★Jazz In Britain
Homage To Caledonia
The Bobby Wellins Sextet on limited edition compact disc, in a 6 panel digisleeve, including a 16 page booklet with sleeve notes written by Spike Wells and Pete Woodman plus an array of photos and publicity from the time as well as new images. Compiled from recordings of the first two concerts of the autumn 1979 tour by Bobby’s regular quartet augmented by Lol Coxhill and Bryan Spring, the CD includes the only complete ‘small ensemble’ recording of the Culloden Moor Suite released to date, along…
The Complete Fingers Remember Mingus
For the first time ever, the complete recording sessions for the Spotlite vinyl album ‘Fingers Remember Mingus’ expanded with bonus tracks. The original album sessions, and the extra tracks, were all recorded between 1979 and 1983. Co-produced by Jazz In Britain with Dave Green, who formed and led the Fingers quartet and who provided most of the recordings from his own tape archive and wrote new notes to complement the 24 page booklet which compiles contemporary reviews and articles about Finger…
Talking The Groove: Jazz Words From The Morning Star (Book+2CD)
Jazz In Britain is proud to be publishing Chris Searle’s new book, ‘Talking The Groove: Jazz words from the Morning Star’. The book is a collection of reviews and interviews with over 150 jazz artists that have appeared in the paper in recent years.And, like our last three books, there’ll be companion audio (two CDs) of rare, previously unreleased, music relevant to the book… some from our archives and some specially donated by musicians featured in the book. When we shared the tracklisting with…
Elastic Dream: The Music Of Ian Carr
This book, a comprehensive, annotated, discography, discusses the great British trumpeter Ian Carr’s recorded works and includes up to the minute additions to the Carr canon. It is the most complete discographical text on the works of Ian Carr. The discography is divided into 2 parts with archival releases being covered in the second part. Three appendices detail Carr’s appearances in the Melody Maker jazz polls, biographies either by or about him, and finally details of Ian’s miscellaneous medi…
No Blues (The Complete Hopbine '65)
“He said ‘who the fuck are you?” so I said, “I’m the bass player”. And all he said was “Well, we’ll see about that, won’t we?” When Tubby Hayes arrived at the Hopbine, Wembley’s popular jazz pub, one evening in the spring of 1965, his career was in a state of flux; still topping polls and casting an impressive shadow over the British jazz scene, he nevertheless remained frustrated. The elongated free-flights of John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins now held his fascination and although actively search…
What Was Happening
For the first time ever, the Bobby Wellins Quartet albums – Jubilation and Dreams Are Free - expanded with bonus tracks. The original albums, and the extra tracks, were all recorded by the same quartet in 1978 or 1979. Released in partnership with Spike Wells, the drummer in the quartet, who provided the extra recordings from his own tape archive, and wrote the booklet notes as well as providing many previously unseen photographs, Fiona Wellins, Bobby’s daughter, and the bassist in the quartet A…
On Loan With Gratitude
“On Loan with Gratitude was my first vinyl recording as leader released in 1977. Graham Collier started a label ‘Mosaic’ and invited me to record specifically for it. The times were fortuitous with BBC engineer Pete Freshney being able to record at the BBC transcription studios in Shepherds Bush. There was an excellent piano in situ, Pete was an excellent jazz engineer and fan, plus the studios were affordable. I led the quartet for approximately 10 yrs which included regular BBC Jazz club and J…
The Art Is In The Rhythm Volume 2
Trevor Watts has been at the forefront of the Jazz and Free Improvisation scene since the 1960s and is highly respected by his peers and quite rightly so. Much of the UK listening audience though, seem to be unaware of the amazing breadth of Trevor’s works on a global scale. With that in mind, Jazz in Britain have decided to try and address this issue with this release.In 2022 we issued The Art Is In The Rhythm which featured an improvised performance of Trevor in partnership with drummer, Liam …
First Light
Jazz In Britain was very fortunate recently to receive a large collection of reel tapes and discover three early seventies Barbara Thompson sessions amongst it, sessions that we don’t believe have been circulated before. The label proposed to Barbara’s daughter Ana Gracey to produce an album using these three sessions as a way of raising extra money for Cure Parkinson’s.The audio fidelity of these sessions reflects the fact that they were recorded on a very low speed tape machine but they presen…
For Future Reference
Never-before-released early 1980s sessions by a band of top British players and composers which never released an album, led by drummer Trevor Tomkins. This is, in effect, the late Trevor Tomkins debut album release as leader, as well as his memorial. We were working on this with Trevor when he died last last year and it's now released with the help and support of his family.
