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Aidan Jolly - System Fault
Well Red Productions WR001 Reviewed by AH
Listening to Aidan Jolly brings to mind the intricate wordplay of Ian Dury and the man-on-the-street leanings of Billy Bragg.
Pretty love songs are not the order of the day here; the focus is firmly on the impact this world has on ordinary people and the lives they lead. When Jolly’s on a rant the words come tumbling out like a machine gun. Take ‘Dennis The Menace’, where he gives us characters like Dennis who’s ‘a menace in his old jackboots that he got from an army store, they were ex-East German ‘cos he wanted to be learning how to kick down front doors’ and Jay, ‘the skinhead in the BNP who reads all the crap in their magazines and puts it between his ears.’ Nothing’s safe from Jolly’s acerbic eye; the violence present in the guise of religion (‘Landfall’), the moronic way we hang on to the coattails of the past (‘History’), the sweat and toil of our ancestors in their quest for better pay and rights (‘Sea To The Sky’) - it’s all there and quite brilliantly handled it is too.
The last track, an untitled bluesy rap about one of this country’s more curious institutions, ‘Jeffrey Archer of Weston-Super-Mare, the world famous storytelling multi-millionaire’, is afine slab of satire and a fitting end to a unique piece of work.

Allison Moorer - Getting Somewhere
Sugarhill Records SUGCD4012 Reviewed by AH
Allison Moorer can never be accused of churning out the same old sounds. Debut album Alabama Song was straight ahead country, The Hardest Part ( still my favourite ) had a distinct Stonesy vibe, Miss Fortune found her in country soul territory, the double live Show was understandably a blend of everything and her last, Duel had more of an Americana/rock feel.
This latest one swims in similar waters to Duel, with production handled by new hubby Steve Earle. All the songs were written by Allison and fly by in an instant; 10 tracks/31 minutes - no room for fillers or hidden tracks here.
The close bond between big sister Shelby Lynne and Allison can be felt on ‘Where You Are’, a touching ballad with one of those stick-in-thehead choruses, and there’s also one written for Mr. Earle called ‘If It’s Just For Today’. One gets the feeling that Moorer is constantly reminded of his track record ( he’s been married 6 times ) but here she takes a philosophical stance on the subject: “…but you got me for as long as I get to stay, even if it’s just for today.”
Earle plays guitar and moog on a few tracks, but this is definitely Moorer’s album; at no time does she give the impression she needs to lean on anybody - not even the great man himself.

Jessica Blake - Three Good Reasons
Puffafish Records PR02 Reviewed by AH
Jessica Blake was born in the UK but grew up on an Indian reservation in Florida. She came back to London in 2002 and opened a shop on the Portobello Road where she met producer Ben Wright. They got together personally and professionally and she released her debut album Take Your Time to pretty favourable reviews.
I never heard that one but it has to be said that her latest is a pretty safe affair. According to the press release Blake’s two biggest influences are country and southern rock, but I can’t hear much of the latter in these songs. Yes, there are a couple that border on it in the shape of ‘Don’t Try This At Home’ and ‘Dancing With The Dead’ but to call it southern rock would require a pretty vivid imagination. She shows more promise when she handles the more sensitive material, such as ‘Colorado, New Mexico’.
I think it fair to say that this album wanders about not really knowing what it wants to be. If Blake’s aiming to crack the country market in the USA she needs to sharpen up her own songs or hand the job over to one of the Nashville hotshots, because quite frankly the ones on display here don’t quite cut the mustard. The alternative’s to hire a ballsy band and make a southern rock album. Now there’s a thought.

Jim Byrnes - House Of Refuge
Black Hen Music BHMCD932 Reviewed by AH
The music business has a history of pandering to actors who think they have the talent to be rock or pop stars. Most get exposed fairly quickly and return to their chosen careers, but some have the talent to carve out a career in the recording world. Billy Bob Thornton did it a few years ago with a great country rock album called Private Radio and Jim Byrnes, an American actor living in Canada, has managed to pull it off with House Of Refuge.
It’s clear from the sleeve and the lyrical content where Byrnes’ religious allegiance lies, but unlike some other artists he doesn’t allow it to become cloying or tiresome, and it doesn’t detract from the album as a whole. Byrnes has a warm and fulsome voice, one that switches from a bluesy wail to a soft, honey-coated croon. Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Stardust’ is an affectionately sung tribute to his mother and shows just how flexible that voice is. At the other end of the spectrum ‘Didn’t It Rain’, is a full-on gospel workout with a thumping drum beat and authentic vocal harmonies from The Sojourners. As well as some well chosen Robert Johnson and Skip James numbers there’s also a faithful rendition of Nick Lowe’s ‘The Beast In Me’, beautifully sung and played and a fitting way to bring this fine album to a close.

