The Bebop Shop : Changes: Post-Bop Modernists : British Postmodernism
Vinyl audio remastered & cut from the original master tapes by Gearbox Records. Limited Edition 180grm pressing. Includes audio download voucher. (Universal Music) Price: £45.99
The second setting is of three poems by W.B. Yeats, James Joyce and Lewis Carroll, beautifully sung by Norma Winstone with the large jazz orchestra. In its first ever CD release, re-mastered from the studio tapes, the album concludes with a bonus track in Ardley's jokey setting of the National Anthem that segues effortlessly into a light tango.
Ardley's music, the performances of a veritable jazz who's who - including Frank Riccotti, Dave Gelly (who writes the notes for this reissue), Jon Hiseman, Barbara Thompson, Norma Winston, Stan Tracey, Jeff Clyne, Henry Lowther, Harold Beckett and Dick Heckstall-Smith, and the production values of Denis Preston, render 'A Symphony of Amaranths' one of the most important British jazz albums ever made. (Proper Music) Price: £12.99
A Barbadian by birth, Beckett learnt the trumpet with the Salvation Army in the early 1950s before embarking to London as a nineteen year old in 1954. He played with Charles Mingus on the 1962 film score All Night Long, and he was the go-to musician for so many key artists including Graham Collier, John Surman, Mike Westbrook, Chris McGregor, Mike Gibbs, Ian Carr's Nucleus, Stan Tracey, Jah Wobble, Ronnie Scott, and many others. Beckett played a big part of the early Jazz Warriors Big Band line up in the 1980s with Courtney Pine, Gary Crosby, Steve Williamson, Orphy Robinson, plus others, who achieved international success as a group and individually. Up until Beckett's death in 2010, he continued to teach trumpet and lecture extensively to the new generation of Jazz Warriors who have gone on to be part of today's UK jazz scene. His reputation is extended globally, especially across Europe and the US.
Continuing the 'British Jazz Explosion' vinyl series, reissued for the very first time on vinyl as a limited print run with thick card 'flip-back' laminated sleeve plus a 12x12 insert with new liner notes by Tony Higgins. The audio has been lovingly remastered by Gearbox from the original master tapes and is pressed on 180grm vinyl by Optimal. (Universal Music) Price: £36.99
Personnel: Harry Beckett (trumpet, flugelhorn), Ray Russell (guitar), Brian Miller (piano, electric piano, synthesizer), Darryl Runswick (bass, electric bass), Martin David (congas), Nigel Morris (drums). (Proper Music) Price: £13.99
The concert recording, over 90 minutes long, captures the Gary Burton Quartet performing classic original compositions by Gibbs, Burton and the Quartet's Steve Swallow at the mainstream music festival held in Belfast, November 1969 (1967's headliner was Jimi Hendrix)..Gibbs' band for the festival featured Chris Pyne, Kenny Wheeler, Trevor Barber, Alan Skidmore, Ray Warleigh, Tony Roberts and Chris Spedding..As a bonus Turtle Records is able to offer from Gibbs' own archive a 55 - minute recording of his Big Band earlier the same year at Lancaster University. Here, the band line-up comprised John Surman , Mike Osborne, Alan Skidmore, Henry Lowther, Roderick Toal, Chris Pyne, Dick Hart, Frank Ricotti, Mike Pyne, Phillip Lee, Jack Bruce and John Marshall..While the Lancaster recording circulated online in MP3 form in the 90s, this audio has been carefully mastered from non-compressed files and restored for the first time, under Mike Gibbs' supervision, to its original speed and at the original pitch..This package further boasts a major essay on Gibbs' early career, by John McLaughlin biographer Colin Harper, with fresh interview material from Gibbs enhanced with photos from Gibbs' own archive and contemporary cuttings. (Proper Music) Price: £19.99
Over a quarter of a century later, 'Symphony Hall, Birmingham 1991' offers up music still astonishingly fresh and contemporary, full of rich colours and textures, vibrant rhythms and inspired solos. This double album represents an essential addition to the catalogues of both Mike Gibbs and John Scofield.
