Recommend me good British Jazz

this is his first album (i think?) and it's very different than his later stuff.

'Flare Up' - Harry Beckett

'Dragon Hill'/'Rites and Rituals'/'Retrospective+Live at the ICA' - Ray Russell

'The Baptised Traveller' and 'Four Compositions for Sextet' - Tony Oxley

'Day Will Come' - Howard Riley

'Live in Bremen' - Nucleus

'Freeform' and 'Abstract' - Joe Harriot ('Abstract' was apparently the first 'English' jazz alb to get five stars in Downbeat, tho' Harriot of course was from the West Indies)

'Extrapolation' - John McLaughlin (yeah, his first solo alb, easily one of the greatest jazz albs of all time)

'Karyobin' - Spontaneous Music Ensemble

'Under Milk Wood' - Stan Tracey

If you like that 'Impressed' comp then most of the Tubby Hayes recs are now back in print, including 'Down in the Village' which is prob. his best alb

I do like Bill Bruford's group with Django Bates a lot though. Is there much of a straight-ahead (i.e. not free improv, I guess) scene in England these days?

Jordan, yes, there is a pretty big 'straightahead' jazz scene in the UK - perhaps the best-known players are saxophonist Tommy Smith (his new alb features Lovano, Scofield, the great John Taylor on piano, Bill Summers and John Pattitucci) and the trumpeter Guy Barker, but there's loads more - Andy Sheppard, Courtney Pine, Denys Baptiste, Soweto Kinch, etc. etc.

I would also put in a gd word for Keith Tippett and the great Billy Jenkins.

Seconded, sure.
I'd recommend also John Surman's recorded-in-1969-released-for-the-first-time-this-year (on Cuneiform) Way Back When.
There's certainly more good Surman's out there...

if i were you i'd wait until they reissue How Many Clouds Can You See? which is way better, or, better still, westbrook's Release and Marching Song, both of which you need.

this is incredible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6Iuy37HcxQ

damn 8 years seems a long time for brit jazz to be quiet

Joe Harriott & Amancio D'Silva Quartet's ‎Hum Dono. What a fucking tremendous album.

good list by Andrew L upthread. Can't get enough of Karyobin as well and nice to see a rare mention of Howard Riley of hudds!

also stan tracey "under milk wood"

thanks, I'll try that one mark

i bought the reissue of ian carr & don rendell's 'dusk fire' recently, amazing album

I'll give that one a shot as well, nick. it's threads like this where I miss Marcello's stellar contributions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKgH9WZnkVc

marcello is VERY pro karyobin (as you probably remember)

(i just checked and MC is tweeting as he normally does his morning, to my relief as i am v fond of him and lena)

glad to hear it!

First thing I was thinking of when I listened to Stan Tracey was his piano style is so elegant, like the good Duke Elly. I can't believe I never checked it out before, even after seeing him on a youtube with Wes Montgomery years ago and thinking who is that awesome Brit piano-dude! Such a beautiful album.

I found last year's We Out Here to be a good gateway:
A project from Brownswood Recordings celebrating London’s young jazz scene.
Featuring tracks from Maisha, Ezra Collective, Moses Boyd, Theon Cross, Nubya Garcia, Shabaka Hutchings, Triforce, Joe Armon-Jones, and Kokoroko.
Scroll down the page and stream it all: https://weouthere.bandcamp.com/album/we-out-here
There’s plenty of crossover between each of the groups, too, speaking to the close-knit circles which make up the scene; shared line-ups reflect the mutual cooperation and DIY spirit which are second-nature.

Ubiquitous, much-lauded saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings is the project’s musical director. His own recent projects span from South Africa-connected, spiritually-minded jazz players Shabaka and the Ancestors to Sons of Kemet, who match diasporically-connected compositions with viscerally-direct live shows. His input ties together a deft, genre-agnostic sensibility that’s shared through all the players on the record.
Which led me to several other bandcamped albs: faves incl. Blume by Nerija: Nérija is Nubya Garcia (tenor saxophone), Sheila Maurice-Grey (trumpet), Cassie Kinoshi (alto saxophone), Rosie Turton (trombone), Shirley Tetteh (guitar), Lizy Exell (drums) and Rio Kai (bass).
Blume is very passionate (as in Love in Blume, also maybe as in Judy Blume), and very brainy, and cohesive as hell. Listen to it and their EP here: https://nerijamusic.bandcamp.com/