Warm Up: The Complete Live At The Highwayman 1965
Limited edition double compact disc, in a gatefold digipack, of the never-before-released complete performance of the Don Rendell - Ian Carr Quintet at The Highwayman in November 1965. Includes a 20 page booklet with an essay written by Simon Spillett and previously unseen photographs. Only 1,000 copies available worldwide. The never-before-released complete performance of the Rendell-Carr Quintet at The Highwayman in November 1965.
“Live. Up close and personal. Palpable. Almost within reach. T…
Never Never Land
'The British trumpeter and composer Henry Lowther, who first made an impact in the 1960s and released the well received album Can't Believe, Won't Believe (Village Life) in 2018, came to jazz via a circuitous route. After playing cornet in a provincial Salvation Army band, he moved to London around 1960 to study violin at the Royal Academy of Music. While a student, he encountered improvised Indian music and albums by Sonny Rollins, discoveries which encouraged him to commit to jazz, playing tru…
Penumbra II
Limited edition compact disc of a previously unreleased recording made at a rare 1971 studio performance by a Karl Jenkins-led nine piece group of stellar musicians.
“At the time, I had taken Karl’s answer to mean that Penumbra II contained no material exclusive to it, possibly consisting of different arrangements of music previously recorded by Nucleus or recycled later in Soft Machine. At it turns out, I was both right and wrong: Penumbra II is previously unheard but does include some famili…
The Art Is In The Rhythm
"The music on this recording definitely has a mainly Jazz slant, so I thought it a good idea to dedicate it to other Jazz players (Charlie Parker and Eric Dolphy), that represent the best of that music and were an inspiration to us and many more players. I felt a recording that represented this very important project, and what we achieved together, was long overdue. So here we offer you some music we played in 1989. But still sounds, to me, as fresh as the day we first played it."
I felt a recor…
Fragment
Previously only available on tape cassette in 1975, now remastered and available as a download and on limited edition CD for the first time. Released with the cooperation of Chris Laurence, Stan Sulzmann, Chris Bolton Levin, Mark Wheeler, Norma Winstone and John Taylor’s sons. This is John Taylor’s third album as leader. John’s first was ‘Pause, And Think Again’, released on Turtle Records in 1971. Stan Sulzmann, Kenny Wheeler, Chris Pyne, Chris Laurence and Tony Levin make up the sextet on bot…
Chronology (Live 1968-69)
Unreleased work from alto genius Joe Harriott – two different slices of material from a very under-recorded point in his career! The first five tracks feature Joe in that back to basics mode he was hitting at the time – working in a unique group that features Kenny Wheeler on trumpet and flugelhorn, Pat Smythe on piano, Ron Mathewson on bass, and Bill Eyden on drums – all players who are very open to modern ideas, but who also keep things on more of a groove here – with only a bit of the freedom…
Ken Wheeler :Some Gnu Ones
These three brand new recordings made between 2020-21 were all written specifically for bassist Chris Laurence by his close friend and long-time colleague, the late great jazz trumpeter and composer Kenny Wheeler. Of the three, Piece for Double Bass and Low Strings and Baroque Piece have never previously been recorded in any form. C-Man first appeared in this form on Kenny’s album ‘Kayak’ but was also rearranged and retitled as Ma Belle Hélène for his album ‘The Widow In The Window’. Whilst Kenn…
Formation: Live '61
Recorded live in London before a studio audience on the 24th August 1961. Previously unissued. By the time this EP is released 60 years will have elapsed since the recordings contained within it were made, and nearly 50 years since the untimely death of pioneering West Indian free jazz altoist Joe Harriott on the 2nd January 1973, aged 42. Only in the very recent past has Harriott started to receive anything approaching the accolades he undoubtedly deserved during his lifetime. For those new to …
The Complete Hopbine '69
Previously only issued in fragmented form and long out of print, these recordings catch Tubby Hayes in transition. Less than a month after they were taped just before Christmas 1969, he was to collapse on a gig, signaling the beginning of the final phase of his tragically foreshortened career.
But on this night, buoyed and stimulated by his regular working quartet of pianist Mike Pyne, bassist Ron Mathewson and drummer Spike Wells, Hayes wasn’t only on form he was on fire! Indeed, coming so clos…
Inclusivity
* In process of stocking * Strictly limited, Deluxe edition 3 CD set housed in 12″x12″ (LP size) with a 34 page hardcover book. Features dozens of previously unseen images from the 100 Club and Grass Roots shows by legendary British jazz photographer Jak Kilby, and an extensive essay on the history of the group by Simon Spillett including interviews with Trevor Watts, Jeff Clyne and Clark Tracey amongst others.
Newly mastered from Trevor Watt’s original tapes. The complete recordings of the orig…