Elton Dean (born October 28, 1945, Nottingham, England; died February 7, 2006) was a jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello (a variant of the soprano saxophone) and occasionally piano. October 28 is the 301st day of the year (302nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 64 days remaining. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Nottingham is a city and county town of Nottinghamshire, in the East Midlands of England. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the British Isles Languages English (de facto) Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked 1st UK 50. ... February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jazz is an original American musical art form originating around the early 1920s in New Orleans, rooted in Western music technique and theory, and is marked by the profound cultural contributions of African Americans. ... Saxophones of different sizes play in different registers. ... A grand piano A piano is a keyboard instrument, widely used in western music for solo performance, chamber music, and accompaniment, and also as a convenient aid to composing and rehearsal. ...

In 1966-67, Dean was a member of the band Bluesology, led by Long John Baldry. The band's pianist, Reginald Dwight, afterward combined Dean's and Baldry's first names for his own stage name, Elton John. John William Baldry, popularly known as Long John Baldry (January 12, 1941 – July 21, 2005) was a pioneering British blues musician. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Dean established his reputation as a member of the Keith Tippett Sextet from 1968 to 1970, and in the band Soft Machine from 1969 to 1972. Shortly before leaving Soft Machine he started his own group, Just Us. From 1975 to 1978 he led a nine-piece band called Ninesense. His own groups since then, usually quartets or quintets, have most often worked in the free jazz mode, with little or no pre-composed material. At the same time, he has continued to work with other groups that are very composition-based, such as guitarist Phil Miller's In Cahoots, drummer Pip Pyle's Equipe Out, and various projects with former Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper. Keith Tippett is a British jazz pianist and composer. ... The Soft Machine were a pioneering British psychedelic, progressive rock and jazz band from Canterbury, Kent, England, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. ... Free jazz is a movement of jazz music characterized by diminished dependence on formal constraints. ... Phil Miller (born 22 January 1949) is a UK progressive rock/jazz guitarist who was part of the Canterbury Scene. ... Pip Pyle is a British-born drummer now residing in France. ... Hugh Hopper (born 1945, Canterbury, England) is a bass guitarist and composer. ...

In 2002, Dean and three other former Soft Machine members (Hugh Hopper, drummer John Marshall, and guitarist Allan Holdsworth) toured and recorded under the name Soft Works. With another former Soft Machine member, guitarist John Etheridge, replacing Holdsworth, they subsequently toured and recorded as Soft Machine Legacy, playing some pieces from the original Soft Machine repertoire as well as new works. Hugh Hopper (born 1945, Canterbury, England) is a bass guitarist and composer. ... John Stanley Marshall, better known as John Marshall, born 28 August, 1941, is a british drummer. ... Allan Holdsworth (born August 6, 1946) is a British jazz guitarist and composer. ...

Dean's last musical collaborations included those with Soft Bounds (a quartet comprising Hugh Hopper, Sophia Domancich and Simon Goubert), Alex Maguire's project Psychic Warrior, and Belgian rock-jazz band The Wrong Object.

Dean's playing style could be equally tonal as scarily atonal; his forays into rock with Soft Machine feature a pioneering use of extreme amplification (particularly the live period between albums Third and Fourth. The Soft Machine were a pioneering British psychedelic, progressive rock and jazz band from Canterbury, Kent, England, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. ... Third is a 1970 double LP by Soft Machine, with each side of the original vinyl consisting of a single long composition. ... Fourth, released 1971, has been the fourth regular album by the Canterbury band The Soft Machine, whose music had at the time developed more and more from their original psychedelic/progressive rock towards jazz. ...

External links

• Discography
• Extended Biography
• AllAboutJazz.com: "Former Soft Machine saxophone player Elton Dean dies"