as performing as a unit also appeared with cult Australian improvisers The Necks. Black Top actually started 2012 with the Black Top No. 1 set and then introduced "varying combinations" into the Cafe Oto setting. From trio sets that included the addition in turn of saxophonists Steve Williamson, Shabaka Hutchings, and Jason Yarde, the ensemble began to expand, embracing the vocals of Cleveland Watkiss, the flugelhorn of Claude Deppa, harmonica of a youthful Philip Achille who the band extraordinarily encountered busking on the tube, and the trumpet of Byron Wallen who also appeared as part of Big Black Top, a sextet that featured the words of Shake Keane and the drums of the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari. Futher "sound explorations" have seen Black Top uniting with Japanese violinist Satoko Fukuda, Nigerian vocalist Fumi Okiji, alto saxophonist Caroline Kraabel, South African master drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo, spoken word artist HKB Finn, and percussionist Walt Shaw. SG
Orphy Robinson above and Black Top in performance at the Cockpit in Marylebone on 30 January 2012 the night Black Top No. 1 was recorded at Jez Nelson's Jazz in the Round session in the London theatre. Orphy Robinson and Pat Thomas play the London Jazz Festival at Cafe Oto in London on Friday 15 November and on Saturday 16 November with special guests Marco Eneidi (on the Friday); and Neil Charles, Cleveland Watkiss, & Byron Wallen (on the Saturday). www.cafeoto.co.uk
More on Black Top's signing: http://www.marlbank.net/news/1192-the-babel-label-signs-black-top