British Jazz Explosion: Originals Re-Cut is a new series from the Decca label that’s focused on noteworthy but hard to come by (and therefore, wholly deserving of reissue) albums, all from the UK and in the titular style. Journeys in Modern Jazz: Britain (1965-1972), a compilation detailing the series’ objectives into 2022, along with the Don Rendell Quintet’s Space Walk, came out on July 16, followed by Ken Wheeler and the John Dankworth Orchestra’s Windmill Tilter (The Story Of Don Quixote) on August 13, and with The New Jazz Orchestra’s Le Dejeuner Sur l’Herbe set for release on September 10. Everything’s available on vinyl and digital, with the compilation also out on 2CD. All four are considered below.
Some of the higher profile names associated with British jazz include trad clarinet stylist Acker Bilk, bop saxophonists Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott (he of the famed club), and guitarist John McLaughlin. Although both were born in Jamaica, trumpeter Dizzy Reece and saxophonist Joe Harriott are both noted as residents of the UK (Reece later moved to the US, as did McLaughlin, later).
British Jazz Explosion provides a deeper dive into the scene the players named above helped to define. Journeys in Modern Jazz: Britain (1965-1972) establishes the timeframe and the series’ contributors, opening with “Don the Dreamer” from Windmill Tilter (The Story Of Don Quixote), the 1969 album that served as trumpeter-flugelhornist-composer Kenny Wheeler’s debut as leader.
More accurately, Wheeler’s co-billed with saxophonist and bandleader Johnny Dankworth, with whom he’d recorded often, beginning in 1959 on Bundle From Britain, which documented a live performance by Dankworth’s orchestra from that year’s Newport Jazz Festival (it does appear that Wheeler’s first recording dates from 1956 as part of Tommy Whittle’s Orchestra, the 10-inch album Spotlighting).
Wheeler’s career was long and diverse. Those with a love for the avant-garde might recognize his contributions to the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, along with Joe Harriott’s groundbreaking Indo-Jazz albums, recordings by The Globe Unity Orchestra, and a string of key ’70s works by Anthony Braxton. Others will know of Wheeler through his numerous recordings for ECM, particularly Gnu High, a terrific set released in ’76 featuring pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Jack DeJohnette.
Windmill Tilter is a fine showcase for Wheeler’s skills both as an advanced inside player (here on flugelhorn) and as a composer, with the album’s nine conceptually situated tracks all of his writing. As the selections unwind, the ambitiousness is surely felt, but even more prominent is the highly approachable sweep of the undertaking, wholeheartedly in the Big Band tradition but never ossifying into the conservative (a real nagging problem with so much later period orchestral jazz).
Instead, the impact of Duke Ellington and Stan Kenton is clearly evident on Dankworth’s ensemble thrust. Additionally, his group is a stalwart bunch, including Tony Coe on saxophone and clarinet, Michael Gibbs on trombone, and Hank Shaw on trumpet, plus Holland on bass and McLaughlin on guitar, with the latter dishing a marvelous solo in “Propheticape.”
By this point, Wheeler had already delved into free improvisation with the Spontaneous Music Ensemble (on the albums Challenge from 1966 and Karyōbin from ’68), but there’s really no trace of said activity here (for that, please see Song for Someone from ’73) with Windmill Tilter a rich interaction with and elevation of Dankworth’s long-developing aesthetic. The soloing is inspired and powerful, the arrangements avoid cliché, and the whole is consistently satisfying.
The second selection on Journeys in Modern Jazz: Britain is Don Rendell’s “A Matter of Time,” and as it’s the byproduct of a five-piece band, the cut provides an immediate contrast. A multi-instrumentalist whose main horn was the tenor sax, Rendell is probably best remembered for a band he co-led with Scottish trumpeter Ian Carr, with their discography reissued in 2018 by the Jazzman label as the vinyl box set The Complete Lansdowne Recordings 1965-1969.
Rendell’s other credits include a septet led by Dankworth, accompanying Billie Holliday, touring Europe with Stan Kenton and taking part in Woody Herman’s Anglo-American Herd (a live recording from 1959 survives and was released on LP in the ‘80s, featuring Rendell alongside, amongst others, fellow tenor saxophonist Ronnie Scott, guitarist Charlie Byrd, pianist Vince Guaraldi, trumpeters Wheeler and Nat Adderley, and bassist Keter Betts).
The band with Carr ended due to the trumpeter’s desire to explore jazz-rock (doing exactly that in the band Nucleus). It’s clear from Space Walk, which came out via Columbia in 1972, that Rendell remained unswayed by the possibilities of fusion, a circumstance that has led to observations that his quintet as heard on this album was unfashionable at the time.
