** 2025 Stock ** Big Band Harriott is a large-ensemble tribute that thinks in three dimensions. Pianist-composer Michael Garrick takes a set of classic Joe Harriott pieces and rewrites them for full jazz orchestra, keeping the core melodies and rhythmic feel intact but surrounding them with expanded harmonies, counter-lines and sectional interplay. The aim is not to smooth out Harriott’s music but to show how naturally it scales: angular heads, restless grooves and Caribbean shadings become the front edge of arrangements that give brass, reeds and rhythm section clear, dynamic roles.
The programme includes key Harriott themes such as “Tempo”, “Calypso Sketches”, “Morning Blue”, “Coda”, “Straight Lines” and “Little Poem”, reworked to accommodate full brass sections, layered sax writing and extended solo space. Garrick uses the band like a set of lenses, shifting between tight, punchy figures and more open, modal passages, often letting a small combo core carry the improvisation before the full ensemble returns in punches, swells or carefully voiced chords. Throughout, the writing respects the original tunes’ compact logic while adding new transitions, codas and internal dialogues between sections.
Solos are central to the record’s impact. Trumpet, alto and tenor lines cut through the writing with a mix of drive and lyricism, echoing the urgency of Harriott’s own groups without resorting to imitation. Garrick’s piano anchors and comments on the action, sometimes comping sparsely under horn features, sometimes stepping forward with harmonically probing choruses that remind you he is as much a thinker as an accompanist. The rhythm team keeps a firm but flexible grip, moving from swinging passages to more contemporary, groove-based underlays that highlight how adaptable this material is to different feels.
Taken as a whole, Big Band Harriott functions as both homage and argument. It honours Joe Harriott’s place in British and European jazz history while making the case that his writing can support large-ensemble treatment on a par with better-known American counterparts. For listeners, it offers a way to hear familiar compositions afresh; for Garrick, it stands as a major statement of arranging craft and bandleading, showing how an orchestra can magnify the bite, wit and depth already present in Harriott’s work.
