early 70's-ish british stuff

[Guest akanalog]

so i just heard my first nucleus stuff.

checked out "belladonna" "labyrinth" "solar plexus" "in flagrante delicto" and "roots"

i thought "belladonna" "solar plexus" and "labyrinth" were awesome. the other two were ok. but these ones are great early electric jazz-fusion.

anyone else into nuclues or have any favorite albums?

i threw soft machine in here because nucleus and soft machine share some musicians. i enjoy the nucleus that i have heard more than the soft machine i have heard but perhaps other people feel differently. i keep almost buying soft machine "fifth" because the cover is incredible, in my opinion. but i would like to know what the best soft machine to explore would be....

dusty groove has this soft head-rouge elements album from 1978 in stock now that looks intriguing. amg likes it a lot. anyone hear this?

i was on a british jazz kick and had some cash so i also checked out this stuff recently-

michael garrick-troppo! this album is great. can anyone recommend anything else like this? it isn't fusion, but it has nice electric piano, some female vocals and nice meaty acoustic basslines. good compositions too.

harry beckett-flare up haven't made an opinion yet. wasn't crazy on first listenings.

jack bruce-songs we like eh...not so great. i'm not in love with this album. maybe needs more listenings but i think other people do the jazz thing better.

don rendell/ian carr quintet-change is wasn't as impressed as i hoped to be with this. i have heard so much about this quintet and was imagining something more along the lines of miles davis' quintet work from this time period, but this was a lot more tame.

what should i be checking out now? mike westbrook? dick heckstall-smith?

[sidewinder]

Have you heard the two Giles Peterson 'Impressed' CDs put out on Universal? Both offer a great selection of 60s/70s British jazz selections. One track from my avatar feature is on Vol 1. Recommended !

I love Beckett's 'Flare Up' by the way and have a vinyl of this one.

Check out also the Neil Ardley's. 'Kaleidoscope of Rainbows' is great and can be got hold of reasonably easily on vinyl. 'Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe' is the best one though and is much more elusive.

I'd also recommend Harold McNair's RCAs and John Cameron 'Off Centre'. Again this is vinyl only and pretty elusive stuff.

Giles Peterson CDs are the cost-effective way to go !

[Guest akanalog]

thank you but i don't like compilations, really.

i would rather get whole albums if possible.

also those petersons go for like $30 each here in the US.

but thank you for the ideas.

[sidewinder]

You are welcome ! Ardley's 'Greek Variations' in the same 'Impressed Repressed' series as 'Troppo' is also highly recommended. A bit of jazz-rock in this but also quite a bit of folk influence. Typical Ardley, covers lots of musical ground. Very nice nevertheless (and pretty rare in the vinyl). There's also a couple of nice albums by Amancio D'Silva (with Harriott I think) and the elusive, eccentric pianist Mike Taylor. Great series !

[Guest akanalog]

do you know of a link to a site to find out what CDs are in that series and also somewhere good to order them? i was interested in checking out neil ardley for sure.

[A Lark Ascending]

For Soft Machine as jazz group go for Third and Fourth to start with. Fifth is more abstract, more free-jazzy. Sixth is interesting though more into minimalist methods. After that they get less interesting. 1 + 2 are really psychadelic rock records with jazzy elements - great records (and the real thing to many Soft Machine fans). There's a lot of very good concert material come out in recent years. The first BBC disc on the Hux label is brilliant. The Cuneiform discs are excellent too.

I'd not dismiss the two Impressed compilations too lightly - they do a great job of introducing you to a wide range of UK jazz of the 60s/70s. You can sell them after you've snapped up the albums they come from.

There's not much Garrick from the 60s/70s around apart from Troppo - if the Repressed series goes to plan we should get alot more. Garrick has a number of discs from more recent times on his own label - they're not favourites of mine.

Given your liking for Nucleus I'd support sidewinder's recommendation of Neil Ardley's ''Kaleidoscope of Rainbows' which shares some musicians. I'd also back 'Greek Variations' and suggest looking out for 'Symphony of Amaranths' which is due for reissue soon.

Graham Collier's recordings from the 60s/70s also have a strong rockish element - these have been reissued by Disconforme (with Collier's approval!).

