HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

The Holocaust Memorial Day is the most difficult day in the year for me. Although I was born after WWII, both of my parents are Holocaust survivors and the memory of Holocaust is deeply embedded in my soul. I grew up listening to Holocaust stories in the years immediately following the horrific events, when every Holocaust survivor shared his tale with others, time after time, probably as the only way to unload the heavy burden of experiencing it in person. For me childhood was not the tale of Snow White, Peter Pan or fairy tales by Grimm Brothers, it was the story of Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Treblinka. The fact that I didn’t experience all of it in person is irrelevant, as it feels that I did.

At 10 a.m. each Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel life stops for two minutes. The whaling sound of a siren tears up the silence and millions of Israelis stand at attention, remembering. Traffic stops in mid road, people stop walking, telephone conversations are abruptly disconnected. Other that the sound of the siren and the Israeli flags at half-mast beating against the posts the silence is complete, as if somebody pushed the pause button on life’s DVD player. The sound of the siren dies off two minutes later and the play button is pushed. Life returns back to normal, as if uninterrupted. But the memory lives on.

The Holocaust Memorial Day is also a day of reflection. Over six decades after the Holocaust shook the foundations of humanity, the memory lives on, but alas the lesson seems to be forgotten. With anti-Semitism and other forms of inter-human hatred raging all over out planet, disregard for human life and tragedy, wars and conflicts, I sometimes despair wandering that we have learned nothing from our past. Did millions of people lose their life in vain?

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It’s a great pleasure to be able to finally announce the addition of the fabulous material by one of my favorite musicians, the pianist / composer Michael Garrick, released on his own Jazz Academy label. Here is the first of those:

British pianist / composer Michael Garrick enjoyed a most fruitful and prolific career during the Golden Decade of British Jazz between mid-1960s and mid-1970s, releasing a series of groundbreaking and exquisite albums, which firmly established his position as one of the scene’s leaders. However, by the end of 1970s Garrick and many of his illustrious colleagues suffered the fate of the changing cultural climate, with record labels no longer willing to release highly prestigious but low selling albums containing quality music. For the next two decades Garrick was to record only sporadically and although he continued to compose and sometimes perform his music, most of it remains unrecorded. In order to find an outlet for his music, Garrick established in 1993 his own record label called Jazz Academy, which was primarily dedicated to record his works. Thanks to this wise decision, we can now all enjoy the fruits of his labor. This album is the first release on Garrick’s label, and it’s hardly surprising that he decided to make his initial recording for the new label in the piano trio format, the most intimate and revealing platform for Jazz pianists. The trio, with Dave Green on bass and Alan Jackson on drums, both veteran Garrick’s cohorts performs beautifully, in perfect harmony and almost telepathic interplay, as expected. The choice of material is also very interesting. Although Garrick very rarely plays standards, having so much of his own wonderful music to chose from, this album does include six Garrick’s renditions (out of the 15 tunes included on the album) of music composed by others. In fact it is quite educational to compare these with some of the many existing versions of these tunes. Under Garrick’s fingertips these tunes really get a completely unique new life. The original material includes six movements from Garrick’s suite “The Royal Box”, which was also recorded in a Big Band version. Overall this is a perfect piano trio album, played by three equally brilliant musicians and one that can be played again and again with no fear whatsoever of getting bored by the music. Of course one would expect nothing less from this musical world-class Giant. A must!

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It’s a great pleasure to be able to finally announce the addition of the fabulous material by one of my favorite musicians, the pianist / composer Michael Garrick, released on his own Jazz Academy label. Here is the next of these albums:

Following the establishment of his own record label Jazz Academy in 1993, British pianist / composer Michael Garrick started to record again on a regular basis and quite prolifically at that, to the delight of his many fans, myself included. This is Garrick’s second piano trio recording on his label, with (as usual) Dave Green on bass and Alan Jackson on drums. Michael’s son Chris Garrick on violin guests on one track and veteran saxophonist Don Rendell (Garrick’s former “boss” in the Don Rendell – Ian Carr quintet) guests on another. The choice of material is similar to the previous trio album, with a few standards, which are given excellent new interpretations by Garrick, and a selection of Garrick’s originals, spanning his entire career – in short some old, some new and some borrowed – all exquisitely performed in a way only he can accomplish. Overall the album is more melancholic that usual, as the album’s theme is parting after all, which also means parting with those not longer with us. Three of Garrick’s compositions are in fact requiems to departed musicians, including the beautiful waltz dedicated to Bill Evans. Two more pieces from Garrick’s “The Royal Box” suite (which was recorded by his Big Band earlier) also make their appearance here. This is another masterpiece by the great Master and a must for any of his fans; something one can listen repeatedly, always discovering new aspects of the music. Brilliant stuff!

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It’s a great pleasure to be able to finally announce the addition of the fabulous material by one of my favorite musicians, the pianist / composer Michael Garrick, released on his own Jazz Academy label. Here is the next of these albums:

Following the establishment of his own record label Jazz Academy in 1993, British pianist / composer Michael Garrick started to record again on a regular basis and quite prolifically at that, to the delight of his many fans, myself included. He continued to records with small ensembles (trio, quartet, etc.), but in parallel he also started to score and record his new works for extended orchestras / Big Bands, this album being a superb example of his work in that field. Garrick’s life-long love affair with the written word (poetry, prose and even religious texts), especially British literature, has always been a prominent part of his output. From his early-days involvement with the Poetry and Jazz movement and throughout his entire career his work was always related one way or another to literature. Therefore it’s hardly surprising that Garrick should write a complete suite based on a book, in this case the classic children’s (or is it?) tale of Peter Pan. Garrick even includes here a set of poems written by him, which he and the lovely Anita Wardell recite (she also sings). The suite is performed by an Jazz orchestra, which includes some twenty players, mostly Garrick “regulars” in his orchestral projects, including the rhythm section of Paul Moylan on bass and Alan Jackson on drums (both members of current Garrick’s trio and quartet). Garrick’s writing and arrangements are an obvious tribute to the Godfather of orchestral Jazz, Duke Ellington. The music is lyrical and somewhat melancholic and Garrick’s score uses the orchestra cleverly to play around with the various moods the music goes through. The sound is mostly laid back as Garrick seldom makes the orchestra blast in its full potential power - less in definitely more in his case. Plenty of great solos of course, as all the musicians are first class players. Overall it’s a delightful musical experience, full of surprises and hidden treasures, with lots of typical Garrick’s tasteful humor. A must!

