Barbados born British trumpeter-flugelhornist Harry Beckett had a long and distinguished career that was capped with a delightfully unexpected collaboration with producer Adrian Sherwood, The Modern Sound of Harry Beckett. Released in 2008 by Sherwood’s On-U Sound label, it has just received a worthy reissue, the set now available on vinyl for the first time.
The arrival of The Modern Sound of Harry Beckett shouldn’t have been a surprise given the number of times the horn-man recorded with Jah Wobble (more than a dozen releases across a two-decade span). Indeed, it was the extended relationship with Wobble that hipped Sherwood to the prospect of working with Beckett and sowed the seeds for this album.
Beckett, who passed in 2010 after a stroke, had a deep rep as an ace guest who added value to records spanning from the Small Faces (Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake) and the regular sized Faces (Long Player) to Jack Bruce (Songs for a Tailor) to Alexis Korner (Both Sides) to Manfred Mann Chapter Three (S/T and Volume Two) to Robert Wyatt (Nothing Can Stop Us) to Weekend (La Varieté) to Working Week (Working Nights) to David Sylvian (Gone to Earth).
The above excludes Beckett’s extensive work in the jazz field, which in addition to his own records (debuting with Flare Up in 1970) found him in bands ranging from big (aggregations organized by Graham Collier, Neil Ardley, John Dankworth, Mike Westbrook, Michael Gibbs, and Oliver Nelson) to mid-size (outfits led by Collier, Elton Dean, and Stan Tracey) to small (groups with John Surman, Mike Osborne, and Ray Russell). Of special note is his connection to South African musicians through his membership in Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath.
Beckett hit the scene on film, playing with Charles Mingus in Basil Dearden’s swank little flick All Night Long. That entrance bookends well with The Modern Sound of Harry Beckett’s discographical departure, making plain that he never lost a step in his playing, and he never quit pushing. The boldness of conception heard throughout The Modern Sound heightens what is almost certainly a cover art gag, as the design positively screams that it’s a takeoff on a sleeve for a treasury of swing-era favorites.
The music in the grooves of The Modern Sound punctures the notion of jazz as a moribund relic for moldy figs, and does so straightaway in opener “Something Special,” Beckett’s compressed tone right up front, the band laying down a foundation of warm funk complete with flourishes of flute, dubby echo (of course), and later in the track, saxophone.
“Facing It” finds Beckett contending with a bouncier stream of techno surrealism. It’s a bit like playing a military video game while your DJ roommate mashes up dub reggae and The Gap Band and then that hit of prime blotter starts to kick in. “Ultimate Tribute” stands out on the record through its extended vocal spot from Junior Delgato, but Sherwood was smart in limiting the number of guests and instead just focusing on a solid band (including Tackhead’s Skip McDonald on guitar) effectively bringing it.
Soca-tinged swayer “Fantastic Things” comes next, complete with steel drums and some of the most authoritative blowing on the record. But it’s in “The Storyteller” that the pulse slows and thickens as Beckett continues to work it out. Next, “Rise & Shine (Cry of Triumph)” is a sharp blend of dub techniques, techno crispness, trip hoppy rhythms, and horns a plenty. And then “Out of the Blue” leans hard into reggae as Sherwood remembers to keep it weird.
An up-tempo mover with a tense atmosphere, “Switch Up!” brings us into the home stretch. The final two tracks, “The Forgotten Man” and “Are You Sitting Comfortably?” play around with jazzy ambiances, but the snappiest trick on The Modern Sound of Harry Beckett is the balance of Sherwood’s production technique and Beckett’s artistry. It’s a true collab, and an admirable gesture of remarkable consistency and staying power.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