If you enjoy the freer side of jazz don't miss Keith Tippett's Septober Energy - a wonderfully imaginative megawork which veers from free jazz to beautiful melodicism and into early 70s jazz rock a la Nucleus (Ian Carr is among the ensemble).

'Rogue Element' is a fine live disc but look out for 'Cruel But Fair' by Keith Tippett, Elton Dean, Hugh Hopper and Joe Gallivan. That's a stormer.

I'd also suggest taking a step rockward into Henry Cow and National Health, two 70s bands who included heavy amounts of improvisation; Henry Cow were more avant garde - they produced compelling discs especially 'Unrest'. National Health were more melodic - the last gasp of a very British form of 'fusion' trying to survive (hopelessly) against the backdrop of punk. You can get the Henry Cow and National Health discs very cheaply from this site:

http://www.noside.com/

(Use the search engine or check the deals at the bottom of the home page...don't be scared by the Scandanavian folk music that dominates the site (this is brill too!))

Westbrook will give you a lifetime of interest too. 'Celebration' from the late 60s has just been reissued in Repressed series; and BGO have reissued 'Metropolis' (they botched the transfer originally but this has bee redressed). To my ears he starts getting really interesting in the mid-70s. I would recommend 'The Cortege' from 1980 as his finest two and a bit hours!

Everything you need to know lies here:

http://www.westbrookjazz.de/

or here:

http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/

Edited November 11, 2004 by Bev Stapleton

[7/4]

Henry Cow ->

[alankin]

Bev has a lot of good suggestions.

For Soft Machine as jazz group go for Third and Fourth to start with.

"Seven" is another jazzy Soft Machine album.

I'd also suggest taking a step rockward into Henry Cow and National Health, two 70s bands who included heavy amounts of improvisation; Henry Cow were more avant garde - they produced compelling discs especially 'Unrest'. National Health were more melodic - the last gasp of a very British form of 'fusion' trying to survive (hopelessly) against the backdrop of punk.

If you end up liking National Health, I'd also recommend Hatfield and the North, which has a similar appeal.

Edited November 12, 2004 by alankin

[Guy Berger]

For Soft Machine as jazz group go for Third and Fourth to start with. Fifth is more abstract, more free-jazzy.

I might need to listen to these albums again, but that really wasn't my impression. #3 and #4 sound like cutting-edge stuff, #5 sounds much more conservative.

Guy

[Guy Berger]

Bev has a lot of good suggestions.

For Soft Machine as jazz group go for Third and Fourth to start with.

"Seven" is another jazzy Soft Machine album.

I'd also suggest taking a step rockward into Henry Cow and National Health, two 70s bands who included heavy amounts of improvisation; Henry Cow were more avant garde - they produced compelling discs especially 'Unrest'. National Health were more melodic - the last gasp of a very British form of 'fusion' trying to survive (hopelessly) against the backdrop of punk.

If you end up liking National Health, I'd also recommend Hatfield and the North, which has a similar appeal.

I like the 1st, self-titled Hatfield album better than the second one (Rotters' Club). How can you go wrong with an album that has song titles like "Gigantic Crabs in Earth Takover Bid".

As far as National Health, I prefer the second album Of Queues and Cures. That one tune about the computer ("Squarer for Maud") is totally awesome.

Guy

[Late]

I'd not dismiss the two Impressed compilations too lightly - they do a great job of introducing you to a wide range of UK jazz of the 60s/70s. You can sell them after you've snapped up the albums they come from.

These really are great "albums" — not just slopped together like some "Jazz for Wednesday Afternoon Razor Burns" collection. The sequence makes sense, the remastering is impeccable, and the tunes are all uniformly great. And, right now, I believe it's the only way one can hear Joe Harriott's funky "Jaipur." They are expensive, and I cringed when I pulled the plug, but now (of course) I'm glad I did.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

I've been trying to pass along D'Silva's "Integration" (pristine in sound, btw) from this series to no ears. Any takers?

Offering

[Man with the Golden Arm]

and not to hijack this thread from the more advanced sounds but... anybody heard this?

Joe Harriott -- Joe Harriott Swings High . . .

