The Bebop Shop John Surman

The Bebop Shop : Changes: Post-Bop Modernists : John Surman


	John Surman / John Warren: Tales Of The Algonquin (Vinyl LP: Deram/Decca) Continuing the 'British Jazz Explosion' vinyl reissue series is John Surman, John Warren / Tales of the Algonquin. This album was recently included in Jazzwise Magazine's "The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World" and they praised it with "The Big Beast of the Brit-Jazz golden age" & "The masterpiece that is". The jazz collectors' bible, The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded the album with a coveted crown and it was complemented further with "masterpiece, conceived on a grand scale, meticulously executed and marked by superb soloing… legendary status among British jazz fans". In 2005 for a CD review of the album, John Fordham at The Guardian wrote "This is a significant UK jazz document - but it's a richly colourful piece of large-scale jazz-making first and foremost" as well as giving it four stars. Since the album's original release in 1971, it has continued to be on critics' radars and jazz fans' wants-lists. Featuring a 16-piece band with a 27 year old Surman, it's a rich sound full of twists and turns - some with Surman's heavy Coltrane influenced playing, helped along with John Taylor's beautiful piano, positioned artfully with Warren's band - sixteen members that also include Mike Osborne, Stan Sulzmann, Barre Phillips, Harry Miller, Alan Jackson, Stu Martin, John Taylor, Alan Skidmore, Harry Beckett and Kenny Wheeler, a.o. Reissued on vinyl as a limited print run with thick card 'flip-back' laminated sleeve plus a 12x12 insert with new in-depth liner notes by Tony Higgins with interviews by Surman, Warren and the album producer Peter Eden. 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


John Surman: Westering Home (CD: Fledgling) Westering Home was originally released in 1972. John Surman plays everything on the album, drawing together many of the threads of his earlier recordings with the possibilities offered by technology (and his own prodigious musicality). "I took a break from being on the road. This was just around the time when mono had become stereo, and then - in a flash - multi-track recording became possible. I was fascinated by the possibilities of, say, three bass clarinets on different tracks improvising together. Plus I had a curiosity about 'radiophonics' and tape manipulation and Pierre Henry's Musique concrete. So it was in that spirit that I started work on what was to become Westering Home." (Proper Music) Price: £13.99


	John Surman: Morning Glory (CD: Fledgling) One of the finest and most lyrical jazz-rock albums of the period, and a milestone in John Surman's remarkable recording career. At the time of its original release in 1973, Morning Glory, seemed a surprising departure for saxophonist John Surman. It seemed to owe more to the music being made by Miles Davis, Weather Report and Tony Williams' Lifetime in the USA or Ian Carr's Nucleus and Soft Machine in the UK than it did to the often abstract, free but determinedly acoustic music that Surman had pioneered up to that point. Hindsight tells another story. Morning Glory stands as both a consolidation of his work to date and, like the solo Westering Home (also re-issued by Fledg'ling this month), it offers a signpost for his work in subsequent years. Surman chose his partners for the recording very carefully, drawing from his friends and trusted collaborators. In particular, Terje Rypdal on electric guitar and John Taylor on both acoustic and electric pianos allows for an expanded musical palette. The rhythm section of Malcolm Griffiths on trombone, Chris Laurence on bass and John Marshall's chattering drums lay down a remarkably elastic rhythmic counterpoint. All of these musical signatures would become even more evident in his later recordings for ECM. (Proper Music) Price: £13.99


John Surman: The Amazing Adventures Of Simon Simon (CD: ECM Touchstones) John Surman and Jack DeJohnette first played together in 1968, but didn’t make a duo album together until The Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon in 1981. Immediately recognised as a special album it won the Record of the Year Award in Jazz Forum’s Readers Poll. The press was equally enthusiastic. Down Beat: “Unrestrained delight! The stunning Adventures of Simon Simon shatters through several stylistic barriers in the most swingful of fashions – and goes right to the heart of modern musical artistry…5 stars.” (ECM Records) Price: £11.99


	John Surman: Private City (CD: ECM Touchstones) The most popular of John Surman’s multi-tracked solo albums, “Private City” includes music originally written for the ballet of the same name, premiered at Sadler’s Wells. This album is part of the ECM TOUCHSTONES series: Great music and full-dimensional sound at download price, in cardboard covers with original artwork. (ECM Records) Price: £11.99


