hypersongs

Jade Warrior

A British progressive rock band formed in 1970 by Tony Duhig, Jon Field and Glyn Havard, who made a drummerless debut for Vertigo and then the Island albums Floating World, Waves and Kites.

From July to Jade Warrior

Jade Warrior formed in 1970, evolving from the band July, earlier the Tomcats. Tony Duhig, born in Acton in 1941 on guitar, and Jon Field, born in Harrow in 1940 on flute and percussion, met working in a factory in the 1960s; July made one album of psychedelic pop in 1968 and folded. Glyn Havard, born in Nantyglo, Wales in 1947, met Duhig in Iran afterward, and Duhig and Havard returned and contacted Field. Duhig and Field wrote most of the music and Havard played bass and wrote lyrics and sang.

Their self-titled debut came out on Vertigo in 1971, self-produced, 44:06, with no drum kit, Field supplying percussion on non-Western instruments. Vertigo, according to a Musicaficionado account, signed them reluctantly as part of a package with Assagai and gave little promotion. Released and Last Autumn's Dream followed in 1971 and 1972, and the trio became a quintet with reeds and drums. The band dissolved after the 1972 American tour when the Vertigo contract was cancelled, and Eclipse and Fifth Element, recorded in 1973, stayed unreleased until 1998.

Island and after

Steve Winwood encouraged Island's Chris Blackwell to hear them, and Blackwell had Field and Duhig reform under a three-album contract, later four: Floating World (1974), Waves (1975), Kites (1976) and Way of the Sun (1978). Floating World, produced by Field and Duhig, is a concept album on ukiyo, living in the moment, with liner notes that compare life to a gourd floating along the river current; AllMusic's Jo-Ann Greene called it an undeniable masterpiece and Brian Eno described it as important. AllMusic called Waves, built on a single composition, a nightmare for radio programmers.

After a long hiatus came Horizen (1984), At Peace (1989, made by the duo in four days in Duhig's studio), Breathing the Storm (1992) and Distant Echoes (1993). Duhig died on November 11, 1990 in Somerset. Havard and Price made Local Anaesthetic with Nirvana in 1972 and the Dogstar Poets in 2000. NOW came out on June 30, 2008 on Repertoire, and a one-off reunion followed at Astoria 2 in London on October 23, 2008, after 35 years off stage, with Karnataka opening. Setlist.fm lists twelve shows, in 1972 and 1973 and 2008, among them the Whisky a Go Go from July 5 to 8, 1972 and the Marquee Club on August 14 and November 29, 1972. Esoteric reissued their Vertigo albums as Borne on the Solar Wind in 2022.

Albums

  • Jade Warrior 1971 · Vertigo

    Their 1971 debut: ten songs, flutes and percussion without a drum kit, all written by the three members.

Songs

  • Masai Morning Jade Warrior · 1971

    The six-minute third track of the debut, a flute and percussion piece that turns into a heavy riff about a lion hunt.

Sources

  1. Jade Warrior (band), Wikipedia
  2. Floating World (Jade Warrior album), Wikipedia
  3. Jade Warrior, setlist.fm
  4. Jade Warrior, Jade Warrior reissue review, Psychedelic Baby