Alan Skidmore

Alan Skidmore (born April 21, 1942) is an English tenor saxophonist from London who served as a guest musician on albums by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Alexis Korner, and Brian Bennett circa 1966/67. Between 1968 and 1970, he played on albums by Mike Westbrook, John Surman, Harry Beckett, Graham Collier, Mike Cooper, Michael Gibbs, and The Nice.

Skidmore graduated to bandleader status with the 1970 Decca/Deram release Once Upon a Time, followed by the Philips title TCB in 1971. That same year, he appeared on albums by Soft Machine, Keith Tippett’s Centipede, the Rolf Kühn Jazzgroup, and Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath. Between 1972 and 1975, he expanded into pop/folk territory with backup work on albums by Sandy Denny, Byzantium, Labi Siffre, Lynsey De Paul, Michael De Albuquerque, String Driven Thing, Curved Air, and Howard Werth & The Moonbeams. During 1975 and 1976, Skidmore partook in the free-jazz supertrio S.O.S. and the multinational jazz-rock ensemble Third Eye.

Discography:

• Don’t Send Me No Flowers (1968 • Sonny Boy Williamson, Brian Auger & the Trinity, Joe Harriot, Alan Skidmore, Jimmy Page)
• Once Upon a Time (1970 • The Alan Skidmore Quintet)
• TCB (1971)
• Jazz in Britain ’68 – ’69 (1972 • John Surman, Alan Skidmore & Tony Oxley)
• Morning Rise (1977 • Alan Skidmore, Gerd Dudek, Adelhard Roidinger & Branislav Kovačev)