HE WHO DARES - HEWINS/DEAN by I'm flattered, thx ;)

<b>ELTON DEAN - Saxello - MARK HEWINS - E Guitar
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Taken from:
Elton Dean "Duo's and Trio's" CD © Ⓟ</b>
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Title taken from the British 'Special Air Services' motto: *HE WHO DARES, WINS*
Originally written on my amplifier during a tour of France by John Greaves, right in the middle of a particularly memorable SOFT HEAP concert. He used an indelible black felt tip pen.
The words, and musical intent, are still there, written on the front of my PolyTone 'MiniBrute'.
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One of my most favourite tracks that I ever played on.
Recorded direct to tape at Paul Westwaters studio in Dalston, London.
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We used to begin the <b>SOFT HEAP</b> concerts with this piece which could range in length and intensity, depending on the 'feel' of an audience which at times became riotous and noisy. On occasions, even <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/19980523080350/http://musart.co.uk/stories/riot.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b>violent and dangerous</b></a>.
This version; I hesitate to call it 'Improv' as we were always able to control the emotional content fully, it affected us, playing this deep. Neither Elton or I ever tired of this 'conversational' music flow.
We embraced after we finished this (only) take and there were tears in both my, and Eltons eyes.
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At times audible are the vibrations caused by Elton's saxello interacting with the guitar strings. A third voice.
I did not touch the strings at all during this performance and I used no 'effects pedals', only the tone and volume controls.
Also, I used the tuner on the bottom string of Guitar itself, (My Gibson SG), for the (spontaneous) harmonic shape.
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Elton used his classic original Saxello on this session. He managed to obtain another years later but It was the 'keening' tone and timbre of this, his original instrument, that I truly adored..</b>
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RIP and Bless you old friend...
Markx
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<i>(Just so there is no mistake, Elton also told me to use any recordings as I could. For whatever reason I wanted. His share of the proceeds to go to his relevant family members)</i>