The Latin/Jazz Guitars Of Dominic Miller And Dylan Fowler
■ The Latin/Jazz Guitars Of Dominic Miller And Dylan Fowler■
■ Musicians ■
■ Dominic Miller(ドミニク・ミラー):G,Syn,Vo
■ Dylan Fowler(ディラン・ファウラー):G,Classical Guitar(Nylon String Guitar), Piano
■ Paul Carmichael(ポール・カーマイケル):Ba
■ Andy Barron(アンディ・バロン): Ds
■ David Heath(デヴィッド・ヒース):Flute
■ Eugenio Suaraz(エウヘニオ・スアラズ):Per
・Recording - The Music Factory(Cardiff UK),Elephant Studios(London UK),Wave Studios(London UK)
・Producer - Dominic Miller, Dylan Fowler
・Engineer - Dai Shell, Nick Robbins
■ Songs ■
A1. Center Street
A2. Blues For Lindy
A3. Over And Gone
A4. Sirocco
B1. Garden Party
B2. Memories Of You
B3. Let It Go
B4. Con Todo
B5. Elegy
B6. Take Seven
Written By:Dominic Miller(Track:A2,B1-B4,B6),
Dylan Fowler(Tracks:A4,B5),Dominic Miller & Dylan Fowler(Track:A1),John Abercrombie(Track:A3)
『The Latin/Jazz Guitars Of Dominic Miller And Dylan Fowler』。1984年にリリースされた、ドミニクとウェールズ出身のギタリスト、ディラン・ファウラーとのデュオアルバムです。これが事実上ドミニクが音楽界にデビューしたアルバムとなります。このアルバムは、サンデー・タイムズ紙の「ギター・アルバム・オブ・ザ・イヤー」に選ばれました。
LP盤の方はイギリスのCardiffという都市にある「Music Factory」というレーベルから出されています。そしてシングル盤の方は写真を見ると「Mornhurst Records」というレーベルから出ています。このレーベルについては調べましたが良く解りませんでした。ただ、写真を見ると「Made in Gt. Britain」と書いてあります。また、マスタリングに関しては有名なロンドンの「Utopia Studios」で行われたようです。録音はどこで行われたのかは解りませんでした。
LP盤の方はイギリスのCardiffという都市にある「Music Factory」というレーベルから出されています。そしてシングル盤の方は写真を見ると「Mornhurst Records」というレーベルから出ています。このレーベルについては調べましたが良く解りませんでした。ただ、写真を見ると「Made in Gt. Britain」と書いてあります。また、マスタリングに関しては有名なロンドンの「Utopia Studios」で行われたようです。録音はどこで行われたのかは解りませんでした。
このシングル盤の収録曲はA面がドミニクとディランの共作である「Center Street」、B面がドミニクによる「Memories Of You」です。この「Memories Of You」は、どうやら後の彼の代表曲の一つである「November」のモチーフが出てくるらしいです。いつか実際に聞いてみたいです!
そのページでは村治佳織さんが「London Paris Cardiff」という曲について書いた記事を紹介しています。村治佳織さんは演奏旅行が多い自分と、同じく演奏旅行が多いドミニクと自分をこの曲に重ね合わせたエピソードを語っています。コンサート前の楽屋で彼女がスティングに会った時のエピソードもあります。そちらもぜひご覧ください。(Read)
“The Latin/Jazz Guitars Of Dominic Miller And Dylan Fowler”, a duo album with Dominic and Welsh guitarist Dylan Fowler, released in 1984. It was actually Dominic’s debut album. The album was voted ‘Guitar Album of the Year’ by The Sunday Times in 1984.
Only about 1,000 copies of this album were pressed at the time and I remember Dominic himself once saying he didn’t have it. But I don’t have it and I’ve never heard any of the songs on it.
I’ll manage to get it eventually, but I’m sorry, I don’t have it now, so I can’t write about it because I don’t know what it’s about. So for now I’ll just write what I know about what they were doing at the time.
They formed a guitar duo specialising in a combination of Latin/jazz and original compositions, and were the exclusive contract musicians for the prestigious London club Pizza on the Park. They also played the Edinburgh Festival and a number of UK festivals, and did a short US tour.
