Unreleased electronic/jazz/madness from two titans of jazz and experimentation: John Surman and Karin Krog. John Surman writes: "Back in 2012/13 there had been some talk about a big futuristic open air urban dance/theatre production for about 80/100 actors/dancers with lasers and all kinds of lighting effects on different stages. I was invited to get involved and, together with Ben and Karin, we eventually decided to get to work on some ideas. I think that the original plan was that in performance there...

For nearly 45 years, John Surman has been one of England's best known modern jazz musicians. His career began in the late 60s as both a sideman and a leader with such notable greats as John McLaughlin, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath...

This is the beginning of a nearly 60 year long career as a bandleader, with three totally stone classic and legendary release, released in full on two CDs.
Surman is one of the most important names of the golden years of British jazz, and his reputation was first made here. You need this.
John Surman is his first and was recorded in August, 1968. It covers a number of styles and he is still feeling for his own voice (there is even a sort of calypso number!), but you certainly can tell it is him...

Many of you will remember this one from its original lp release on the budget HELP subsidiary of Island, now very happily on CD, as the original lp had a simply awful pressing, which was anathema to the quiet music. This was Surman's first truely solo album, charming pieces for simple synth patterns and a number of reed instruments, recorded through overdubs. Some of it is similar to his later ECM discs.

"Westering Home was originally released in 1972. John Surman plays everything on the album...

Mike Taylor – piano
John Hiseman – drums
Tony Reeves – bass
Dave Tomlin – soprano sax

Mike Taylor was a very early, avant-garde/Brit-jazz pianist and composer who is barely remembered at all for his two incredibly rare albums (this, recorded in the fall of 1965, is the first of the two and probably the better of the two, but both are good).
If he is remembered at all, it is for co-writing 3 songs on Wheels of Fire with Ginger Baker (three good ones too!: Passing the Time, Those

Mike Taylor (piano)
Dave Tomlin (soprano saxophone)
Tony Reeves (double bass
Jon Hiseman (drums)

I finally got a copy of this and last night I had some quiet time to myself and I played it.
I saw some bitching, somewhere on the Internet about ‘really poor sound’, which had me unnecessarily worried; my god, it’s unprofessional *practice* tapes from 1965!
You can hear ALL the instruments and they are well balanced, even if a bit mid-fi.
The packaging is really nice and t

Keith Tippett: piano
Claudio Gabbiani: acoustic & electric guitars
Roberto Musci: sampler, percussion, theremin, Vx7 (didgeridoo, bass clarinet), electronics
Recorded live at Palazzina Liberty, Milan, Italy October 21, 2000.

“Music for Labyrinths is an open live project for a soundtracks of labyrinths around the world and inside us. A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness: it combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path...

Paul Dunmall tenor & soprano saxes, James Gardiner-Bateman alto sax, Peter Fairclough drums, Kevin Figes alto & baritones saxes, Thad Kelly double bass, Ben Waghorn tenor sax, bass clarinet, Julie Tippetts voice, seed pods, Balinese xylophone, toy...

Finally, a third release from one of the most exciting Brit-jazz ensembles of 1969/1971! And regardless of the caveat below about the condition of the tapes, the final results are more than listenable and enjoyable!

“All tracks previously unreleased. Stereophonic sound.
Featuring the classic KTG frontline of Marc Charig, Nick Evans and Elton Dean with rhythm section appearances by British jazz luminaries Jeff Clyne, Trevor Tomkins, Roy Babbington and Bryan Spring...

Fulvio Sigurta (trumpet/flugel)
Sam Mayne (alto and soprano saxes/clarinet/flute)
James Gardiner-Bateman (alto sax/flute)
Kieran Mcleod (trombone)
Rob Harvey (trombone)
Tom McCredie (bass)
Peter Fairclough (drums/percussion)
Keith Tippett (piano/composer)
with
Julie Tippetts (voice, lyrics)

This is completely great and completely recommended to Brit-jazz fans and jazz fans of all stripes, really.

"Tippett's inspired take on the jazz traditio

This is the album that first brought Keith & his great band (Elton Dean, Nick Evans, Mark Charig - all later to also join Soft Machine - + Jeff Clyne & Alan Jackson) to the attention of the public. It's also the only recording of his original septet, as their second and last had a revolving rhythm section.
Of the septet's two albums, I think that this is the better one by far, although the other is good as well. Great, early jazz/rock.

Keith Tippett - piano
Matthew Bourne - piano

"These inspired duets sound so unforced and unconstrained that they blow fresh life into that well-worn image. From the outset, two quite distinct pianists establish common ground, where they interweave and spring surprises. It's wonderfully fertile ground too. Strings of scintillating moments bound seamlessly into musical mesh, now mysteriously chromatic, now alluringly melodic, fractiously dissonant, propulsive or ethereal. Tippett's speaking...