Cadillac (UK), 1967 

A fantastic lost slice of work by one of the greatest modern jazz forces on the British jazz scene of the 60s -- Jamaican-born saxophonist Joe Harriott, known for his groundbreaking avant jazz sessions and his experiments with Indian classical music! The sound here is quite different than those two better-known aspects of Harriott's career -- and represents a return to the hardbop style he was using in the late 50s, when first making waves on the London scene. However, that's not a bad thing at all -- as the album's overflowing with modern jazz undercurrents, and almost has a fresh post-Mingus approach to the horn parts and rhythm progressions. The quintet includes trumpeter Stu Hamer, drummer Phil Seaman, bassist Coleridge Goode, and pianist Pat Smythe -- all well-suited players for Harriott in such a mode, and working here in a style that recalls the first great moments of British jazz from the late 50s. Titles include "Strollin South", "Just Goofin", "Time For Love", "The Rake", "Blues In C", and "Tuesday Morning Swing". -The Bastards

Edited November 12, 2004 by Man with the Golden Arm

[A Lark Ascending]

For Soft Machine as jazz group go for Third and Fourth to start with. Fifth is more abstract, more free-jazzy.

I might need to listen to these albums again, but that really wasn't my impression. #3 and #4 sound like cutting-edge stuff, #5 sounds much more conservative.

Guy

Funny how we all hear things differently. I suppose the first side of Fourth has similar abstractions to Fifth. One of the reasons Robert Wyatt jumped ship after Fourth was because he disliked the increasingly jazzy direction of the group (despite being a jazz fan!). Elton Dean seemed to take over on that one. It still wasn't adventurous enough for him so he left. Listen to Dean's 'Just Us' to hear where he was off to next!

I find Third and Fourth still very 'rock' in the drumming and with very clear melodies; whereas the melodic material on Fifth seems to more jagged.

As I say, different ears.

*************

Yes, Hatfield were a joy. I love both their albums which I bought at the time (saw them once c.1974). There's apparantly a disc of live material from the time about to be released. Information due here on 15th November:

http://www.hatfieldandthenorth.co.uk/

You can go back a stage further to Egg whose first two albums are due for reissue any day now:

http://www.eclecticdiscs.com/new_releases.htm

Moving away from straight jazz but jazz related with strong links to the UK jazz-rock mentioned in the title of this thread.

***************

Anyone with a love of this music should try to hear this new CD:

To quote some blurb about this UK reed player:

Earth to Ether features Theo's flute and alto flute playing more than on any other of Theo's albums and for the first time on one of Theo's albums there will be some vocal tracks. Acclaimed author of "The Rotters Club" and "What a Carve Up" Jonathan Coe has written lyrics for the songs. The album was recorded at the Premises studio, London by Justin Underhill, and mixed by Steven Wilson at No Man's Land. The album features his regular touring band and special guest Richard Sinclair (founding member and vocalist/guitarist/bassist with Canterbury music bands Caravan and Hatfield and the North) Three tracks feature Theo's tenor sax, including a fiery version of King Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man. Influenced by 1970's jazz flute, cool jazz, Brazilian songs, Canterbury music, progressive folk, King Crimson, Hubert Laws and a love of melody and lush atmospheres, the album has been very positively received by those who have heard it so far. The album will be released on 33 Records on 18 October in time for Theo's 25 date UK tour with his quartet (see www.theotravis.com - live dates page for tour schedule).

(from http://www.jazzcds.co.uk/store/commerce.cg...d=931636.29579)

[Guest akanalog]

how about mike westbrook's "love songs" which is now being offered at dustygroove?

worth the money?

[7/4]

You can go back a stage further to Egg whose first two albums are due for reissue any day now:

http://www.eclecticdiscs.com/new_releases.htm

Moving away from straight jazz but jazz related with strong links to the UK jazz-rock mentioned in the title of this thread.

And if we move forward in time...that same keyboard player (aka Dave Stewart) did three wonderful studio albums and a live disk with the Bill Bruford group that are about to be reissued with extra cuts.

[BFrank]

John McLaughlin's first album "Extrapolation" is definitely worth picking up.

[A Lark Ascending]

how about mike westbrook's "love songs" which is now being offered at dustygroove?

worth the money?

This one hasn't been around since first issued in the early 70s. I've never heard it. I heard about this Japanese issue.