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It’s a great pleasure to be able to finally announce the addition of the fabulous material by one of my favorite musicians, the pianist / composer Michael Garrick, released on his own Jazz Academy label. Here is the next of these albums:

Jamaican by birth, British saxophonist / composer Joe Harriott was one of the brightest stars of early European modern Jazz scene. Harriott moved to Britain in 1951 and soon became one of the most prominent saxophone players in the country. Initially a Bebop player, Harriott soon moved away from the traditional approach to Jazz and started experimenting with Free Form Jazz, being one of the pioneers of Free Jazz in Europe. Tragically and prematurely dead at the age of 44 (in 1973), Harriott’s immense contribution to British and worldwide Jazz was sadly recognized only many years after his passing. He recorded relatively few solo albums, but each of those is a true masterpiece. In the mid-1960s he was a member of British pianist / composer Michael Garrick’s superb quintet, recording several groundbreaking albums with him. He was also a great pioneer of the World-Jazz Fusion and a co-founder of the Indo-Jazz ensemble with violinist / composer John Mayer. Harriott was not only a great musician, but also a very insightful, open-minded individual. He was resentful for the disregard towards European (or rather any non-US) Jazz by American critics and music lovers, which the following quote clearly demonstrates: “I would like to see Jazz grow and absorb all other idioms and not be treated as if it were an isolated Art Form… I also have a pet hate that one couldn’t think for oneself unless one emigrated to a place like the United States.” On his gravestone the following epitaph is engraved: “Parker? There’s them over here can play a few aces too…” Michael Garrick of course never forgot neither Harriott nor his exquisite music. This album is a greatest homage one musician can pay to another – revitalize his music and bring it again to the attention of those, who might have never heard it. Garrick says about this album in his liner notes: “This is not so much Joe Harriott revisited as Joe Harriott reborn, re-embodied into a broader dimension.” The album includes twelve Harriott compositions, lovingly scored and arranged by Garrick for a Jazz Big Band, which includes some of the best Jazz players in the British Isles, including veteran drummers Alan Jackson and John Marshall. The last track is a special requiem composed by Garrick in Harriott’s memory. Harriott’s brilliant music indeed sounds reborn here and although transformed, it retains the free spirit originally intended by the composer. A brilliant and essential album!

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It’s a great pleasure to be able to finally announce the addition of the fabulous material by one of my favorite musicians, the pianist / composer Michael Garrick, released on his own Jazz Academy label. Here is the next of these albums:

British pianist / composer Michael Garrick’s Jazz escapades were always anything but conventional. His participation in the Poetry and Jazz sessions held in the mid 1960s was already a sign of his unusual approach to Jazz, which Garrick considers as part of an overall cultural / artistic milieu. This album is another daring step forward in expanding the confined borders of Jazz by mixing it with liturgical music, something Garrick was to return to several times during his career. The sheer audacity of Garrick’s notion to perform Jazz inside a cathedral, playing the organ as a part of a Jazz ensemble was staggering at the time, and only thanks to the open-mindedness and liberal atmosphere prevailing in Britain at the time such project was eventually successfully executed. The music was recorded live at the St Paul’s Cathedral, featuring Garrick’s sextet (Garrick – organ, Art Themen – saxophone, clarinet and flute, Jim Philip – saxophone, clarinet and flute, Ian Carr – trumpet and flugelhorn, Coleridge Goode – bass and John Marshall – drums) with a large choir. Although recorded under Spartan conditions with just one microphone (mono) suspended over the performers, the sound is remarkably clear and well balanced. With the cathedral’s natural echo the music sounds even more devotional than initially intended. Miraculously it just all works out perfectly. Released originally as a double LP on the obscure Airbone label, it has been a priceless collector’s item for decades, only to become available again on Garrick’s own record label. This is a remarkable piece of British Jazz history.

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It’s a great pleasure to be able to finally announce the addition of the fabulous material by one of my favorite musicians, the pianist / composer Michael Garrick, released on his own Jazz Academy label. Here is the next of these albums:

British pianist / composer Michael Garrick continues to create superb Jazz music for over five decades, both in the framework of small and large-scale ensembles. His highly artistic approach to music, which in his case always involved serious non-musical subject matter, such as literature, philosophy or religion, has been consistent over the years. This album is no different as it presents another Jazz suite composed for a Jazz orchestra, based on philosophical / spiritual questions about the Divinity / Force of Nature, which is beyond human perception. Each of the ten parts of the suite is dedicated to one of the “spirits” in charge of the overall Universal existence. The music is, as always, dramatic but also deeply lyrical, with plenty of space for solos and some vocal parts, sung by Garrick’s close collaborator in his 1970s ensembles – the divine Norma Winstone. The orchestra, which Garrick uses regularly for his large-scale projects, consists of some of the best players in Britain and the steady lineup turns it into an ideal vehicle for the execution of Garrick’s complex works. Listening to this grand recording soon turns into a truly spiritual experience, most probably as intended by its creator. This album proves again that Garrick is one of the greatest Jazz Masters, not only in Britain but worldwide. This is another of Garrick’s masterpieces and a must!