Mike Harrison - Late Starter
Halo Records HALOCD17 Reviewed by AH
Whenever lists are drawn up as to who the best blues/rock singers are, the names first out of the hat are invariably the Paul Rodgers, the Robert Plants and the Mick Jaggers. One name consistently overlooked is ex-Spooky Tooth front man Mike Harrison, a travesty which needs addressing and hopefully will be with the release of this cracking album. It’s sad to learn, although hardly surprising given the reputation of the music business, that Harrison’s never made a single penny from his early recordings. It’s something he’s understandably bitter about and he swore he’d never put his name to a contract again. Time’s a healer though, and in 2001 he recorded Touch with The Hamburg Blues Band, an album aficionados of blues/rock should make every effort to track down. Late Starter finds him in the studio once more, this time to record a great batch of tunes made famous by the likes of Ray Charles, Etta James, Delbert McClinton and Otis Redding. Like Etta, Harrison is a master interpreter who glides effortlessly from blues to rock to soul -whatever the song requires he can supply it in spades. Late starter he may be, but hopefully he’ll get to make up for lost time. So welcome back Mike, it’s so good to hear you again. And to the record buying public…welcome to the first great album Of 2007.

Nanci Griffith - Ruby’s Torch
Rounder Records 1161-3265-2 Reviewed by AH
Nanci Griffith’s fans have been asking her to record an album of torch songs for some time, so not wishing to let them down that’s precisely what she’s done. Ruby’s Torch is something of a first in a number of ways.
It’s the first time she’s not played guitar or sung background vocals, and also the first time she’s had to rely on a conductor to usherin her vocal parts. Now, the burning question is: does it work?
Well, yes and no.There’s no denying Nanci has a lovely voice(fortunately not one of those hollering, whoop-it-up vehicles favoured by the Nashville pop/country brigade) but, dare I say it, it’s a little too authentic to be stepping outside of what it does best. All the songs featured are tried and tested classics and the performances of The Blue Moon Orchestra, conductor Kristin Wilkinson and producer Peter Collins can’t be faulted, it’s just that at times Griffiths sounds a little stretched. That said, when it does all come together the results are more than satisfying; ‘When I Dream’ and the beautiful ‘Grapefruit Moon’, one of three Tom Waits compositions, being cases in point. Ruby’s Torch is not without its merits and sure to please her legion of fans, but I can’t help thinking Shelby Lynne would have done it better.

Ruf Records Anthology - Various Artists
Ruf Records RUF1121 Reviewed by AH
Over the last 12 years Ruf Records have gone about the business of bringing some of the most prodigious talents in blues onto our stereos and into our living rooms. The label now has an enviable roster of artists catering for just about everybody’s tastes; household names like Walter Trout, Canned Heat and Luther Allison sit alongside the stars of tomorrow, handsomely represented here by the likes of Aynsley Lister, Ana Popovic and the mercurial Ian Parker. This anthology is split into two. The first disc is a 12 track CD chosen by head honcho Thomas Ruf and is a fair representation of what the label is all about. The second is a 13 track live DVD of the bands in their natural habitat, and it contains some cracking moments. Anyone fortunate enough to have seen Blues Caravan on their recent tour will enjoy once again the guitar fest offered up by Aynsley Lister, Erja Lytinnen and Ian Parker on ‘All That Time’, whilst red-blooded males can lust over the gorgeous form of Ana Popovic, while hopefully not forgetting to admire her amazing talents on guitar and vocals! However, top spot goes to Ian Parker for a spellbinding performance of ‘Awake At Night’; he has great stage presence and is an excellent singer, guitarist and songwriter who will surely go on to much greater things. A brilliant set.

Wilson Pickett - The Definitive
Atlantic Records 8122700262 Reviewed by AH
When Wilson Pickett died in 2006, soul music lost one of its most dynamic and respected performers. Like most of the black singers of his day Pickett grew up in a harsh and impoverished environment. One of 11 children, he would do two days at school and three days picking cotton in the fields until his fingers bled. He recognized a way out of hardship when he heard Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin singing secular music; “if the devil got them” he realised, “then they may as well get me too.” Pickett’s tenure at Stax produced some of the funkiest, hardest-hitting soul sides ever. The combination of that scream and Steve Cropper’s highly distinctive playing proved irresistible on monster cuts like ‘634-5789’, ‘Ninety Nine and a Half’ and the legendary ‘In The Midnight Hour’, still guaranteed to fill a dance floor in seconds flat. Over the years the hits kept coming; ‘Mustang Sally’, ‘Land Of A Thousand Dances’, ‘Funky Broadway’… classic slabs of the toughest soul driven by a voice unparalleled in its field. This compilation includes a dazzling reworking of the Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’, a song Pickett claimed he would never cut because it was “too weird”… that was until a young session guitarist called Duane Allman convinced him otherwise. This is a wonderful collection by a wonderful singer; set aside a couple of hours and immerse yourself fully.

