Neil Ardley
Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows
2024 stock. Third solo album released in 1976 by Neil Ardley, a British jazz pianist and arranger who led the ‘New Jazz Orchestra’, featuring top British jazz musicians such as Ian Kerr and Brian Smith of Necleus, as well as Third Ear Band's Paul Buckmaster of Third Ear Band, Dave Krahe of Matching Mole and others also participated. As the album title suggests, the dazzling sonic universe is a brilliant crossover of diverse musical genres. Paper jacket, SHM-CD, latest remastering, definitive rel…
Le Déjeuner Sur L'Herbe
2024 Stock, reduced price. Remastered edition on British Jazz Explosion series. ‘Le Déjeuner Sur L’Herbe’ features key players in modern British jazz including Henry Lowther, Ian Carr, Michael Gibbs, Derek Wadsworth, Barbara Thompson, Dave Gelly, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Frank Ricotti, Jack Bruce and Jon Hiseman, under the directorship of Neil Ardley. ‘Nardis’ features solos by Ian Carr on flugelhorn, George Smith on tuba and – rarely heard – Jack Bruce on acoustic bass. Complementing this is what…
Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises
Recorded in '69, Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises is irresistible on two counts. First, for its daringly conceived and brilliantly performed music, inspired by Greek folk songs and instrumental textures and deep enough to reveal all its treasures only after many repeated listenings. Second, for being recorded at the moment when the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet, a major force in British straight-ahead jazz since '62, had broken up and Carr's equally influential jazz-rock band Nucleus was…
Mike Taylor Remembered
‘The Syd Barrett of the avant-jazz scene’ British jazz composer, pianist, songwriter, Mike Taylor died tragically young, leaving just two albums as well as co-writes with Ginger Baker for Cream’s Wheels Of Fire album to his name. In 1973, under the direction of Neil Ardley, several of the performers who had worked with him recorded an album of Taylor’s surviving orchestral music, jazz tunes and songs as a memorial to him and to preserve his work as a composer and song writer for posterity. Taken…
Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows: Live '75
Double CD Edition. Previously unreleased. Recorded live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, on the 20th October 1975. This is (almost) the complete Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows suite as originally imagined by Neil Ardley, over twice as long as the 'concise' version which appeared on his Gull studio album a year later. Unfortunately, due to tape issues on the night, only the first two minutes of the closing number of set one were captured. Otherwise, this album is presented exactly as the audience …
A symphony of amaranths
**Repress limited to only 500 copies in textured art paper. Included inner sheet with liner notes and pictures. Newly mastered sound from the original tapes and will include one bonus track recorded in the same sessions.** First ever vinyl reissue of this 1972 masterpiece by another of the big names in UK Jazz. Neil Ardley was offered the leadership of the seminal New Jazz Orchestra in 1964. Under his direction the Orchestra moved though different styles and changes of personnel, bringing in mus…
On The Radio : BBC Sessions 1971
This debut release of The New Jazz Orchestra BBC broadcasts from 1971 measure a year of change for the band’s musical director, Neil Ardley. The first session captures the full majesty of the NJO at the height of its powers in a ‘Jazz Club’ session from February with a 20-performer line-up pre-recorded at London’s Camden Theatre. Humphrey Lyttelton helms proceedings; musicians include Ardley, Harry Beckett, Ian Carr, Henry Lowther, Derek Wadsworth, Mike Gibbs, Don Rendell, Barbara Thompson, Dick…