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It’s time to add a few more Prog releases to keep the balance. Here is the first of two new Japanese Prog additions:

Only album by the superb Japanese Prog band Magdalena, which although short-lived is considered to this day as one of the best bands that ever emerged in the country. Fronted by an incredible female vocalist Meguni Tokuhisa, who has truly operatic abilities, the band is often compared to early Renaissance. The music is richly melodic and based on Classical music motifs. With the vocalist hitting incredible high notes, some of the passages sound like arias. The instrumental parts, especially the guitar played by Taku Fujii, are excellent. The band is supported by several guest musicians from other top Japanese Prog bands, like Pageant, Terra Rosa and Miyatake, active at the time. This is classic Symphonic Prog at its best and fans of the genre will have a field day with this.

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ISRAEL’S 60^th INDEPENDENCE DAY

Against all odds the State of Israel survived 60 years in hostile environment, building a modern democratic Nation in record time. Although our War of Independence ended in 1948, Israelis had to endure, survive and overcome seven bloody military conflicts with its neighbors, and the Peace we all hope for still seems to be out of reach. We pray for peace daily, hoping that reason will eventually prevail, allowing Israelis and our Arab neighbors to live in Peace side by side and enjoy the fruits of the Land of Milk and Honey. We must not despair and the hope for a better future for our children keeps us going. Happy Independence Day!

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It’s time to add a few more Prog releases to keep the balance. Here is the second of two new Japanese Prog additions:

2^nd album by Japanese duo LU7, which comprises of female keyboards player Luna Umegaki and guitarist Tsutomu Kurihara. Supported by a great cast of guest musicians (bass, drums and other instruments) they deliver their second album, which is every bit as strong and full of great music as their amazing debut. Somewhere between Prog and Fusion, this instrumental album will delight guitar freaks from the Allan Holdsworth camp, but honestly there is plenty of music here, beyond the guitar solos. The keyboards parts are imaginative and very well developed and the guest musicians all contribute excellent support to make it all work. The extremely clever usage of Celtic and Middle Eastern motifs takes the music a step further towards perfection. In short a perfect instrumental album for Prog and Fusion fans alike. Wholeheartedly recommended! (And please don’t ask me why so many Japanese Prog albums have French titles).

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It’s time to add a few more releases on the great Sunbeam / Fallout labels, which reissue some absolutely most obscure but great gems from the past. Here is the first of these:

The National Gallery was a completely fictitious group, a brainchild of producer / arranger Roger Karshner and Jazz musician Chuck Mangione, who co-composed the material and used a group of anonymous studio singers and musicians to record it. Inspired by the beautiful and mysterious paintings by abstract painting pioneer Paul Klee, Karshner wrote some lyrics keeping the names of Klee’s paintings as titles. Beautifully arranged and performed, this little known gem is a classic example of Psychedelic Rock with some Jazz spicing. Great melodies, clever arrangements and superb singing, with nice vocal harmonies, which remind me of the Association (one of my favorites of the period). Although not groundbreaking musically, this still sounds great after all these years and I had a lot of fun listening to this forgotten beauty. Worth investigating!

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It’s time to add a few more releases on the great Sunbeam / Fallout labels, which reissue some absolutely most obscure but great gems from the past. Here is the next of these:

Only album by the obscure US proto-Prog band Velvet Night, which managed to record this little gem before disappearing from the scene. Fronted by female lead singer Lynn Boccumini, the band included also five excellent players and managed to create a full and relatively heavy (for that time) sound, with an overall effect sounding somewhere between Jefferson Airplane and Vanilla Fudge. The material includes both original material and a few covers, which (as opposed to most cases) are excellent and quite different interpretations of the originals, especially the great tribute to Cream, which covers four of Cream’s classic songs. Organ, guitar, sax / flute and good lead vocals – all the necessary ingredients for early 1970s classic sound are here, recorded at the legendary NY Record Plant studios, this is a great trip down the memory lane well worth investigating.

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It’s time to add a few more releases on the great Sunbeam / Fallout labels, which reissue some absolutely most obscure but great gems from the past. Here is the next of these:

Only album by the obscure US proto-Prog band Stark Naked, which managed to record this little gem before disappearing from the scene. Fronted by female singer Lyne Bunn, the band included also five excellent players, like guitarist Richard Belsky and keyboards player Paul Venier, who was also responsible for writing the bulk of the band’s material, which was all original. The music is a strange mixture of Heavy Rock and Jazz-Rock Fusion, with plenty of interesting instrumental passages, especially by Belsky. The tunes are all quite well written and arranged, with nice vocal harmonies. Definitely worth digging out from the archives and be heard again, as it’s one more example of the multitude of great music that was created at the time.

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It’s time to add a few more releases on the great Sunbeam / Fallout labels, which reissue some absolutely most obscure but great gems from the past. Here is the next of these:

Only album by the obscure US West Coast instrumental sextet The Advancement, established by the bassist Lou Kabok and drummer Hal Gordon, both members at the time of the famous Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo’s quintet. This beautiful and obscure gem is one of the earliest examples of Fusion, with the distinct West Coast Jazz influence, tasteful, relaxed and cool. Very melodic, with some great writing and arranging by the band members, this music is quite different from the Fusion mainstream, and therefore unique. The emphasis here is on elegance and grace, with superbly played parts and jazzy improvisations. The music sound great today, untarnished by time and modernism, still a great example of combining musical genres to achieve a better total. It’s a crime this album didn’t get the recognition at the time of its release, so with the second chance it is getting now, I truly hope more people will discover this little beauty. Wholeheartedly recommended!

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It’s time to add a few more releases on the great Sunbeam / Fallout labels, which reissue some absolutely most obscure but great gems from the past. Here is the next of these:

Only album by the obscure US West Coast Rock group Yellow Hand, which owes its fame to the fact that it includes six songs written by Neil Young and Steven Stills during their Buffalo Springfield days, but never actually recorded by that seminal group. Yellow Hand were a typical late 1960s US band, a sextet fronted by an able lead singer Jerry Tawney, who also wrote the original material that fills the album. Lead guitarist Pat Flynn plays some superb licks throughout the album, and the other band members supply good vocal harmonies. In retrospect the albums is as good as anything recorded at the time and the lack of success that the band met with is totally inexplicable, as it definitely deserves much more recognition, not only as the “extra Buffalo Springfield album” but very much on its own merit. Worth investigating for Classic Rock lovers and a must for Buffalo Springfield fans.