Well, maybe, but the LP reportedly sold well and furthermore received a positive response critically. Today, it endures as a strong serving of decidedly Coltrane-influenced post-bop, but with nothing too outside, and with the vibraphone and flute of Peter Shade and the clarinet of Stan Robinson adding distinctiveness (Rendell also plays flute and soprano sax), but with a few of the songs, especially the rhythmic groove of “Antibes” (courtesy of drummer Trevor Tomkins and bassist Jack Thorncroft) recalling the funkier non-organ LPs issued by Blue Note and Prestige in the second half of the 1960s.
And so, it isn’t a mindblower, though its appeal lies in how well it’s held up nearly 50 years later. Its closing title track is particularly sweet, with Shade’s vibes at the start reminding me of something that might’ve radiated from the mallets of Milt Jackson. Also of note on Journeys in Modern Jazz: Britain is “Kriti,” the sixth segment from the side-long title composition on the 1969 album Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises by Neil Ardley, Don Rendell and Ian Carr.
As an excerpt opening side three of the comp, it’s a nice taste of the full reissue to come, which features Carr’s quintet and Rendell’s quartet on side two and a large band directed by composer Ardley on side one, complete with strings and with the participation of Carr and Rendell (shortly after the breakup of their co-led group). Also of note: Jack Bruce on electric and acoustic bass.
But in the meantime, Ardley is credited as director of The New Jazz Orchestra on Le Dejeuner Sur l’Herbe, which also features Bruce and Carr alongside drummer Jon Hiseman, saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith, and saxophonist-flautist Barbara Thompson, all three future members of the progressive rock act Colosseum.
If this insinuates that we’re inching toward jazz-rock territory, that’s not the case. However, Le Dejeuner Sur l’Herbe can be described as progressive in nature, as its jazz foundation largely lacks grand gestures toward swing, instead favoring models such as Gil Evans and Charles Mingus, and with attractive readings of Coltrane’s “Naïma” and Miles Davis’ “Nardis” amongst the selections.
Interestingly, Ardley’s sole composition is the opening title track. “Dusk Fire,” written by Michael Garrick, is the album’s raucous highlight, while “Nardis” and closer “Rebirth,” written by Michael Gibbs, get nearest to Big Band classicism. “Ballad,” written by Mike Taylor, is exactly what its title says, warmly delivered with spotlights for trumpet and saxophone.
Taylor, Garrick and Gibbs all led bands that appear on Journeys in Modern Jazz: Britain. “To Segovia” by pianist Taylor’s quartet, also exudes Coltrane vibes, in no small part due to the soprano sax of Dave Tomlin, though it’s the hearty bass (including a solo) by Tony Reeves (also later of Colosseum) that’s the highlight. But in fact hearty bass is something of a commonality on these Brit recordings, with two bassists in the septet of pianist Garrick for “Second Coming,” lending robust but supple bedrock as Joe Harriott blows some beautiful alto.
But one of Journeys in Modern Jazz: Britain’s standout tracks is its side four finale, “Some Echoes, Some Shadows” by the big band of Gibbs, culled from his self-titled 1970 debut LP for Deram, a certified classic. With Chris Spedding and Ray Russell on guitar and Bruce on bass, there are some clear as crystal elements of Rock in the mix, but they are pulled off with utter panache as the horn arrangements steadfastly avoid stale-assed vamping.
Of the comp’s remaining selections, I most favor Collin Bates’ wildly energetic piano trio workout “Brew,” the large band heat of saxophonists John Surman and John Warren’s “With Terry’s Help,” and the sheer rhythmic zest of trumpeter Harry Beckett’s “Third Road,” but I’m nearly as fond of the banging quartet hard bop of “Storm Warning” by saxophonist Dick Morrissey’s group and the ceaselessly pace-shifting “Old San Juan” from the quintet led by saxophonist Alan Skidmore.
Even the relatively mild-mannered large ensemble excursions “Waltz (for Joanna)” by Mike Westbrook’s Concert Band and “Matinee Days” by Stan Tracey’s Big Brass are given a boost through lively playing. So in summation, that’s no duds. Those curious should start with the comp and branch out accordingly. Jazzbos should simply realize that buying original wax of all these records could easily tally over $5,000, and maybe even inch into the ballpark of twice that much. That means this is one of the most welcome reissue series to come along in a good while.
Ken Wheeler and the John Dankworth Orchestra, Windmill Tilter (The Story Of Don Quixote)
A-
Don Rendell; Space Walk
B+
The New Jazz Orchestra, Le Dejeuner Sur l’Herbe
A
V/A, Journeys in Modern Jazz: Britain (1965-1972)
A-