Maria Muldaur - Sings Love Songs of Bob Dylan
Telarc CD-83643 Reviewed by DD
I’ve been a Maria Muldaur fan since her early days with her equally talented brother Geoff. Better yet, she’s joined here by a fine band, although sadly Amos Garrett, he of the superb guitar solo in Maria’s ‘Midnight at the Oasis’ appears on just one number. A long time Dylan fan, Maria was initially inspired to record this set by Dylan’s ‘Moonlight’ from his Love & Theft album. Encouraged by the man himself she realised that whilst many people had recorded Dylan’s more scathing material there was also a stockpile of tender and passionate love songs that might lend themselves to her voice. She was right. First off, the band is excellent; really soulful and tight with excellent lead guitar from Cranston Clements (listen to the fluid electric solo on ‘To Be Alone With You’ or the equally adept acoustic solo on ‘Heart of Mine’), drums from Tony Braunagel and keyboards from David Torkanowsky. Maria’s soulful, bluesy delivery makes these numbers her own. ‘Moonlight’ comes across like some forgotten ‘40’s torch song. ‘You’re Going To Make me Lonesome When You Go’ is a slinky, funky joy, and ‘I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight’ with Amos Garrett guesting, could have been written for her.
Of course these interpretations don’t, and don’t set out to, better Dylan’s originals but they do realise a fresh, superbly performed and very enjoyable set.

Ian North - Theory of Your Life
Ear rational Music ERM 001 Reviewed by RP
Songsmith and rhythm guitarist Ian North names fellow Canadians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell among influences as diverse as Miles Davis and J.S. Bach. Unsurprisingly, he specialises in poetic and confessional narratives, more observational than redemptive, and that these songs supplement their memorable images and personal recollections with catchy melodies and smartly handled lyrical trysts. The deliberate vocal style of their delivery is reminiscent of Young, but North is less mournful.
On five of the eleven tracks found in Theory of Your Life, Ian is joined by Jennifer Claveau, and her silky soft harmonies further sweetens his light yet full bodied voice. All of the songs through their intimacy and mellow instrumental arrangements for mandolin, accordion and bass lean towards the folk side of the contemporary Americana scene.
Beneath each story there’s an insight or simple message offered. In the case of ‘Leaving Buffalo’ when you move beyond the gentle humour there is a serious side to a line like “So I went awol from Fort Bragg in1972, just after all the hippies died and just before the war was through” as North speculates on the many false promises of freedom experienced in his life.
Supplier: frontieruk@btconnect.com

Joni Mitchell - Blue
Warners/RhinoVinyl/Reprise 74842 Reviewed by RSF
It would be 23 years and 13 albums before Joni Mitchell returned to Reprise Records. Blue, a watershed release for Mitchell was her fourth album in a career that has spanned almost 40 years!
Her music has evolved from deeply personal folk stylings into pop, jazz, avant-garde and even world music. She’s definitely not to everyone’s taste, but I find it hard to resist her voice when it’s been so well recorded. An awesome collaboration between the great Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman – as well as some major hunting in the tape vaults to get to the original tapes – has given us, I think, a masterpiece of vocal repertoire in what is considered a high-point album for Mitchell. It was released approximately a year after she penned the anthem ‘Woodstock’, made famous by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, as well as previous numbers written for Fairport Convention, Judy Collins and earlier hits like ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ which had already assured Mitchell her place in the pop/folk pantheon. You can almost hear the confidence feeding the lyrical and musical freedom here. My favourite cut on this album is ‘California’ – but you’d better believe that it will reveal any shortcomings in your cartridge set-up. A great disc with great sound.
Supplier: www.warnerbrosrecords.com