However, rumour has it that it is slated for the Repressed series in the future. Might be worth waiting for. There's plenty of other Westbrook available at much cheaper prices than this import.

[GA Russell]

I highly recommend Mike Westbrook's Love Songs, even though to me Side 2 was distinctly inferior to Side 1. I still play it from time to time when I come across it.

[Guest akanalog]

again, could someone point me to where i could find a list of the repressed or impressed or whatever reissues and where i could buy them? thank you.

the compilations are quite expensive in the US and just as a general thing i do not like compilations. but i am sure they are great.

[A Lark Ascending]

There are five issued so far (outside of the two compilations).

MIKE WESTBROOK CONCERT BAND - Celebration (Universal 9866890; UK)

NEIL ARDLEY/IAN CARR/DON RENDLE - Greek Variations & Other Agean Exercises (Universal 9866899; UK)

AMANCIO D'SILVA - Integration: Introducing Amancio D'Silva (Universal 9866893; UK)

MICHAEL GARRICK With NORMA WINSTONE et al - Troppo (Universal 9866892; UK)

MIKE TAYLOR - Trio (Universal 9866894; UK)

They are listed here at the Downtown Music Gallery site in New York at $19 each.

http://www.downtownmusicgallery.com/Main/N...2004-08-06.html

That's about £10. They sell for around £7.99 in the UK. By the time you'd added postage from a European vendor you'd be paying the same.

[Amazon France seems to have them for €9.99...about $12. That might come in a little cheaper.

http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000...2237067-3620208]

Edited November 13, 2004 by Bev Stapleton

[Late]

Again, could someone point me to where I could find a list of the repressed or impressed or whatever reissues, and where I could buy them?

The list Bev posted is the complete reissue series so far. In the U.S., Dusty Groove probably has the best prices. This search yields them all.

Here is the projected list for this series:

Mike Taylor Quartet - Pendulum (Columbia) 1965

Dusko Goykovich - Swinging Macedonia (Columbia)

Neil Ardley - Ian Carr - Mike Gibbs - Stan Tracey (Argo), 1974

Stan Tracey Trio - Perspectives (Columbia)

Stan Tracey - Under Milkwood (Columbia)

Stan Tracey with his Big Band - Seven Ages of Man (Columbia)

Stan Tracey Quartet - Free An' One (Columbia), 1969

The Stan Tracey Big Brass - We Love You Madly (Columbia)

Stan Tracey - The Latin American Caper (Columbia), 1968

Stan Tracey Quartet - With Love from Jazz - (Columbia), 1967

The Stan Tracey Big Band: Alice in Jazzland - (Columbia)

Paul Gonsalves/Tubby Hayes - Just Friends - (Columbia), 1965

Neil Ardley - Willpower (Argo) 1974

Neil Ardley - A Symphony of Amaranths (Regal Zonophone) 1972

New Jazz Orchestra - Western Union (Decca) 1965

Laurie Johnson Conducts Music For Combined Jazz and Symphony Orchestra: Synthesis

New Jazz Orchestra - Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe (Verve) 1969

Michael Garrick Trio - Cold Mountain (Argo) 1972

Michael Garrick Band - Home Stretch Blues (Argo / Decca) 1972

Michael Garrick - Heart is A Lotus

Michael Garrick - October Woman (Argo) 1965

Michael Garrick Septet - Black Marigolds (Argo)

Rendell / Carr Quintet - Shades of Blue

Rendell / Carr Quintet - Dusk Fire

Rendell / Carr Quintet - Phase III

Rendell / Carr Quintet - Live

Rendell / Carr Quintet - Change Is

Guy Warren - Afro Jazz

Mike Westbrook - Release / Marching Songs / Love Songs

[sidewinder]

Nice to see Ardley's 'Will Power' (originaly Argo 2LP) on that list.

[A Lark Ascending]

Let's hope interest is wide enough to get all of Late's list out.

Are they going to do the Rendall/Carrs? Seems unlikely given the recent BGO reissue of all five.

I'd never even heard of 'Willpower'!

Edited November 13, 2004 by Bev Stapleton

[Guest akanalog]

which is the best rendell/carr?

i got "change is' but have no idea how this one is compared to the rest.

i like it, don't love it.

the harry beckett "flare up" is growing on me though as is the nucleus album "roots".