The Canterbury "Scene": The Canterbury Style Is an Offshoot of Jazz-Rock Fusion

 In the 1960s the town of Canterbury, County Kent, England, became a source for the creative exploration of a loose, countercultural, even humorous take on jazz music--a form of progressive jazz music that we can look back upon now and see was really just an offshoot of the experimental fusing of elements of jazz, classical, folk and rock music that became known as Jazz-Rock Fusion. Paul Winter and bands like Popol Vuh, Oregon, Shakti, and CoDoNa explored a particular vein of jazz-rock fusion that tried to imbue their music with the sounds and traditions of ethnic or world musics. It seems as if the Canterbury Style artists were trying to explore a loose, quirky, humorous and yet cerebral and quintessentially British side of fusing ideas of free jazz and popular British comedy. It wasn't really a "scene" in Canterbury that promoted or attracted artists of this mindset, it was more like an esprit or zeitgeist that wafted from Canterbury around the world--as well as a set number of distinctive sounds and quirks. Most of the original bands assigned to the "Canterbury" designation were merely drawn to expressing themselves in the light, humorous way that Daevid Allen and protégé  Robert Wyatt pioneered--and most of them quickly moved "on" into rather serious Jazz-Rock Fusion (where they either stayed or eventually crumbled and disbanded). The list of short-lived bands having been designated with the "Canterbury" assignation are nearly as long as the 

Urial / Khan (one album released as Arzachel in 1969, one released as Khan in 1972)

Egg (three albums from 1970, 1971, and 1974)

Supersister (five albums released from 1970 to 1975)

Matching Mole (two albums in 1972)

Dedalus (one album in 1973, avant garde in 1974)

Hatfield And The North (two albums, 1974 & 1975)

Gilgamesh (two albums, 1975 & 1978)

Cos (five albums, 1974-1983)

Picchio Dal Pozzo (two albums, 1976 & 1980)

Patrick Forgas (one album in 1977)

National Health (three albums, 1978-1982)

Zyma (two albums, 1978 & 1979)

and even the long-lasting bands, like The Soft Machine, Caravan, Kevin Ayers, Gong, and Robert Wyatt all had a virtually revolving door of musicians helping them morph through various styles and sounds, often differing drastically from album to album, each spinning off numerous musicians motivated to start their own bands. And, notice, six of those above-cited bands aren't even British much less from Canterbury. It's a style--a style that emerged from the experimental phase one or "First Wave" of that which we now call Jazz-Rock Fusion.

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