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1
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First Born-Michael Garrick Trio
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5
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Down In the Village-Tubby Hayes Quintet
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2
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Jaipur- Joe Harriott & Amancio D’Silva Quartet
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6
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Black Marigolds-Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet
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3
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Cleopatra’s Needle-Ronnie Ross
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7
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Lullaby for a Lonely Child-Graham Collier
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4
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Rolli’s Tune-Harry Beckett
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8
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Dusk Fire-Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet
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Gilles Peterson of Worldwide BBC Radio 1 put
this compilation together and bearing in mind the recent resurgence
in British modern jazz of the 1960s and ’70s he couldn’t be on safer
ground.
On the eight tracks are featured some of the
finest musicians, either born or domiciled in Britain, who began making
a valuable contribution to jazz over fifty years ago – some are still
on the scene today. Others such as Joe Harriott and Tubby Hayes left
this mortal coil far too early. Each track has its merits and the
two reviewed here are not meant to be any measure of comparison with
the others.
Cleopatra’s Needle is the title track
from baritone saxophone player Ronnie Ross’ 1968 debut album. Of his
era Ross was without doubt one of the world’s top jazz musicians and
acclaimed by his peers especially in Britain and the United States
of America. On the original recording this number was described as
a ‘serious floor burner’ and also as an ‘old fashioned 20-bar blues.’
The quality of Ross’ playing and that of Bill le Sage is superb.
In Tubby Hayes we also had a most astonishing
musician whether he was playing tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone,
vibes or flute. He was probably the finest jazz musician this country
produced. During his all too brief life he was equal in every respect
to any of America’s modern jazz musicians. The track Down In the
Village with Tubby playing vibes can be looked upon as a tribute
to the occasion when he first appeared in New York. The accompanying
musicians are Jimmy Deuchar – trumpet, Gordon Beck – piano, Freddy
Logan – bass and Alan Ganley – drums. This type of music never dates.
There are many recordings from this particular
era still to be re-released and if ‘Impressed’ is a foretaste of what
is to come then the sooner they appear the better.
Jack Ashby
CD Reviews
Universal –
064 749 2