And as I posted on the Gil Evans thread:
...always liked The British Orchestra, with Ray Russell soloing on "Little Wing," and a lot of other UK musos I hadn't heard---story of that British tour, also subsequent DVD of Gil w Russell's group at Montreux! https://stuartnicholson.uk/gil-evans-the-british-orchestra-classic-modern-albums/

stan t is widely slept on

I have fond memories of listening to under milk wood in a house in hove where I briefly lived - bought it at borderline records (RIP?)

RIP indeed

Damn good guess 🙁

paul hardcastle!

I'm trying my damndest to avoid Covid ne ne ne nineteen atm!

lol

There needs to be more love for Ian Carr - particularly his solo record Belladonna but also the stuff he did with Nucleus. Also Mike Taylor - both albums from the late 60s (Quartet and Trio, respectively, Jack Bruce on bass on the latter) are stellar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7K9H7KLcYA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgDgM2sJe24

the first nucleus record gets a lot of plays from me.

found this sampler from the columbia lansdowne series to be a good intro to pre-seventies brit jazz, though have only found a physical copy of one of the albums featured (the abovementioned under milk wood, which is indeed beautiful) so pleased to hear that the rendall/carr lp has been reissued!

will also put in a word for the peter lemer quintet lp esp disk put out.

https://img.discogs.com/-0ERMNhg2iJFVp7YUO2pBiiFVgc=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-745270-1508360639-7429.jpeg.jpg

would not brook any other opinion other than Trevor Watts is the fucking don!

Have by and by come to this and it bangs: Keith Tippett Group - Green and Orange Night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I8zFuSzhAE

Just the 3x drummers, including Robert Wyatt.

Awesome album cover. Unfortunately, OG goes for like £150+.

Nice, that's my midday listening sorted.

If you like Keith's playing he did some wonderful recordings with Matthew Bourne, who's very much worth checking out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1xci1CyeAY

Fuck, wrong link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZMWxu8xqVo

Piano demolition is my old space in London, RIP! We repurposed the piano. Cool Bourne stuff:

Montauk Variations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9HSitsQkuk

Always love watching him go off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHl1sK6U9Ig

Moogmemory album is very cool, but the gigs he did supporting that record were really something else entirely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3Jxj41VwYw

I could post about UK jazz all day. I watch this prob once a month. Ha. Just so beautiful to me, they're like those birds who are mimicking their environment - can feel the industrial north in this music. Loved chatting with all the Leeds jazz/improv guys about Derek, the stories are amazing, if you can find recordings of him and Paul Hession playing together- they had a great chemistry. Got drunk one night with Paul and went back to his to listen to records and he put on Pharcyde, Bizarre Ride (one of my favourite rap albums) and he sat there trying to copy the hi hat patterns while I was 'rapping' along, haha <3 - so surreal, was a big fan of his and I think this was after he did this Free Noise tour with Wolf Eyes maybe??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QkY7S5Ipec

Ugh, I don't understand posting here yet, but that video should be:

derek bailey / tony oxley - Set one PI - Knitting Factory NYC - 09/1995

I love that Al Wilkinson's main sax used to belong to Xero Slingsby. The first time I did sound for Alan I had (completely by chance) had Xero on a playlist and his face when he heard it was priceless. Got a pic of the sax here:

https://ibb.co/LdKCh0bs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_1tby752i4

Wolf Eyes weren't on the Free Noise tour: it was Yellow Swans, John Wiese et al. Recordings were made. Hope they come out one day. I wrote something on that tour for a book that will hopefully appear before too long.
But aye, Hession is great. Missed him last time he was in Newcastle unfortunately - with Mick Beck and Dom Lash.

Ha, thank you! I was just googling trying to work out what it was called and who it was. Was studying at the time, all a bit of a blur.