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It’s time to add a few more releases on the great Sunbeam / Fallout labels, which reissue some absolutely most obscure but great gems from the past. Here is the next of these:

Only album by the obscure UK / US group Habibiyya, formed by ex-Mighty Baby members and a musical couple from California. Deeply influenced by Eastern mysticism and especially the Sufi tradition, to which the musicians were exposed during their travels in Morocco, the music is one of the earliest examples of World Music recorded by Western musicians. Played on a wide range of acoustic instruments (both from the Middle and Far East and Western ones), the music is completely improvised and deeply spiritual / contemplative. At the time of its release this album was completely “far out” and of course had no real chance of gaining popularity, but in time it achieved a legendary status among collectors and this reissue is a most welcome step towards awarding the album the recognition and respect it deserves. Even today the album requires attentive listening in order to be enjoyed in full, but is truly worth it. Categorizing this one is really tough, so I decided to include it in the Jazz-World Fusion category, as the improvisational nature of the music has its jazzy association. For open-minded listeners!

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It’s time to add a few more releases on the great Sunbeam / Fallout labels, which reissue some absolutely most obscure but great gems from the past. Here is the next of these:

1^st album (well not really but more about this later) by UK duo Clark-Hutchinson, or Andy Clark and Mick Hutchinson, two multi-instrumentalists and prominent figures on London’s late 1960s Psychedelic and Blues scene. Mick, a superb guitarist, plays also some keyboards and Andy plays anything from drums, percussion, keyboards, flute and saxophone. Listening to this extraordinary album it’s really difficult to believe that two musicians, using rather primitive studio technology available at the time, were able to create such massive and complex sound. But sound aside, the music is what makes this album such an extraordinary experience. Based on modal and Indian music and using the slowly developing raga as a model, they create a most amazing amalgam of Jazz, Psychedelic and World Music, which at the time was revolutionary and pioneering. Hutchinson’s lengthy guitar solos are a prime example of jazzy improvisation and one of the first Jazz-World Fusion attempts, which will be later perfected by John McLaughlin in Shakti. The overall contemplative nature of the music and the imaginative ornamentation by additional (overdubbed) instruments create a mystical atmosphere, which is seldom found on other album. This expanded edition also includes the real first album by Clark-Hutchinson, recorded just a couple of months earlier, but rejected by their record label, which remained unreleased until now. Although based on Blues as a guiding model (both Andy and Mick loved the Blues), it follows much the same “working model” of the two musicians overdubbing several instruments, although a bass player and a drummer were used on these sessions. The resulting album is at least as good as any other UK Blues album recorded at the time by John Mayall, Savoy Brown, etc., with Mick’s scorching guitar solos providing the icing on the cake. With extensive liner notes and great sound quality this is a well-deserved reissue of one of the most groundbreaking musical projects of the late 1960s. A true blast from the past!

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I’m happy to add two releases on a new UK label First Hand Records, owned by Jonathan Mayer, son of the legendary John Mayer. The first is a long overdue reissue of two of his gather’s great recordings:

This magnificent album finally brings back to life two great recordings by the legendary violinist / composer John Mayer, a pioneer of Jazz-World Fusion. Mayer’s revolutionary ensemble, called Indo-Jazz Fusions, recorded four superb albums in the 1960s, which were first of a kind attempts to combine Jazz with Indian music. “Etudes”, recorded in 1969, was the fourth and last album in this series, and although recorded without the participation of saxophonist Joe Harriott (another legendary British Jazz figure), who was a co-leader of the ensemble for several years, it is a direct continuation of the work done on the first three albums. The new ensemble includes some of Britain’s best Jazz musicians at the time: Mayer - violin, Chris Taylor – flute, Ian Hammer – trumpet, Tony Coe – saxophone & clarinet, Pat Smythe – piano, Coleridge Goode – bass and John Marshall – drums with three musicians playing traditional Indian instruments – sitar, tanpura & tabla. The music offers a slightly different overall structure, as it resembles a classical suite in five movements (Rondo, Capriccio, Serenade, Toccata & Saraband), utilizing structures used often in Classical music. Mayer was of course classically trained and a master of cross-pollination between genres. The overall effect of the music is absolutely stunning, still fresh and moving as it was at the time of the recording. “Radha Krishna”, recorded a couple of years later with a similar lineup expanded by a string trio and singers, is a further step into showcasing Mayer’s work as a composer of contemporary Classical music, which he will develop in the years to come. Based on an ancient love story from the Hindu mythology, the two parts suite flows gently and beautifully presenting the characters and the events with musical themes. Although more classically oriented, it still uses the Jazz elements, especially in the solos performed by the players. This is a beautiful piece of music, which should be enjoyed by every true music lover. Having two such wonderful recordings together on one album is a true blessing for which we should be grateful to John’s son Jonathan Mayer, who released this album on his new record label. I can not think of a better tribute he could have paid to his father’s memory. A double masterpiece!

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I’m happy to add two releases on a new UK label First Hand Records, owned by Jonathan Mayer, son of the legendary John Mayer. The second is the debut recording by Jonathan’s own group, The Teak Project:

A debut recording by the UK acoustic Jazz-World Fusion trio The Teak Project, consisting of Jonathan Mayer – sitar (son of legendary violinist / composer John Mayer, one of the pioneers of Jazz-World Fusion), Justin Quinn – guitar and Neil Craig – tabla. As the instrumentation suggests, their music is related to Indian music, but not predominantly so. The compositions, contributed by all three members, are well structured and mostly lyrical, using well the delicate balance between the instruments. They explore various ethnic motifs and contemporary musical ideas and the music is obviously performed with joy of exploration. This is not “easy” music, as it requires serious attention, but it is richly rewarding, full of beautiful moments and suitable for repeated listening. Since the sitar is seldom used today as a leading instrument, it’s a pleasure to be able to enjoy the sound of the sitar, especially when it is so well recorded as on this album. These young, but open-minded musicians have a lot to offer us and hopefully they will continue to record more of their splendid music soon. Warmly recommended.

