An Evening with Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt, the eminent songwriter, vocalist and drummer who co-founded art rock band Soft Machine in the mid 1960s, makes an appearance at the EFG London Jazz Festival to coincide with the publication of Different Every Time, his authorised autobiography, and a compilation of his music released on the Domino Records label. Wyatt will discuss his life and work with his biographer, Marcus O'Dair, touching upon the importance of the Canterbury rock scene on which Soft Machine, along with groups like Gong and Pink Floyd, rose to prominence.

In the process, he’ll no doubt shed light on the jazz influences that run through Soft Machine’s music, which blends psychedelic episodes and experimental electronic noise with extended passages of improvisation, funk and blues-inspired grooves and classic rock elements. Wyatt continued to draw on these influences when he left the band in 1971, after the release of End of an Ear, his first solo album. The record was followed by the landmark 1974 album Rock Bottom, a reference to a drunken fall from a window which left Wyatt paralysed from the waist down, prompting him to focus on his singing and songwriting in favour of playing drums. Later in his career, Wyatt worked with Brian Eno, Elvis Costello, Paul Weller and Pink Floyd-drummer Nick Mason, along with major names from the jazz world, among them Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Jack DeJohnette and British saxophonist Evan Parker.

For those familiar with Wyatt, this rare appearance is unmissable, while anyone new to his work will find it a fascinating insight into one of the British music scene’s most exciting periods and the life of one of its most distinctive voices.