A1 Alan Cohen Big Band - The Oracle (Cohen) 10:31
A2 Group Sounds Five - Black & White Raga (Taylor) 10:35
B1 Paz - Dream Sequence (Crouch) 9:11
B2 Ron Mathewson's Mystery Machine - A Luv Supreme (Mathewson) 13:10

ALAN COHEN BIG BAND – LONDON, DECEMBER 1968
Alan Cohen - director, arranger
Kenny Wheeler - trumpet, flugelhorn
Henry Lowther - trumpet, flugelhorn
Mike Osborne - alto sax, clarinet
Alan Skidmore - tenor sax
Brian Smith - soprano sax
John

This is comprised of outtakes from several great Brit-Jazz albums released on Deram in 1968 & 1969. So, even if you have the original albums by John Surman and Alan Skidmore, you don’t have any of these recordings!
Features everyone you would hope for: Mike Osborne, Tony Oxley, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor, Harry Miller, Alan Jackson, etc etc etc.

“Alan Wakeman is a British saxophonist and clarinettist who has been active since the 1960s. He is associated with Mike Westbrook, Paul Lytton, Soft Machine, and Graham Collier."

"The list of dramatis personae tells its own story: the cream of British jazz of the period assembled to play a series of imaginatively conceived compositions by Wakeman that move between inside and outside playing, swaying majestically between the exposition of powerful, Mingus-like themes that dissolve into...

Composer John Warren is one of the greatest yet completely unheralded, Brit-jazz composers! Anything from him is a treat!

"A previously unrecorded suite of compositions by JOHN WARREN, recorded live by the JOHN SURMAN led BRASS PROJECT.
In the early 1980s John Surman and John Warren realized a long-held ambition and formed the Brass Project. The ensemble was conceived as a brass led group focusing on new compositions from Surman and Warren. The large group ‘had to survive without grant or...

“...this record is a triumph for Kate's multiple talents.”
– Duncan Heining, Jazzwise Aug 2004

“British vocalist Kate Westbrook has a gift for music theater. Updating early 20th-century English music hall on Cuff Clout, Westbrook sets her witty and eccentric texts to bold and fascinating genre-crossing music composed by eight collaborators, including her bandleader husband Mike Westbrook and other Anglo jazz worthies Chris Biscoe, Lindsay Cooper and Barbara Thompson. Maintaining a wicked...

Mike Westbrook electric piano/harmonica
George Khan tenor saxophone/electric saxophone/flute
Gary Boyle guitar
Alan Jackson drums/alto saxophone
Butch Potter bass guitar/pogo stick/flute

For more than 50 years, Mike Westbrook has been composing and releasing albums of his unique take on 'jazz'. An exemplary and distinctive composer, he is one of the true pillars of what we consider the 'Brit-jazz' sound and he is still going strong and releasing good work!
He was also...

“A large-scale work incorporating settings of European poetry - The Cortege is a composition for voices and jazz orchestra with music by Mike Westbrook with texts from Federico Garcia Lorca, Arthur Rimbaud, Hermann Hesse, William Blake, Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, Pennti Saarikoski, and European Folk Songs selected and edited by Kate Westbrook - and is sung by vocalists Phil Minton, Kate Westbrook with a 16 - piece orchestra originally commissioned by Bracknell Festival 1979.
Performed at concerts...

Did YOU know that Kenny was leading an excellent, progressive-minded big-band in 1971? I certainly did not. The playing is top notch (look at that BAND!), the compositions are great, as Kenny’s always were, and ... well damn, you need this.

“Recorded live in London on the 24th May 1971. Previously unreleased. Stereophonic sound. Currently the earliest known recording of Kenny Wheeler leading his own big band.”

The first album by Lifetime, the very early rock/jazz supergroup of Tony Williams-drums, vocals, John McLaughlin-guitar and Larry Young-Hammond organ.
Not all of it is good, but the good stuff is mindblowing for 1969.

"Among slowly unravelling coils of oscillations and intermittent fragments of semi-formed loops, instruments both electronic and acoustic resonate gently against each other over an ever-evolving soundbed of textures. A meeting of minds and those exciting first sparks of inspiration soundtracked by celestial, otherworldly tones and free-flowing spoken word.
This was how Virginia Wing and XAM Duo spent two cold days at the start of January 2017. A weekend escape in the frozen industrial district of...

THE great female vocalist of Brit-jazz from the 60s until today!

"CD reissue. Norma Winstone is one of the most recognizable vocalists from the United Kingdom. During her nearly 50-year career, she has performed in many varieties of situations, from the improvisatory world of avant-garde to the classic tastefulness of the jazz songbook.
Recorded in 1997, Winstone's Manhattan In The Rain found her alongside some longtime companions, pianist Steve Gray (of Sky fame), bassist Chris Laurence and.

Norma Winstone - vocals
John Taylor - piano

THE singing voice of Brit-jazz and one of the great pianists of the same era.
“The incredible relationship between legendary British musicians Norma Winstone and John Taylor has been admired for nearly five decades. The vocalist and pianist have been inextricably linked from their early avant-garde work from the late 1960s through their gorgeous work with Kenny Wheeler and Azymuth.
The couple was also well documented in duo performance...