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It’s time to return to my favorite subject: British Jazz of the late 1960s and 1970s, completing the picture already well represented on my site. A bunch of releases on the BGO label should do the job nicely. Here is the first of these:

5^th and last album by the seminal Don Rendell / Ian Carr Quintet, probably the most important British Jazz ensemble in the 1960s, which played a key role in establishing the “British sound” in Jazz, breaking away from the constrains of American Jazz traditionalism. The quintet comprised of brilliant instrumentalists and composers and after playing together for about five years they achieved a telepathic understanding of each other’s mannerisms and preferences, allowing them to perform in unparalleled unison and harmony. Don Rendell on saxophones and flute, Ian Carr on trumpet and flugelhorn, Michael Garrick on piano, Dave Green on bass and Trevor Tomkins on drums were together a mean and lean, unstoppable music machine, creating some of the most daring and adventurous Jazz music ever heard. However, as hinted by the album’s title, by the time this album was recorded the quintet reached the end of its life cycle. Both Garrick and Carr were extremely busy musically, composing and performing music outside the quintet’s frame, with Garrick leading his own ensemble and recording prolifically and Carr founding his own ensemble, the legendary Nucleus, which was to become the definitive Jazz-Rock Fusion point of reference. Two of the compositions found on this album would soon be recorded as title tracks on albums by Garrick (“Cold Mountain”) and Nucleus (“Elastic Dream”), clear evidence of the fact that the quintet was reaching the end of its days. Another indication of the imminent changes was the fact that the album includes, for the first time, guest musicians who augmented the quintet on several tracks. They were: Mike Pyne on piano, Jeff Clyne on bass, Guy Warren on percussion and Stan Robinson on saxophone, musicians who would soon play with the new ensembles formed after the quintet folded. It is somewhat unfortunate that the following decade would be extremely flourishing for both Carr and Garrick, but Rendell was to slowly step back from the limelight and record only sporadically. But all that aside, the final recording by the Rendell / Carr quintet is a masterpiece of British Jazz in every respect, full of superb compositions and brilliant performances – an album that deserves a honorable position in every serious music collection. Essential!

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It’s time to return to my favorite subject: British Jazz of the late 1960s and 1970s, completing the picture already well represented on my site. A bunch of releases on the BGO label should do the job nicely. Here is the next of these:

If the 1960s served as a period of establishment of the British Jazz scene, with scores of extremely talented instrumentalists and composers coming to prominence, surely the 1970s marked the “emancipation of British Jazz from American slavery”, a phrase brilliantly defined by British trumpeter / composer / musicologist / writer Ian Carr. One of the distinct heroes and champions of this new path was undoubtedly pianist / composer Mike Westbrook, whose compositions for large Jazz ensembles were the British answer and equivalent to the body of work composed by the great Duke Ellington. “Metropolis” marks a high point in a series of brilliant works composed by Westbrook and recorded by large ensembles comprising of the creme de la creme of British Jazz musicians. Westbrook sublimely expands the Ellingtonian framework with the inclusion of multi-layered sound ambience, group improvisation and Rock rhythms, creating a completely innovative and spectacular musical phenomenon, somewhat comparable to contemporary Classical music, but firmly based in Jazz idioms and traditions. “Metropolis” was recorded by an ensemble, which included 23 musicians, each and every one of which are absolute Masters of their trade, including Westbrook on piano, Mike Osborne, Ray Warleigh, Alan Skidmore, George Khan and John Warren on saxophones, Kenny Wheeler, Harold Beckett and Henry Lowther on trumpets, Malcolm Griffiths and Paul Rutherford on trombone, John Taylor on electric piano, Gary Boyle on guitar, Harry Miller and Chris Laurence on bass, Alan Jackson and John Marshall and drums and the divine Norma Winstone on vocals – more or less the entire core of modern British Jazz. The music is of course magnificent, full of pathos and expression with not a single dull moment from start to finish, and the performances absolutely chilling with one solo chasing another. There are few Jazz albums that come close to this masterpiece and although it is relatively little known by Jazz fans worldwide (as most great music) it is an absolute classic and a must for any serious listener, equivalent to hundreds of other less meaningful albums. Absolutely essential!

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It’s time to return to my favorite subject: British Jazz of the late 1960s and 1970s, completing the picture already well represented on my site. A bunch of releases on the BGO label should do the job nicely. Here is the next of these:

This magnificent album marks a pivotal point in the career of pianist / composer Mike Westbrook, a transition between the first and the second phases of his monumental life’s achievement. Since it is a suite composed for and performed by a large ensemble (19 musicians in this case), it continues the pioneering work by Westbrook as a composer of large scale orchestral music and closes the cycle which started with the debut “Celebration” and continued with “Release”, “Marching Song”, “Love Songs” and “Metropolis”. In between “Metropolis” and “Citadel / Room 315” Westbrook ventured into Jazz-Rock Fusion with the group Solid Gold Cadillac, returning to Jazz with the new suite, which was commissioned by the Swedish Radio Jazz Group with John Surman as a guest soloist. It was first performed and recorded in 1974, but for various reasons the recording was not released, so Westbrook decided to record it with a British lineup, following several performances in UK a year later. As usual in his case, he managed to assemble the best Jazz players on the British Jazz scene to participate in the recording, including John Surman as the main soloist on baritone and soprano saxophone, with Henry Lowther and Kenny Wheeler on trumpet, Dave MacRae on piano, Brian Godding on guitar, Chris Lawrence on bass and Allan Jackson on drums and many others. The music is of course brilliant, as always, but surprisingly more melodic and accessible than most of his earlier works, with clear “winks” towards the work of Duke Ellington. Superbly arranged and performed, this is an epic achievement, sadly one of the last great Jazz works of such scale, as the climate in Britain was about to change very soon and the magnificent Golden Decade was facing an inevitable comedown. Westbrook was of course to continue his extraordinary work as a composer, but his albums will be gradually released on small independent labels and sell meagerly. Well, we still have this essential recording to re-visit any time we feel a need to refill out batteries with some highly charged musical delight. Essential!