I heard Dylan Fowler’s music, which was very different from that of guitarist Neil Stacey, who would go on to make the album “New Dawn “with Dominic. I feel that Dylan Fowler is more like Dominic than Neil, both musically and in his guitar playing. So I probably prefer Dylan’s guitar playing. He also seems to play Celtic and Gismonti type music. I’ve heard that and it was very good. I like his sound too.
There is a Dylan song called ‘Sirocco’ on A4 of the album and a song of the same name on Dominic’s ”Ad Hoc”. Is there a connection between the two songs? I’m not sure.
After the release they went their separate ways. Dominic formed a unit called “Iguazu” with flutist David Heath, who also played on this album, but this unit was unable to sign with a major label. Iguas features Andy Barron, who plays drums on the album, and Mike Lindup on keyboards. You can listen to the song on YouTube, it’s really cool and I like it. It’s a jazz fusion style song that was popular at the time. Please listen to it. I wonder why they couldn’t sign with a major label because it’s such a great song.
But this song is a bit hard to imagine from Dominic’s music now. But you can clearly see that Dominic wanted to make this kind of jazz fusion or John McLaughlin-like music at first. Well, I don’t think Dominic’s music would have become what it is today if he had debuted with that, so I’m glad it turned out this way. The name “Iguazu” refers to a large waterfall on the border between Brazil and Argentina, so it’s a fitting name for Dominic, who was born in Argentina but has absorbed a lot of Brazilian music.
I would be grateful to hear from anyone who knows more about this album. (The album IGUAZU was recently got and will be written about in a later article.)
28.1.2024 Additions
In fact, I was recently provided with some excellent information about the album.
“The Latin/Jazz Guitars Of Dominic Miller And Dylan Fowler” (1984) is an independently produced album, but was effectively the first album that Dominic Miller released.
However, it was discovered that a single version of this existed, released in 1982 on a different label to the LP version. So the first record Dominic Miller produced was this single disc.
The LP disc was released on the ‘Music Factory‘ label in Cardiff, UK. The single disc seems to have been released by ‘Mornhurst Records’, according to the photo.
I looked up the label Mornhurst Records but could not find out much about it. However, looking at the photo, it says ‘Made in Great Britain’. Also the mastering seems to have been done at the famous Utopia Studios in London. But it was not clear where the recording took place.
The songs on this single disc are ‘Centre Street’, co-written by Dominic and Dylan on the A-side, and ‘Memories Of You‘ by Dominic on the B-side. In ‘Memories Of You’ the motif of ‘November’, one of his later signature songs, seems to appear. I would like to hear it in person one day!
Also, in the original post above, I wrote: “There’s a song called ‘Sirocco’ written by Dylan, but I wonder if it has anything to do with the song of the same name in Dominic’s album Ad Hoc?” But this is apparently a completely different song. According to the informant, Dylan’s ‘Sirocco’ is a good song, with a rough arrangement but the feeling of having driven fast, and it is such a good song that it would not be surprising to see it released on ECM. And these two songs seem to be different takes from the LP disc.
About this LP disc,Dominic himself once said: “There were only about 1,000 copies pressed. And I don’t actually own it”. (Although he might have owned it since then). Also it is not entirely clear how many copies of this single disc were pressed, but Dominic was given this disc as a gift by one of his fans, who now owns it.
Incidentally, the label Music Factory, which produced the LP recordings, is located in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, England. This city is about two hours by InterCity train from London Paddington Station. And Dominic has a song called ‘London Paris Cardiff’. This song appears on the album “Fourth Wall”, released in 2006.The album “Fourth Wall” is described in more detail here.
In 2004, Dominic took part in the recording of four songs on the album “Tranceformations” by Kaori Muraji, one of Japan’s leading classical guitarists. Kaori Muraji recounts an episode in which she and Dominic, who travels a lot for performances, and herself, who also travels a lot for performances, were superimposed on this song. There is also an episode where she met Sting backstage before the concert. I hope you will also take a look at this article.
Note: Information about this single disc was provided by Yosh Okabe. Thank you very much for this valuable information!
Dylan Fowler‘s music really feels pretty close to Dominic’s musical world. His sound is different from Dominic’s, but otherwise he is very similar to Dominic in his sense of melody, his playing style which is very much about sound, and the way he creates space in his music.I think it’s very good and I like it a lot.