1000 copies limited edition pressing. High quality digipack packaging, including an 8-page booklet with notes by Ian Mann and archive images. (Proper Music) Price: £15.99
The nine tracks on 'Lush Life' are a beautiful collection of unusual "standards" and four originals, two each from Stan and Nikki, who have contributed short liner notes to the tunes explaining why they were included on the album. From the opening track "You Don't Know What Love Is" - included because of Stan's love of Billie Holiday's rendition - to "Between Moons" by John Taylor, an influential friend to all the artists on the record, to the final title track "Lush Life" you can hear in the recording how much these three stellar musicians enjoy making music. (Proper Music) Price: £13.99
Price: £13.99
Instantly recognisable Art Themen's freewheeling and wholly inclusive improvisational approach is the very essence of the jazz soloist. Dave Barry, equally, is unmistakably defined by his own unique voice on his instrument and open and instantly reactive approach to playing. Together they form an indominable team which, completed by Gareth Williams and Dave Green can only create music of the highest order. This album does not disappoint - a tour de force through some familiar jazz themes that is brimming with sparks and inspirational playing. (Proper Music) Price: £14.99
Tony Coe wrote a substantial new work for the Jazzpar award concerts and the complex "Captain Coe's Famous Racearound", according to its composer, was completed within a few days "in an atmosphere of white heat. The small-group set with the Jazzpar Combo also includes a Coe composition featuring the excellent solo work of Bob Brookmeyer. Also heard are two pieces by London and Paris-based drummer Steve Arguelles. The first has Arguelles playing a musical box against which Tony builds a free improvisation, while "Antonia" is a ballad showcasing his warm soprano saxophone tone. The remainder of the programme with the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra provides several changes of pace. (Proper Music) Price: £11.99
The original RCA recording of 'Citadel/Room 315' is an hour-long suite of eleven tracks, beautifully composed and arranged by Mike Westbrook that is rightly considered to be one of the high-points of Brit-jazz from that era. Mike was commissioned by Sveriges (Swedish) Radio to write the work with Surman as lead soloist. He then travelled to Sweden to perform and conduct it for the first time, live in concert. This recording has never been released until now and presents a wildly different recording to the later LP, the rawness and freedom of the playing contrasting strongly with the more polished studio album.
Surman - playing baritone and soprano saxophone, plus bass clarinet - is in sumptuously freewheeling form throughout, soaring between wild expression and wonderfully controlled playing, perfectly complimenting Mike's compositions that gracefully move from jazz-rock, ballads, to tightly composed orchestral themes and more avant-garde moments.
Backed by the 16-piece Swedish Radio Jazz Group led by saxophonist Arne Domnérus and Argentinian trumpeter Americo Bellotto, the group comprised the finest players on the Swedish scene, including trumpeters Jan Allan and Bertil Lövgren, guitarist Rune Gustafsson, pianist Bengt Hallberg and drummer Egil Johansen. Between them they had worked with everyone from George Russell and Stan Getz, to Monica Zetterlund and Jan Johansson. (Proper Music) Price: £13.99
'2081' draws inspiration from Kurt Vonnegut s short story 'Harrison Bergeron', published in 1961. John Taylor was commissioned to write the music by BBC Radio 3 for the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Originally written for octet, it was then readapted for quartet. Alex Taylor explains: 'Vonnegut s story depicts a dystopian future in which everyone is equal. Nobody is allowed to be smarter, better looking or more physically able than anyone else. Those individuals who are gifted with intellect, talent and so on are made to bear handicaps '. At times, John Taylor s musical realm is reassuring and consistent with his own standards, while, at other times, it conveys the mysterious, unsettling future depicted by Vonnegut, by pursuing a hybrid sound, mingling jazz, pop and a moody soundtrack vibe. This pursuit definitely benefits from the sonic scenarios opened by Marshall s tuba, as well as the drumming style of Leo Taylor (already launched on a brilliant career on the indie-rock scene with his band The Invisible), who very often introduces modern, offbeat hypnotic rhythms here. (Harmonia Mundi) Price: £13.99
