Quintessence were a

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band formed in April 1969 in

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a wikt:cosmopolitan, cosmopolitan and multiculturalism, multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

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. Their style was a mixture of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

and

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

with an influence of music from India.

Career

The original line-up included Sambhu Babaji (bass guitar), Maha Dev (rhythm guitar), Shiva Shankar Jones (vocals, keyboards, percussion), Jake Milton (drums, percussion), Allan Mostert (lead guitar) (born 1952), and Raja Ram (flute, percussion). Jones, an Australian, had been Phil Jones and with his Sydney band The Unknown Blues had a hit with "If I Had a Ticket" in 1967. They rehearsed in All Saints Hall which was a converted church near

Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from South to North, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. On Saturdays it is home to Portobello ...

, and recorded three albums for

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

between 1969 and 1971, with two further albums recorded in 1972 for

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

. The first of the latter set, ''

Self In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes. The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...

'', featured

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

material on side one, with the band recorded playing live at

Exeter University The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School o ...

, on 11 December 1971, on side two. They built a reputation on solid club work. Besides appearing at the first two

Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

s (then called 'Fayres'), in 1970/71, they also were invited to play the

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annu ...

Quintessence Majalah Aktuil Edisi 100 Tahun 1972

On 18 September 1971, Quintessence played a

benefit concert A benefit concert or charity concert is a type of musical benefit performance (e.g., concert, show, or gala) featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate h ...

for

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

The Oval The Oval, currently named for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club sinc ...

Kennington Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between th ...

. They appeared on a bill that included

The Who The Who are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup (1964–1978) consisted of lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Considered one of th ...

, Mott the Hoople,

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th centu ...

, Atomic Rooster, The Grease Band and

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Although Quintessence played many hundreds of concerts and

festivals A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

all over

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, they turned down a

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

record deal negotiated by

Chris Blackwell Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell OJ (born 22 June 1937) is a Jamaican-British former record producer and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll Hall ...

and did not play at a concert at New York's

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

lined up in early 1972, or tour the U.S., because four of the band's members wanted a larger monetary advance. This disappointed Blackwell and he dropped the band from the

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

. Quintessence then signed with RCA and recorded one album with Jones and Dev. Raja Ram then unexpectedly 'fired' the pair after that album was released. Jones and Dev went on to form the short-lived outfit called Kala. Meanwhile, Quintessence played on into the 1980s before breaking up.

Later activities

Jones, the primary composer of Quintessence, has been extensively touring throughout the United States for the last 20 years. Jones has released numerous recordings of both new material and updated versions of Quintessence songs with his Swiss musical partner, Ralph Rudra Beauvert, via their band Shiva's Quintessence. As of 2014, Jones is performing in the U.S. with Boston-based guitarist Frank M Evans, as Trans-Portal, expressing many of the Quintessence songs in a more intimate and acoustic format. In 2010, Maha Dev's new Quintessence were invited by Michael Eavis to play the 40th Anniversary Glastonbury Festival, where they were joined by original vocalist Jones. Produced by John Barham, Quintessence's previous producer, this performance was recorded and released as ''Rebirth: Live At Glastonbury'' in 2011. The reunion of Phil Shiva Jones with Dev's Quintessence for the 2010 Glastonbury Festival was documented in a

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

'' Inside Out'' programme which was aired in November 2010. Maha Dev's Quintessence continued to perform sporadically in the UK recreating the 'classic' Island Records era Quintessence sound. Dev released his first solo album, and Jones' Quintessence continues to record sporadically. Jake Milton went on to form

Blurt Blurt is an English post-punk band, founded in 1979 in Stroud, Gloucestershire. Background Blurt was founded in 1979 in Stroud, Gloucestershire by poet, saxophonist and puppeteer Ted Milton along with Milton's brother Jake, formerly of ...

with his brother Ted Milton. Raja Ram went on to help create the psytrance style of electronic music in the 1990s, and continues to produce electronic music to this day, being most well known for his involvement in

Shpongle Shpongle is a psychedelic music, psychedelic electronic music project from England that formed in 1996. The group includes Hallucinogen (musician), Simon Posford and Raja Ram (musician), Raja Ram (one of three in The Infinity Project). The duo ...

. Maha Dev (born David Codling) died on 5 July 2019 from cancer. "RIP Maha Dev", ''The Afterword'', 6 July 2019
. Retrieved 19 August 2019

Personnel

*Sambhu Babaji (Richard Vaughan) - bass guitar (1969-1980) *Jake Milton - drums, percussion (1969-1980) *Allan Mostert (Alan Mostert) - lead guitar (1969-1980) * Raja Ram (Ronald Rothfield) - flute, percussion (1969-1980) *Maha Dev (David Codling) - rhythm guitar (1969-1972, 2010; died 2019) *Phil Shiva Jones (Phil Jones) - vocals, keyboards, percussion (1969-1972, 2010)

Discography

;Studio albums *'' In Blissful Company'' (

, 1969) *'' Quintessence'' (Island Records, 1970) - UK No. 22 *'' Dive Deep'' (Island Records, 1971) - UK No. 43 *''

'' (

, 1972) - UK No. 50 *'' Indweller'' (RCA, 1972) ;Live albums *''Infinite Love, Live At Queen Elizabeth Hall 1971'' (Hux, 2009) *''Cosmic Energy, Live At St Pancras 1970'' (Hux, 2009) *''Rebirth Live At Glastonbury 2010'' (Hux, 2011)

References

External links