A salute to Mr Mo

[Deemac]

A fellow in the arts passed to toot in other places.

I salute his passing and honor him.

Aged 81 and a gentlemen of great wit, charm, charisma, intelligence & musicality.

He shall be missed & remembered with a smile and that twinkle in his eye.

For Mr. Mo

[Chobbersjnr]

A fellow in the arts passed to toot in other places.

I salute his passing and honor him.

Aged 81 and a gentlemen of great wit, charm, charisma, intelligence & musicality.

He shall be missed & remembered with a smile and that twinkle in his eye.

For Mr. Mo

many's a fine moment was had with the aforementioned gentleman

he had a tremendous effect & influence on my being both musically & personally

he was without doubt one of the most individual & probably most intelligent people I have ever met & his humour was absolutely beyond compare

I've known the man all of my life & most join in honouring his name & memory

ladies, gentleman, boys & girls the man reffered to as Old Mo was none other than

Mr. Derek Mosdale

[Gleber2]

many's a fine moment was had with the aforementioned gentleman

he had a tremendous effect & influence on my being both musically & personally

he was without doubt one of the most individual & probably most intelligent people I have ever met & his humour was absolutely beyond compare

I've known the man all of my life & most join in honouring his name & memory

ladies, gentleman, boys & girls the man reffered to as Old Mo was none other than

Mr. Derek Mosdale

A close and dear friend for 42 years who almost became my father-in-law.
Good times and bad his ready wit was always there to make you laugh and he was always ready to play the music he lived for. A gentleman and a true scholar who taught me more than I can give words to.
I will truly miss him. The world has lost a little light with his passing.

Rest in peace Derek, I will never forget you.

[Sporran]

I remember Derek and his family from my days in Thurso, and am very sad to hear that he has passed away. He was indeed an extremely bright and talented man, and I would like to extend my sincere sympathy to his friends and family.

[The Pepsi Challenge]

Sorry, who he?

[Chobbersjnr]

Sorry, who he?

saxaphonist & claranetist with "The Bleached Parrot" & "The House Of Jade"

had a big white beard & cracking personality

[Deemac]

Mr. Mo christened the bands name from a soya simulation of a turkey dinner at one Christmas meal. The name felt RIGHT. . . . . . .

And so the 'Bleached Parrot' was born. A flexible musical unit that developed in Caithness and explored mainly in a jazz(ish) vein. It could also become VERY weird, fusion(ish), rock(ish) time - space/travel!!. Mostly recorded, that developed into an extensive cassette series, then CD's (as time/technology moved on!!).

Derek was there at the birth of all this weirdness. His humor gave the sessions a wonderful glow. Lots of laughs were had by one and all. Various guests paraded through this madness. Some exceptional, - some not. It didn't matter - WE had the Parrot. There were even a few (very few) public airings in the old Weigh Inn during a Jazz Club monthly meeting on a Thursday night. (My musical, public introduction to Caithness - In 1985).

This musical unit lasted a fair time. From about 1986 to a slow demise in 2001. Running it's course. The recordings that do exist capture some fabulous moments in MY musical journey. Never such ferocity or fury, never such beauty or inventiveness. A rare opportunity to get away with as much as the imagination could handle. This could be serious fun!!

Derek would swap from baritone saxophone to clarinet. This would give HUGE tonal qualities to many of the sessions. Of great note was the session with Lorna Humphries on flute (Long, long before Chobbers influence was felt - And I don't mean that in ANY negative way!!) The tonal soaring high of the clarinet complimented the soulful deep lows of the Baritone superbely. God, how it could HONK!!

So that was some of Derek Mosedale.

[clash67]

This is sad news indeed, aye I knew him well, a good man he was, very charasmatic and witty indeed and I am a better person for having known him.

[Gleber2]

I started playing with Derek in 1973 when he embraced the hippier side of existance and the fusion of his trad style with my West Coast/Sanfrancisco/ blues style led to some very interesting music.
With the coming of a very young and green DeeMac and the subsequent warping of his head, came the Parrot. I have played in more bands than I can recall over 44 years but none of them came close to the Parrot for sheer wierdness and musical freedom. Steve the trumpet player, Marty Sutherland on bass,Jim Labour, Phil Ward, Lorna Humphries, Ian the busker, Stu Conaghan are a few of the musos who passed through.
With titles like "May Your Stoools Forever float", "All God's Children Need Banjos", "Do Not Piddle On the Electric Fiddle" our music was never normal and was completely free and improvised. Sometimes it was sheer garbage but sometimes we flew. When Chobbers got big enough to hold the bass we went into the final stage.
I will never play in another band like the Parrot because Derek Mosedale was unique.
There are five CD's of Parrot music which we have never tried to market but if anyone is interested enough to want to hear them they can PM DeeMac and I am sure he will be willing to sell a few.

