Jazz /
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…
Le Déjeuner Sur L'Herbe
Reissued for the first time, The New Jazz Orchestra’s 1968 release ‘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 might be…
Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows
Dusk Fire Records has afforded music lovers fresh opportunity to peer into one of the genre’s most ground-breaking works in the late Neil Ardley’s ‘Kaleidoscope of Rainbows’: re-mastered from the original tapes, with a 16-page booklet featuring previously unreleased sessions and publicity photography and notes by Ardley and an appreciation of his work by Barbara Thompson. This seminal 1976 release, produced by Paul Buckmaster and engineered by Martin Levan at Morgan Studios, London, feature…
Integration
Pheon is the new label started by Jonny Trunk with James Pianta from Votary / Roundtable. Both have a love of obscure library music, film music and jazz. Using those musical fields as a starting point, the label will be issuing very limited, vinyl only short runs of desirable and obscure LPs, compilations and new old discoveries. The third Pheon Records LP release is the 1969 debut by Indian jazz guitar legend Amancio D’Silva. A perfect storm of amazing, accessible British jazz and incredi…
Chapter one: 1970 -72
Much needed reissue of Emanem 4301, a classic concert and studio performances from '70-'72 by the innovative trio of Paul Rutherford (trombone, piano) Derek Bailey (guitar) and Barry Guy (double bass), which was a much expanded reissue of the early and legendary Incus LP of the same name. "What a feast! A three-CD set (totaling more than 190 minutes) compiled from six concerts featuring three of the leading British free-jazz improvisers of the 20th century: trombonist Paul Rutherford, guitarist …
1984
New CD issue of this classic album, with bonus track and improved sound (previously issued by Mantra). Upon it's original release, 1984, with it's unusual combination of lengthy abstract sound-journeys and short, weirdly devolved James Brown-inspired pieces, gained much critical acclaim. 1984 was an extremely unusual release for 1973 and an extremely unusual project for CBS Records, who first released it. Like the groundbreaking novel after which it was named, Hopper's record was truly ahead of …
Live At The I.C.A. / Retrospective
The English free jazz improvisation scene of the late 60s and early 70s was an incestuous breeding ground. Robert Fripp was producing albums by Keith Tippet, Brian Eno was using Derek Bailey and Evan Parker on albums of odd Russian electronic music on Island, and labels like EMI and RCA were actually taking a stab at selling this music to a large market. Amidst all this was Ray Russell, a popular session guitarist, also playing in John Barry's group, also reputed to be the first guitarist in Eng…
1968
An expanded reissue of the only published recording by one of the pioneering free improvisation groups, The People Band's self-titled album, originally released in 1970. Containing musicians that also worked with Pete Brown, Mike Westbrook, Ian Dury, Soft Machine, and others, this musical collective coalesced in London in 1968, and soon came to the attention of jazz aficionado Charlie Watts, who financed and oversaw a recording session that October. Improvised, anarchic, and utterly original, …
Frankfurt 1991
Outside of Peter Brotzmann and Derek Bailey, I am not certain there are many players, European or otherwise, that maintain such sustained reverence from their peers as Paul Rutherford. And deservedly so, since I know of very few musicians as uncompromising as the British trombonist.While the trombone has languished in mediocrity over the past three decades, with the exception of a select number, on American shores, the European improvisers who call the trombone their home have continued its forw…