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It’s time to return to my favorite subject: British Jazz of the late 1960s and 1970s, completing the picture already well represented on my site. A bunch of releases on the BGO label should do the job nicely. Here is the next of these:

The second phase of Mike Westbrook’s illustrious career, which was initiated around mid-1970s and continues to this day, can be characterized by his gradual shift from the big orchestral formats to much more intimate assemblages, centered around himself and his wife Kate Westbrook and including members from a steady core of musicians cooperating with them. Kate’s remarkable voice and even more remarkable personality added several new dimensions to the unique “Westbrook voicing” of musical ideas, which would become their trademark in years to come. Her extraordinary sensitivity, openness and passion for European literature and poetry and her ability to sing in French and German (in addition to English of course), combined with Mike’s sublime talent for composition, enabled them to create a vast body of work, which extends far beyond “music making” per se and transferred gradually into one of the most profound European expressions of Culture. Although deeply rooted in Jazz, their music encompasses many additional musical areas, ranging from cabaret and chanson to contemporary Classical music. Always meticulously researched and perfectly scored, the Westbrook projects are all masterpieces of contemporary Art, way beyond straightforward music creation. One can perhaps trace these tendencies to the Jazz and Poetry amalgamations common in the early 1960s, or even much earlier examples from Classical music, which combined musical ideas with literary sources. Mike and Kate are a complete cultural phenomenon; alas a radically rare one in our times, in complete contrast to most of the “musical“ ventures polluting our ears. The music included on this album is perhaps the most complex and ambitious project the Westbrooks have ever undertaken. Commissioned by the French Festival International de Jazz d’Amiens for the 1987 edition of the festival, it was premiered there and later recorded in Paris. The music is an extended work for two orchestras – Jazz and Symphonic – incorporating texts selected and written by Kate. The music and text were written and assembled over a period of four years (1983-1987) and inspired by the places, which the Westbrooks visited during their intensive touring voyages. The overall idea was to present a picture of Europe at the time, with its immense political, social and cultural complexity, focusing on four European Capitals (London, Prague, Berlin and Vienna) and the French Picardie Region. Westbrook’s Jazz “orchestra” was in fact a nonet, with him on piano, Kate on vocals, Chris Biscoe on saxophones and clarinet, Peter Whyman on saxophones, Graham Russell on trumpet and flugelhorn, Paul Nieman on trombone, Brian Godding on guitar, Steve Cook on bass and Tony Marsh on drums. The Mike Westbrook orchestra and Le Sinfonietta de Picardie were both conducted by Alexandre Myrat. The album was originally released in 1988 on Virgin as a four LP set (three and a half to be exact), but disappeared almost immediately from the shelves. Kudos to BGO for reissuing this masterpiece and exposing this music to new potential listeners, nothing deserves a wider recognition than this cultural treasure. Beyond essential!

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It’s time to return to my favorite subject: British Jazz of the late 1960s and 1970s, completing the picture already well represented on my site. A bunch of releases on the BGO label should do the job nicely. Here is the next of these:

Composer / arranger / bandleader Michael Gibbs was one of the most prominent figures on the burgeoning British Jazz scene at its peak. He performed (as trombonist), composed and arranged music for many ensembles active at the time, in parallel to leading his own band, which is captured here during a residency at the legendary Ronnie Scott’s club in London. The band included the top British Jazz players of the time, most of which played on Michel’s previous two studio recordings: Kenny Wheeler, Henry Lowther, Harry Beckett (trumpet), Chris Pyne, Malcolm Griffiths, Geoff Perkins (trombone), Ray Warleigh, Stan Sulzmann, Alan Skidmore (saxophone), Dave MacRae, John Taylor (piano), Chris Spedding (guitar), Roy Babbington (bass), John Marshall (drums) and Frank Ricotti (vibes & percussion). The music covers a wide range of styles, from the typical atmospheric and moody compositions by Gibbs, to scorching Jazz-Rock Fusion exemplified mostly by Spedding’s lead guitar parts and even Blues. Gibbs pays a tribute to some of his American pioneering colleagues: Gary Burton, Steve Swallow, Carla Bley and Keith Jarrett, whom he befriended during his studies in the US, by including his arrangements of their tunes. Notably Gibbs kept looking across the Atlantic for inspiration, being somewhat different in that respect from most of his British contemporaries, who wanted to emancipate themselves from American influence as much as possible. Nevertheless his unique approach to composition and arrangement was clearly much more advanced than most stuff coming over from America. The raw energy and the virtuosity of the players make this album one of the greatest documents of the era, which remains a timeless masterpiece. A must for British Jazz lovers!

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It’s time to return to my favorite subject: British Jazz of the late 1960s and 1970s, completing the picture already well represented on my site. A bunch of releases on the BGO label should do the job nicely. Here is the next of these:

Composer / arranger / bandleader / bassist Graham Collier is one of the Godfathers of modern British Jazz, and his contribution to the genre as a musician, educator and writer are monumental. Although initially schooled in the US (Collier was the first student from the UK to be awarded a scholarship at the Berklee School of Music in Boston in the 1960s), he was in fact one of the pioneers of the European Jazz, accepting the American Jazz tradition as a basis for further development and exploration based on the European cultural heritage. His innovative approach as a composer and arranger were immensely influential not only on the local British scene, but also throughout the entire Europe, especially his usage of irregular meters and time signatures. Over the years Collier composed and recorded a colossal body of work, which includes some of the greatest music of the 20^th Century. This album collects the three albums Collier recorded for the Fontana / Philips labels in 1969 / 1970, following his debut recording on Deram from 1967. He composed all the music presented here (except one tune) and plays bass (something he was to abandon in the future) and the lineups of the three ensembles include some of the greatest players on the British scene at the time: Harry Beckett (trumpet), Stan Sulzmann, Alan Skidmore, Alan Wakeman, Bob Sydor, Tony Roberts (saxophone), Karl Jenkins (oboe), Nick Evans, Derek Wadsworth (trombone), Philip Lee (guitar), John Taylor, Geoff Castle (piano) and John Marshall, John Webb (drums). Many of these players were to become future leaders of course, as Collier’s ensembles served as an excellent breeding ground for young players, similar to what happened on the Blues scene with John Mayall’s ensembles. Collier of often called the Charles Mingus of European Jazz, and the parallels are obvious. The music is of course absolutely stunning, from start to finish, and brilliantly performed. Every moment on this album is just right, brilliant and timeless, which makes it not only a perfect document of the era, but also a piece of music that retains its intrinsic values forever. Absolutely essential!