[DOC ROCK]

Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.

In memory of Derek Mosdale, a wonderful man.

[Deemac]

To give an indication of Derek Mosedale's humor, I thought a good illustration is of the computer program that Derek developed to randomly generate poetry (as you would!!). In were fed strings of suitable text and the program generated poems!! Very strange and humorous poems indeed.

Some of the poems are featured in the Bleached Parrot recordings. This example is on the CD 'Hyperism' and read by Derek himself on 13th January 2000.

Bird Finger Song - by Derek Mosedale

Earths jumping tax inspector pauses, scanning the febrile moon,
Rifles his mind old lore exhumes, and finds no answer there,
Above, a flashing turnip deftly wheels, parries aggressive macaroon,
Whilst furtive, gargoyle evilly awaits, out with on hallowed tupperware.

Now strong, celestial milkman, celebrates successful sock repair,
Forgetting in his joy, the omen of the mystic puddings blood,
The furloin buckets plaint, the bus conductors dare,
And while the frugal unicorn, survives the flood.

Antediluvian knowledge, dearly bought, cheaply lost,
And could for such a modest sum be hired by the hour,
Seemed to our limpid pensive vicar, Robin Hood,
Quite a good swap for a redundant cauliflower.

Fawning euphonium, and hypnotic prune, chorus with luminous power,
Almost it seemed a plangent call to wake the dead,
Would flush out dormant fauna, from one leafy bower,
And even get a nod from uncle Fred.

Nothing stirs,
Are ears all stuffed with wax, all limbs made of lead,
Where leaps flamboyant scrofulous picaroon, had nimble turnip crashed,
Where hawks beelzebub, his wares of dread,
And what of Zeus, and his attendants Herald and baboon.

[Chobbersjnr]

LMAO.........................with avengance............

[Gleber2]

This was done on a BBC1 computer!!!!!

[theweemidget]

Wow! that guy must have been a huge influence and he did that with a BBC computer! fantastic. I bet Gleber the music sounded better them days with your blues sound. heard ya on caithness FM one night with some of your blues stuff it was absolutely fantastic! off point here but it had to be said. It's a shame caithness lost him btw phil ward was that the highschool art teacher?

[Deemac]

This was done on a BBC1 computer!!!!!

A 'BBC micro' - all the rage twenty or so years ago!!

[Chobbersjnr]

Wow! that guy must have been a huge influence and he did that with a BBC computer! fantastic. I bet Gleber the music sounded better them days with your blues sound. heard ya on caithness FM one night with some of your blues stuff it was absolutely fantastic! off point here but it had to be said. It's a shame caithness lost him btw phil ward was that the highschool art teacher?

you heard the blues stuff...................A-one buddy

& old Mo was a massive influence (on me anyhoo)

& yes that's the Mr. P Ward indeed & used to teach me classical guitar

[The Pepsi Challenge]

"The Blues is Number One!" - Jon Spencer

[theweemidget]

that's cool chobbers, phil taught me some guitar unfortunately i don't ave patience for scales no matter how hard i tried i couldn't do it. Phil was a cool guy I heard he was in Edinburgh that was the last i heard.
chobbers did you ever take a blues album out I can't remember if you did.

chobbers i also remember you playing blues at the ard rock a couple of years ago it was very enjoyable.

[Chobbersjnr]

that's cool chobbers, phil taught me some guitar unfortunately i don't ave patience for scales no matter how hard i tried i couldn't do it. Phil was a cool guy I heard he was in Edinburgh that was the last i heard.
chobbers did you ever take a blues album out I can't remember if you did.

chobbers i also remember you playing blues at the ard rock a couple of years ago it was very enjoyable.

ard rock...................& I thought I got away from that one unscathed

an album called Sworded Tails was my 1st release (soon to be in good vibrations!!!!) was vaguely bluesy & I've got a work in progress that is blues

[theweemidget]

that ard rock wasn't that greatly supervised i thought the recent ard rock was better.

chobbers i remember speaking to ya about a blues album saying you should do one.

I was really impressed with your playing that night soloing and singing at the sametime and also it reminded me of the old records. You daren coghill and jamie swanson if i mind right were fantastic sorry if i forgot the name of the other one.

keep me posted on your blues release