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Quintessence were formed in April 1969 by Raja Ram in Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill. They played a hybrid of jazz, progressive rock and Indian Music. The original line-up included Shiva Jones (voice, keys, percussion), Raja Ram (flutes, percussion), Sambhu Baba (bass, guitar), Maha Dev (guitar), Allan Mostert (guitar), and Jake Milton (drums, percussion). Quintessence were tagged a 'spiritual' band and were playing new age rock before the term was born. Although their evangelism in retrospect might seem to be a bit over the top, the music retains its beauty created by some highly individual souls. They rehearsed in All Saints Hall which was a converted church near Portobello Road, and recorded 3 albums for Island Records between 1969 and 1971. two further albums were recorded in 1972 for RCA. The 'Self' entitled first of these was their best with studio material on side one, and the band playing live at Exeter University December 11, 1971 on side two. Their live set was usually mostly improvised as they avoided playing the same riff twice or going into a routine thing. Not unlike the Grateful Dead, they did a lot of collective jamming with an intention to trance out their colourful audiences by a forceful combination of the chanting of mantras with the Krishna flute lines and the lyrical guitar soloing. Often the local Hare Krishna disciples would provide an extra percussion section to the already steamy proceedings. Quintessence had their household guru in Swami Ambikananda who, with his clairvoyant talents and psychic abilities, was known to blow people's minds constantly. They built a reputation on solid club work and were deemed London's Underground Sensation in 1970. Besides appearing at the first two Glastonbury Festivals (then called 'Faires'), in 1970/71, they also were invited to play the Montreux Jazz Festival at a time when jazz was still being played there.The occasion was the Gala de la Rose d'Or and the gig was filmed for Swiss TV. At their peak they sold out the Royal Albert Hall twice.

Although QUINTESSENCE played many hundred concerts and festivals all over Europe, they never made it to the United States. A concert at New York's Carnegie Hall was alredy lined up in early 1972, they didn't make it for various reasons.

For a collection of stills from their festival appearances at KRALINGEN 1970 and GLASTONBURY FAYRE 1971,

click HERE:

     Shiva and the Quintessence!

   First single ad                          

Quintessence 1970

Quintessence at the first Glastonbury Festival 1970:

The second Quintessence album:

                Be This Dedicated To Our Lord Jesus: QUINTESSENCE 1970

                   Swami Sri Ambikananda

Quintessence 1971

 GLASTONBURY PYRAMID STAGE 1971

QUINTESSENCE ON STAGE AT GLASTONBURY 1971

MORE QUINTESSENCE AT GLASTONBURY 1971 PICTURES, click HERE

Watch the Youtube video sequence from the film here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YaKHFQEPD0

Quintessence late 1971

SWEET JESUS/YOU NEVER STAY THE SAME (different mix to album track on SELF). Single 1971

Quintessence 1972 after moving from Island to RCA

Quintessence Indweller line-up 1972/73: Sambhu, Raja Ram, Allan, Jake

Quintessence 1975: Raja Ram, Jake Milton, Sita Devi, Sambhu

KALA at the Marquee, March 25 1973 

Shiva and Maha Dev left in spring 1972 to form the short-lived outfit Kala. Management wanted Shiv to go from serious singer to glitter star, stuff a banana down his trousers and join the glam rock hierarchy. Shiv refused, of course, and Bradley Records together with ATV Records senior management broke the band up and took the equipment and van back. So Kala quickly folded and Quintessence, now bereft of some sense of purpose and direction and being victims of the changing times, played on into the eighties, then slowly drifted into limbo. Shiva (whose mother knew him by the name of Phil) being an original blues singer from Australia with a number one blues hit single back in 1967, continued well into the eighties with rockmusic, until he discovered the didgeridoo back in his native country. After being shown how to use the ancient aboriginal instrument he started developping a method using the didgeridoo for healing and meditation purposes. He has released his new music of a deeply sublime quality on his own. The singing, especially on his album 'Sunrise' is better than ever and you can chant along. There is also some Quintessence material in a new mould. The words for 'Sunrise' were written by Stanley Barr who was manager of the band and a poet contributing words for many Quintessence songs. Shiv's rendering here is dedicated to the remembrance of the late, great Stan.