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It’s time to return to my favorite subject: British Jazz of the late 1960s and 1970s, completing the picture already well represented on my site. A bunch of releases on the BGO label should do the job nicely. Here is the next of these:

Contrary to what most people know about singer / songwriter / keyboards player Georgie Fame, his true aspiration was always to sing Jazz. Although he arrived on the British scene in the mid-1960s as a Pop singer, with several singles charting over the years, pretty soon he decided that a Pop idol was the last thing he wanted to be and moved away from the Pop image as fast as he could. By the end of the 1960s Fame was already singing in front of Jazz bands and his self-penned material had a distinctive Jazzy feel. This album includes two of Fame’s LPs recorded in 1969 and 1971 respectively, both great examples of his great sensitivity and musicality. On “Seventh Son” he is supported by a dreamy Jazz band, which includes such illustrious players as Art Themen, Stan Sultzmann (saxophone), Derek Watkins (trumpet), Chris Pyne (trombone), Brian Odgers (bass) and John Marshall (drums), who play some outstanding solos. The album was produce by Fame’s friend Alan Price, another Pop star with Jazz inspirations. On “Going Home” the supporting band is the Keith Mansfield orchestra, another quite jazzy outfit, which played for example behind Maynard Ferguson, when he lived and recorded in Britain at the same period. Although perhaps only marginally Jazz, these two albums are a great example of the openness the music industry was willing to extend towards the artists, who wanted to do “their own thing”, something that lasted for a very brief period of time. Fame’s worm tone and great feel for the music are definitely worth a recollection and this album is a great trip down the memory lane. Probably for people in the autumn years, like myself, but still great fun.

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It’s time to return to my favorite subject: British Jazz of the late 1960s and 1970s, completing the picture already well represented on my site. A bunch of releases on the BGO label should do the job nicely. Here is the next of these:

Pianist / composer Keith Tippett is one of the pioneers of British Free Jazz and Improvised Music. His work in the late 1960s / 1970s both as a leader and sideman with the leading avant-garde ensembles at the time, includes some the most daring and revolutionary British Jazz achievements. This album was recorded shortly after the gigantic Centipede project, led by Tippett and comprised of over 50 Britain’s leading avant-garde Jazz and Rock musicians recorded their seminal (and only) album “Septober Energy”. In complete contrast, this album is all about intimacy, recorded by five musicians in various formats from duos to quartets. The music is completely improvised, capturing moments of musical exchanges between the musicians with no preconceived clearly defined themes. Tippett’s companions include his wife Julie Tippetts (vocals), who not only changed her name (from Julie Driscoll) but also made an almost complete about face from her previous Pop and Jazz-Rock background, bassist Roy Babbington and two percussionists Frank Perry and Keith Bailey. The album was produced by no other than Robert Fripp, with whom Tippett cooperated on a few King Crimson recordings. The album remains a classic example of early British and European Improvised Music and lost none of its expressionist power over the years. Definitely worth investigating.

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I close the BGO additions with a great reissue of two 1960s album by vibraphonist Gary Burton:

Vibraphonist / composer Gary Burton is one of greatest American Jazz musicians, with a long and outstanding career and a massive body of work. He is also one of relatively few American Jazz artists, who can be considered as true originals, embracing the Jazz tradition but at the same time constantly expanding the horizons of the music and exploring the terra incognita of the genre. This album takes us back to the early days of Burton’s musical path, when he was leading probably the most forward-thinking Jazz quartet of the day. Together with guitarist extraordinaire Larry Coryell, bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Bob Moses, the quartet ventured into some of the earliest examples of Jazz-Rock Fusion, years ahead of their contemporaries. The two original LPs, although both recorded in 1967, are quite different from each other. On “Lofty Fake Anagram” the quartet explores mostly a series of original tunes by Burton and Swallow, with finesse and elegance, but also with fire and passion. On “A Genuine Tong Funeral” Burton combines forces with another great and unorthodox American Jazz representative, pianist / composer Carla Bley. The music is her first full-scale Jazz composition for a band, which she calls a “Dark Opera Without Words”. The “without word” part was to bee soon remedied on her next spectacular project, the first true modern Jazz opera “Escalator Over The Hill”, which included a libretto by Paul Haines. For the recording of this music the quartet was expanded to a small orchestra with Carla Bley on piano, Steve Lacy and the brilliant Argentinean player Gato Barbieri on saxophone, Michael Mantler (Carla’s close partner) on trumpet, Jimmy Knepper on trombone and Howard Johnson on tuba. The music is of course completely unique and unprecedented, with Bley’s masterly usage of orchestration to create moods and sonic vistas, all of it years ahead of its time. Together these two recordings provide a glimpse at the period when American Jazz was still bubbling with creativity and excitement. Brilliant and essential stuff!

