N O T I C E

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This homepage uses family trees and discographies to introduce the musical genre known as Canterbury Music (jazz rock), which flourished out of Canterbury, England, in the 1960s.

If you find any omissions or errors within the homepage, please email me here. I look forward to hearing your opinions, comments, and questions.

Canterbury Music: A short introduction

Canterbury Music takes its name from Canterbury, the ancient cathedral town and county town of Kent in southeast England. The town is most famous perhaps as the destination of the pilgrims in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the first 'novel' in English. Canterbury Music emerged here in the early 60s, first with members of the band Wilde Flowers, and later, centered around the core of the group known as Soft Machine. Musically, the genre is not limited to a simple Soft Machine-like progression from psychedelic rock to jazz rock, but stretches from pop to avant garde and everything in between. The genre can perhaps be defined, however, by certain shared characteristics; unique harmonic and chordal structures, a wilful complexity, a sense of irony. And while it shares certain similarities with progressive rock, it's obviously very different from music created by other English bands such as Yes or Pink Floyd.
Canterbury Music was never widely covered by the media, however. So while it remained a rather minor scene, with the re-release of many seminal records on the Virgin label, it has had a disproportionate effect on other musicians around the world.
Today, the scene is still active, and new records and CDs are still forthcoming.