John Surman: Road To Saint Ives (CD: ECM) Price: £14.99


	John Surman: Adventure Playground (CD: ECM) Price: £14.99


John Surman/ John Warren: The Brass Project (CD: ECM Touchstones) The original conceptual idea for the Brass Project was to set John Surman’s improvising trio with bassist Chris Laurence and drummer John Marshall at the centre of a radiant brass choir of trumpets and trombones. With John Warren invited to contribute compositions and to conduct the group, the Brass Project quickly evolved into a more organic large ensemble, and by the time of this 1992 recording had become one of the most creative configurations in Britain. The elegant arrangements of Warren’s and Surman’s profoundly melodic music inspire many eloquent and touching solos. (ECM Records) Price: £11.99


	John Surman: Proverbs And Songs (CD: ECM) Price: £14.99


John Surman: Coruscating (CD: ECM) Price: £14.99


	John Surman: Free And Equal (CD: ECM) Price: £14.99


John Surman: The Spaces In Between (CD: ECM) Price: £14.99


	John Surman & Howard Moody: Rain On The Window (CD: ECM) A very special project in the discography of saxophonist John Surman, one of ECM’s most admired musicians: an album of intimate duets with organist Howard Moody. (New Note) Price: £14.99


John Surman: Brewster's Rooster (CD: ECM) After ECM recordings with organ (“Rain on the Window”), strings (“The Spaces In Between”), brass ensemble (“Free and Equal”), choir (“Proverbs and Songs”), and early music experiments with the Dowland Project (“Romaria”). John Surman offers an album unequivocally jazz in its orientation. Soulful ballads, hard-driving pieces and fiery improvisations are all to be found here, and Surman is in best creative form on baritone and soprano saxophones. Both Surman and guitarist Abercrombie have long musical relationships with powerhouse drummer DeJohnette, and all three are in accord at a high level. A strong showing, too, for bassist Drew Gress in his ECM debut. Music is all by Surman, apart from “Slanted Sky” by old comrade John Warren, and the timeless “Chelsea Bridge” of Billy Strayhorn. (ECM Records) Price: £14.99


	John Surman: Saltash Bells (CD: ECM) John Surman is an exceptionally versatile musician and his instrumental prowess has been showcased in many contexts. Yet his solo albums may be the best sources for insights into his melodic imagination. If you want to understand the wellsprings of his creativity, the solo albums are the place to go; “Saltash Bells” ranks with the best of them. This time around the compositions were inspired by the West Country of John’s English childhood, memories of special places – and sounds. The title track refers to the echoes of bell ringing from Saltash church resounding around the Tamar River valley, at the border of Cornwall and Devon. “Whistman’s Wood”, meanwhile, evokes the mysterious petrified forest of Dartmoor … And so it goes, ancient haunts inspiring vivid new music. (ECM Records) Price: £14.99


John Surman & Bergen Big Band: Another Sky (CD: Grappa) ‘Another Sky’ presents an hour of energetic, dynamic music from the pen of John Surman, commissioned by Bergen Big Band for a concert in Parma, Italy, in 2011, with the composer himself as soloist. Price: £13.99


	John Surman: Invisible Threads (CD: ECM) Saxophonist and clarinettist John Surman is often characterized as a quintessentially English improviser and composer, and hints of folk music and a pastoral ambience are attributes of his music on well-loved albums like “The Road to Saint Ives” or “Saltash Bells.” Yet he also has a long history of working with musicians from other countries and cultures, players united by such invisible threads as a shared feeling for melody that transcends the idioms. John Surman met pianist Nelson Ayres – known to aficionados of Brazilian jazz for his work with Airto Moreira, Milton Nascimento and Banda Pau Brasil – while on tour in South America. In Oslo, Surman came to know and appreciate the playing of Rob Waring, expatriate US vibraphonist (recently heard on ECM with Mats Eilertsen). The three musicians come together to play a new programme of Surman originals – plus Nelson Ayres’s “Summer Song” – in a session recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow studio in July 2017, produced by Manfred Eicher. (ECM Records) Price: £14.99


John Surman: Words Unspoken (CD: ECM) The album title – Words Unspoken – alludes to the instant musical understanding found by the members of this nimble quartet assembled by great British reedman John Surman. „My idea was to put together some musical ideas that would offer a collective sense of purpose but still be open enough to allow each of us to suggest other ways of developing the material together. Everything fell into place immediately. But I soon realized it wasn‘t so much the musical ideas that made it work, it was the musicians.” Surman and US vibraharpist Rob Waring – both residents of Oslo – had previously collaborated in John’s Invisible Threads trio with Nelson Ayres, but the associations with Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen and UK guitarist Rob Luft were new. With these four quick-witted players, all debate takes place in the music, stimulated by Surman’s strongly melodic themes and improvisational imagination. Words Unspoken is issued as the quartet gears up for international touring. (ECM Records) Price: £14.99

The Bebop Shop : Changes: Post-Bop Modernists : John Surman

Can't find the item you're looking for? We'll search it out for you. Call us on +44(0)116 288 5788