Fifty years and counting. One of the most important larger bands in European jazz, The London Jazz Composers Orchestra celebrated its golden anniversary over three days in Krakow which culminated in a triumphant performance of "Harmos." Long a staple of the LJCO repertoire, with its beautiful melody, it's one of leader Barry Guy's most approachable works. This rendition was powerful and moving, studded throughout with absolute dynamite individual contributions, and furnished a fitting conclusion to three fabulous days.

Since its inception the geographic locus of the Orchestra has broadened and its 17 members encompass seven assorted nationalities. Apart from Guy, who now lives in Switzerland, only trumpeter Henry Lowther, saxophonist Simon Picard, trombonist Alan Tomlinson and violinist Phil Wachsmann hail from the UK, but they are long time colleagues who have been on board since the 1980s. But even they weren't there at the beginning, when the 23-year old Guy first convened the ensemble for a BBC Radio recording in 1970. At that time the group included what became the doyen of British free improvisers, iconoclasts like Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Trevor Watts, Tony Oxley, Kenny Wheeler and Howard Riley. Guy states that "the LJCO has always been a band of soloists," and that is no less true now than then.

Over the intervening half century Guy himself has chiseled out a unique position in creative music. Both an acclaimed composer and improviser, he personifies an unequalled meeting of the classical, contemporary, jazz and improv worlds, as well as being renowned as a sensitive interpreter of Baroque early music. He stands as one of the world's preeminent improvisers on bass with a style built on a foundation of hyperspeed responsiveness, a huge timbral palette derived from a plethora of extended approaches, and seemingly inexhaustible stamina. But he has also shown an enduring fascination with the conundrum of how to assimilate such unfettered activity into overarching frameworks for large ensembles, which has seen him found not only the LJCO, but other sizeable outfits such as the Barry Guy New Orchestra and The Blue Shroud Band.