Review: Dr Errol H Tout’s Posthumous Album Launch at Ellington Jazz Club
Dr Errol H Tout Posthumous's Album Launch at Ellington Jazz Club
Monday, January 16, 2023
Guitarist|composer|producer|architect|educator Dr Errol H Tout was a big deal in the Perth music scene, on stage throughout the 1980s into the 90s and on record ever since. His final album, Small Window, Large View was launched posthumously on Monday night in a sold-out concert celebrating his broad musical achievement.
Perth has produced no shortage of guitar gods, but Errol Tout cut a unique figure among them. After a stint in the bands Beautiful Losers and Charlotte’s Web, he struck a solo path, exploring the more esoteric realms of ambient and avant-garde music in a collection of stunning atmospheric instrumentals. In the late 80s, he travelled to the States for master classes with British guitar legend Robert Fripp (King Crimson, Bowie’s Heroes). Fripp’s influence remained strong and can still be heard in the diverse and fractious melodies of Tout’s final works.
Errol stepped back from performance in the mid-90s to focus on his day job as an architect and academic (the Dr in his title). While raising a family, he continued to write and record in his home studio, venturing on stage every few years to launch a new album.
Errol’s son Sam, an accomplished musician in his own right (bass, guitar and keys) led a brilliant ensemble Monday night with Ric Eastman (drums), Mike Gorman (electric guitar) and virtuosos Greg Dear, Glenn Winter-Smith and Graham Greene taking turns on lead.
Together they presented Errol’s sophisticated and complex soundscapes, polyrhythmic textures overlain with haunting, often whimsical melodies. A tricky balancing act, miss the mark and it becomes mechanical, find it and a subtle and sensitive symmetry shines through. Whenever the ensemble hit this sweet spot, the audience could sense Errol’s spirit hovering over The Ellington.
The tunes came from the full range of Tout’s work, from 1987’s Sounds of Swimming through to his last album. Standouts were Something Kind, with Greene on frets, and perennial favourite Helicopters performed solo by Sam Tout. Every piece though held the audience enraptured.
Producer James Hewgill, who worked on all of Errol’s albums, provided a brilliant mix of this subtle and enchanting music. Greg Dear compared Sam Tout’s working style to his father’s, describing it as “well-organised, good-humoured, always polite; knew what he wanted from each of us.”
Greene’s story about recording the good nurse’s guitar part on Slice Me Up, Baby captured Errol’s habit of throwing his collaborators in the deep end. Coming from his Post Tumour Humour album, the story also shone a light on Errol’s sanguine attitude toward his illness.
The final piece, Goodbye, a standard from Errol’s 90s repertoire, performed as a gentle guitar duet by Sam and Mike Gorman, was a deeply moving note on which to end this excellent show. The standing ovation was well-deserved, not only for the performance but for the body of work.
With Errol Tout’s passing, Perth music has lost one of its great innovators. Luckily his legacy lives on in the more than capable hands of his son, Sam.
Small Window, Large View and Errol H Tout’s other albums are available on Bandcamp and most streaming services.
IAN LILBURNE
Photos by Alan Holbrook
