John Tchicai with Danny Thompson and John Stevens 1976: unleashed!

 

As part of Third Eye TV, we'll be premiering previously unseen footage of the great Danish-Congolese saxophonist John Tchicai with bassist Danny Thompson and drummer John Stevens. The set was recorded at the Third Eye in December 1976 and was digitised as part of the Glasgow Miracle Archive in 2012. We'll be making the full set public on Saturday 23 October, alongside interviews with Danny Thompson and Tchicai biographer Margriet Naber. It'll then be added to the permanent archive. 

We're hugely excited to be presenting this footage as part of the project. All three musicians are absolute legends and this is the only record of their trio. Their only other gig was the night before at the Plough in London, but as Thompson recalls, the Third Eye gig was a happier experience as there was an attentive audience and no background noise from the bar. The trio play a number of Tchicai tunes, but there's plenty of improvisation. Stevens was a regular at the Third Eye, performing there with several groups over the years. We'll run a full blog on his Glasgow adventures in due course.