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Continuing the expansion of British Jazz titles, I add a few more releases on the important FMR Records label. Here is the first of these:

British saxophonist / composer Mike Osborne was one of the greatest representatives of the burgeoning scene in the late 1960s / 1970s and one of the most prominent pioneers of Free Jazz and Improvised Music. His unique alto saxophone sound, exceptional improvisational skill and power and total involvement with the music were unparalleled by any of his contemporaries. Unfortunately his career was severely disrupted by mental illness, which eventually caused his early retirement from active performing. Although Osborne did record often in the 1970s as a sideman with the most prominent ensembles at the time, his output as a leader is sadly limited. Therefore the release of this fabulous album, 23 years after it was recorded and remained forgotten, was a major event not only for his many admirers, but also for the entire British Jazz scene. Especially so when one realizes that this album is in fact the first recording of the fabulous SOS saxophone trio, supported by a rhythm section. Here they are: John Surman, Mike Osborne and Alan Skidmore, three British saxophone giants, with two bass players Harry Miller and Earl Freeman and Louis Moholo on drums. The music is quite overwhelming, mostly free improvised with the three saxophonists playing simultaneously and separately and the rhythm section providing a solid basis cementing the overall result into a beautiful synergy of sounds. This kind of collective improvisation, based on phenomenal and almost telepathic rapport between the musicians is extremely rare and deserves to be heard time and time again. This is an immensely important document of European Jazz and a must for British Jazz enthusiasts.

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Continuing the expansion of British Jazz titles, I add a few more releases on the important FMR Records label. Here is the next of these:

British pianist / composer Howard Riley is primarily known for his numerous improvised solo piano recordings and duets with fellow improvisers, like Keith Tippett. As one of the greatest pioneers of British / European Improvised Music, he achieved in time a legendary status among his peers and fans alike. In contrast to his solo / duo recording, Riley’s piano trio albums are often reflections of his more lyrical and gentle side, bringing up his Jazz roots. This delightful album is no exception. Supported by two superb musicians, bassist Mario Castronari and drummer Tony Marsh, Riley delivers, what might appear as an almost “conventional” Jazz album. Of course there is nothing conventional about his exceptional improvisational ability or the performances by all three musicians, but the overall effect of the album is more acceptable to a listener, who might find it difficult to face Riley’s “usual” output. Of course some of the pieces on this album are freely improvised and others are melodic, but the album’s immediate “appeal” is magical. This is a great example of masterly performed music, which escapes classification and goes directly to one’s heart. Most warmly recommended, especially to listeners who are not familiar with this great musician and could use this album as an entry point to discover a new world of music.

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I’m happy to add 2 new albums by the phenomenal Polish Prog band Quidam, which are a new edition of their 1^st album and their newest one. Here comes the first:

1st album by the Polish Prog group Quidam, which took the Prog world by surprise when it hit the Western world. In retrospect this is definitely one of the best Prog albums released in the 1990s and surely one of the strongest Prog debuts ever. Quidam has all the elements of a great group: superb writers, excellent instrumentalists and a divine female vocalist with an angelic voice of the caliber of Annie Haslam – Emila Derkowska. The band is deeply rooted in the Prog tradition, especially in the Genesis dramatics, but they take the best of the tradition only as a backbone of their music, developing it far beyond the cliches and building exceptionally well developed and masterly executed songs. The delicate balance between acoustic (flute, viola) and electric (keyboards and guitar) instruments is enchanting and extremely effective. The choice to stick to Polish lyrics is a wise one, as the vocalist certainly can express herself better in her native tongue, rather than use English (as they tried later on). The new 10^th Anniversary edition adds a second CD called “River Of Memories”, which is a collection of previously unreleased material by the group and offshoot projects, all very interesting and worth having. Several video clips are added as well. This is a masterpiece in every respect and every single second of this album is absolutely perfect. No serious Prog collection can be complete without this album.

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I’m happy to add 2 new albums by the phenomenal Polish Prog band Quidam, which are a new edition of their 1^st album and their newest one. Here comes the second:

7^th album by Polish Prog group Quidam and 3^rd by the second version of the group with their new lead singer Bartek Kossowicz. It is certain that this is truly the first “proper” album of this version of the band, as they have been searching for a direction for quite a while and although the two previous albums have been more that adequate, this one overshadows them completely. They did finally find their balance, coming back to the beautiful melodies and superb instrumental passages that made the group famous to start with. Bartek is an excellent vocalist and the new material suits his voice perfectly, as he’s much better with the lyrical side of music than the rockier one. The music and performances are brilliant and it’s so good to see them again at their peak, taking back the position at the very top of contemporary Prog, which sadly suffers from stagnation. I’d still prefer if the lyrics were in Polish, but I suppose a band of their caliber just has to go internationally with lyrics in English. At least the lyrics make sense as opposed to the usual blabbering one finds so often on Prog releases. Definitely a major piece of work and a full swing return to good old times – truly great album. A must to every Prog fan!

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The last May addition is another British Jazz album by one of my favorite musicians – pianist Gordon Beck:

Pianist / composer Gordon Beck is one of the icons of the modern British Jazz and his immense contribution to the scene is invaluable. He first came to prominence as a member of the legendary saxophonist Tubby Hayes quintet and soon after formed his own trio, which was one of the most important ensembles at the time, which recorded some incredibly beautiful albums. Over the years Beck proved to be extremely prolific, recording tens of albums as leader and sidemen and hundreds as a studio musician. A hopeless romantic at heart, his incredibly melodic and lyrical compositions and extraordinary fluency as a player make him one of the finest European Jazz musician. Alongside Michael Garrick he is my favorite British piano player and a source of musical joy for over 40 years now. This, one of his latest albums (recorded when Beck was 71 years old!), recorded with two superb British Jazz veterans saxophonist Stan Sultzmann and bassist Chris Lawrence with a young drummer Paul Clarvis, presents him still at the top of his powers both as a composer and a player. He composed four of the seven tunes on this album with Sultzmann contributing the other three. The music is an incredible example of contemporary Jazz, melodic and beautifully structured, but at the same time full of zest, adventure and sophistication. Those listeners, who are familiar with Beck’s output, will find this a worthy addition to his superb body of work. Those who don’t know him might find this album as a gate into an incredible word of high Art of Jazz. Wholeheartedly recommended!

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