The album's cover painting 'All-Seeing-Eye' is by Gopal Das who designed some covers for Quintessence in the 70s.

Phil's recording for the Intuitive Sound Label was made in February, 2000 in Atlanta and is called 'Samadhi', featuring a number of fine musicians.There is less didgeridoo here with more diverse ethnical moods and even a rave track called Rama Rave! The'Samadhi' Raga is dedicated to Ramakrishna and a line of Swamis from Vivekananda to Yogananda to Ambikananda and includes a new vocal version of 'Self'. Phil tours extensively through the US doing his interactive workshops called The Yoga of Breath and Sound using the Australian Didgeridoo. If you are interested, give Phil a call at (505) 776 2034 and read all about it on the Phil Jones site:

www.philjonesmusic.com

In 2003 and 2005, together with Swiss musician Ralph Beauvert, Phil recorded the SHIVA SHAKTI and SHIVA'S QUINTESSENCE albums. Both albums were released by U.K. labels without much marketing, ripping off the musicians completely. These people do NOT follow ethical  concepts and should be boycotted, or still better, ignored. All our future musical endeavours, and there are going to be some, we shall market ourselves over the website, in this way retaining all the rights and hopefully earning some money to refinance further projects.

Swami Ambikananda (1934-1997) Read about the booklet on Swamiji, published in 2003 and written in French.

If you can provide further material, please get in touch by email.

Click the OM

Quintessence 1972

The Maha Dev page:

The Allan Mostert page:

The John Barham Interview (2009):

Quintessence on the web:

www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/GGQuintessence.html Gandalf's Garden November 6, 1969 Interview by 'Legolas'

www.ukrockfestivals.com/quint-glas.html  Quintessence at various festivals in the early 70s in the UK.

www.pooterland.com/index2/bandsmenu/bands_q/bands_q.html Quintessence at festivals, some album reviews.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintessence_(English_band) Quintessence on Wikipedia (English)

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintessence Quintessence on Wikipedia (German)

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintessence_(groupe) Quintessence on Wikipedia (French)

Aural Innovations.com: Shiva Jones talks about his work, Quintessence, and the new music with Shiva Shakti and Shiva's Quintessence.   

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Quintessence fan Mick Riley has a couple of videos up on Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/shadowbanshee

Colin Harper has unearthed videos of the God Rock programme from LWT TV (UK), recorded in June 1971. Look at the stills in the Gallery Section and see the band mime to the songs JESUS, BUDDHA, MOSES, GAURANGA and DIVE DEEP. Shiva's vocals are actually sung live.

JESUS, BUDDHA, MOSES, GAURANGA: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z062TDH5lhg

DIVE DEEP: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_whRE3fLck

QUINTESSENCE ALBUMS

Notice: The Psychedelic Vaults only contain items of private interest and use

IN 2004 ALL THREE ALBUMS ON ISLAND RECORDS HAVE BEEN RE-RELEASED ON CD WITH BONUS TRACKS BY REPERTOIRE RECORDS, BEAUTIFULLY DONE IN DIGI PACKS WITH NICE BOOKLETS.

Also available is the ISLAND RECORDS compilation album OCEANS OF BLISS,

an introduction to QUINTESSENCE

Two New Releases from HUX RECORDS 2009:

Cosmic Energy - Live At San Pancras 1970

Infinite Love - Live At Queen Elizabeth Hall 1971

These are new releases from Hux Records, comprising 3 ½ hours of previously unreleased material licensed from the Island Records archive.This is the first ever 'new' Quintessence material unearthed - and doubles at one stroke the quantity of vintage Quintessence music available.Sound quality - recorded and preserved on 16-track multitracks - is extraordinary.Mastered by Cormac O'Kane and featuring a 36 page full colour booklets designed by Mark Case, award-winning graphic designer.Includes a comprehensive 18,000 word group history and chronology from music biographer Colin Harper. Released with the blessing and co-operation of former group members Phil 'Shiva' Jones and Dave 'Maha Dev' Codling.

For some reviews of these albums go to the Reviows Page here

Tracklists for the albums

The Gallery (some pix by courtesy of Dave Codling)

The Press

Some more concert ads

THE QUINTESSENCE CHRONOLOGY

The Guide to Quintessence Listening Pleasure by Professor Cornelius

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Last updated February 2010