It was so cool back then, felt like every night you could go out and see something incredible, like you'd pop out for a pint in some random pub, hear something happening upstairs and you'd walk in and see like John Russell or Terry Day or like I think that was how I first saw Phil Minton do his thing. Then there was the whole scene around the college w/ Bourne and Christof Debez prob my favourite players to see - really pushing to do their own thing, which then had some crossover with the more DIY/whatever stuff at the Brudenell or Fenton.

Apparently its still pretty 'happening' there but not quite like it was mid 2000s. Never really got that same vibe in London. I guess people end up playing Oto.

Klinker, Boat-ing, Flimflam prob the closest things I found. Ended up starting my own thing with a friend that's still going strong where you don't get stared down for sneezing during a performance or something (I kinda hate the Oto atmosphere, sorry, lol)

Books sounds interesting, would love more info if you can :)

It was for a planned John Edwards festschrift. A labour of love, so I'm not sure where things are at with it. I wrote about the first time I saw him, which happened to be the Free Noise tour when it came to Glasgow. The next, I think, was with Mulatu Astatke, which couldn't be more different, but underlines what a great and versatile player he is. With Astatke, it was really thrilling to hear him take a free solo then snap right back into the groove.

Thanks for the Bailey/Oxley btw, great stuff.

I loved the Klinker, mostly the Nunhead edition which had the added advantage of provoking incredulity from the few regulars and staff at the Ivy House (a pub now much revived, which is good, but now Klinkerless).

I managed to get to one of the Ipswich(ish) Klinkers last year, that was a different kind of weird fun.

I’d be interested in hearing about your night, foghorn. I often enjoy the music at Oto but the place can be a bit joyless. Especially if you compare it to Fuck Off Batman or Primal Fruitcake at the Klinker.

Hope the book works out!! Would read! Took my GF to see John Edwards play on the boat with Steve Noble, our first date, lol FFS. Sybil got right up in our faces, referring to us as the 'kids', boat was rocking all over the place, Steve's kit was falling everywhere. Will never forget that night! Sybil <3 (RIP!)

Tim: Was it the December Klinker?

The night is called Skronk. Accidentally started a venue / studio / practice space, met this guy Rick and we both felt like London could do with something a bit more fun / inclusive, I guess. Turned into its own thing- all down to Rick, really awesome guy. Those nights were some of my favourite things in that horrible sounding room (NRS). That place was never meant to be a venue, and... urgh, I won't get into the details, but arghhh etc... Another friend has taken over Skronk now and they do it in Deptford.

Was a bit harsh with Oto. The people that run it & work there - and the fact it even exists and gets funding etc - all awesome. It's just sometimes that space doesn't feel right for certain things (that *always* seem to end up there).

Also I think if that was the only place that I could've seen people I'd only read about in The Wire, when I was 18 or whatever, the combination of 'challenging' music, expensive tickets and ~serious vibes~ would have put me off exploring further... especially since I was obsessively reading this place and Tom Ewing's blog etc through my teens, battling with "wHaT iS mUsiC" and rockism and all that fun stuff.

c.f above re: Paul Hession pulling out the Pharcyde record at his place and complaining that he can't nail the hi hat pattern, haha.

Tim: Was it the December Klinker?

No - it was May, although (to my horror) I realise it was probably the May before last. I'll try to get down to skronk sometime, it's not so far away. Thanks!

My only experience of a London Klinker was the one time in my life I genuinely felt as if I’d stepped into a David Lynch film - this big grotty dark pub full of incredulous drunks hooting at the free performers, the staff openly mocking host Hugh, a slightly hysterical, hostile undertow throughout the evening. Xyzzz was there too!

I like Oto for creating a space where chumps are discouraged from yakking all the way through a set - and for putting on a Keiji Haino performance so fucking loud that all speech was obliterated for miles around.

And the Dead C. They are able to somehow get that stuff across here.

I haven't been to an improv gig in many years now..partly because I generally stopped buying The Wire (and listening obsessively ofc).

Xp - foghorn, your series sounds like it was awesome … what years were you involved? It’s possible you were gracious host to friends of mine if you had Americans come through.

Lol @ Keiji volume, yes!

Been digging around through things in this thread, ended up here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2AQ6KIwwYc

Xpost. Up until COVID-ish times I guess, I work outside of the UK most of the time, was really all Rick and now Nathan - yeah if someone stayed / played - very likely they would have crashed at ours!