Adrienne Young - The Art Of Virtue
Reviewed by RP
The Art Of Virtue is an album inspired by the idealism of Benjamin Franklin. A booklet containing his Thirteen Virtues that includes ideals like resolution, sincerity, justice and humility has been enclosed as part of the CD package.
It’s a kind of aide memoir – a reminder of just what lies behind the music. Adrienne Young takes upon herself the custodianship of these values and, as with her earlier release Plow To The End Of The Row, they are sensitively and sensibly managed. Generally, she chooses to reflect upon them through her own personal and family experiences. It suits her country blues style and, in this way, instead of patronising the listener with overblown or overly grandiose principles, she humanises the themes. Applying a practical and recognisable approach draws dividends. Images of her grandmother for ‘Pretty Ella Arkansas’ and that of her grandfather for the dramatic arrest of a viscous killer in ‘Rastus Russell’ resonate. In her eyes these people can be relied upon as noteworthy witnesses and keepers of the faith. There are also some simple homespun philosophies buried here too. Notions of commitment and family rest behind a lively dance tune like ‘Wedding Rings’, while those childhood countryside reminiscences heard in the song ‘Hills & Hollers’ recalls simpler and less turbulent times. This mixture of Young’s original song writing, the traditional music like ‘Farther Along/Billy In The Ground’ and classic country tracks such as Uncle Dave Macon’s ‘Don’t Get Weary Children’, provides a stark contrast with today’s social atrophy.
However, while her criticism of the modern American lifestyle remains undiminished, there is always a constructive alternative at hand. For example, when she casts doubt upon the sustainability of current agricultural policy, a solution is readily put forward. In this instance it can be found through her support of the
Foodroutes Network and its “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” campaign. It may not strike fear into the heart of global capitalism, but once again it does thoughtfully draw us back into those agrarian roots that are the epicentre of Young’s world.
After all, at a most basic level, we are what we eat, and Adrienne clearly figures that this was a starting point in her own life that could easily be applied elsewhere, leading perhaps to wider change at a grass roots level. I believe she’d like us to participate and share the burden in this stewardship, yet at the same time develop and apply our own set of ideals and principles.
Away from the understated ideology, Adrienne’s work at a musical level is thoroughly absorbing. Few works of art are this intelligently crafted, entertaining, or so beautifully sung and played. Her credentials as a modern bluegrass diva cannot be faulted. Outwardly, optimism courses through The Art Of Virtue and she is as perky as a game buck in the delivery of its message.

Erhu Chant - Yu Hong Mei, Erhu soloist; Wulin, Konghou (Chinese traditional harp); Liu Yin Xuan, Yang Qin (cymbalo); Chen Zhe, (piano).
Channel of China (Channel Classics) CCS SA 80206 Reviewed by RSF
The erhu consists of a long vertical stick-like neck, at the top of which are two large tuning pegs and at the bottom is a small resonator body (sound box) which is covered with python skin on the front (playing) side. Two strings are attached from the pegs to the base and a small loop of string (qian jin) is placed around the neck and strings and acts as a nut which pulls the strings toward the skin holding a small wooden bridge in place. The instrument is played with the sound box resting on the floor, rather than being positioned under the chin like the ‘Western’ violin. The music is quite extraordinary and exceptionally involving. The tone is very beautiful and I just sat transfixed for repeated hearings, enjoying the tremendous skills of these musicians.
One of the great treats for me was that having heard this ‘sound’ in various films over the years, I’ve always been fascinated by it. But I’ve never had the pleasure of hearing the erhu recorded as well as this release. A really interesting disc and highly recommended.
Supplier: www.channelclassics.com

Gary Cooke - Songs For Everyday Use
Townsend Records TOWNCD4 Reviewed by RP
Gary Cooke, with his raw and chiselled voice, deeply personal but ubiquitous themes and an attitude as robust as his subject matter, demonstrates a considerable if embryonic song writing talent. A melancholy and moody posture, sadness barely hidden beneath the surface and some underlying yet contrasting optimism seeps through this album, making Songs For Everyday Use an intriguing proposition. Cooke - toyed with for ‘She Plays With A Word like Love’. Cooke - contemplating those unspoken feelings between a parent and child on ‘Tables Must Turn’. Cooke - reflecting upon another one of those drink-laden nights out and the nature of friendship in ‘Seven Day Weekend’.
Cooke – collectively exploring all these eminently recognisable experiences through a series of telling vignettes. Dealing honestly and openly, working through life’s issues and those personal demons until he arrives at an answer to the sort of problems that have at sometime or other plagued nearly every one of us. He rarely comes up empty. He sings passionately, yet without that navel gazing propensity for over analysis or self-indulgence. Clearly these sentiments have been carefully weighed, and then delivered with a conscious lack of sentimentality. It gives his contemporary songs much greater integrity than one could usually or reasonably expect from this material.
Supplier: www.garycooke.co.uk

Brett Dennen - So Much More
Dualtone 80302-01240-2 Reviewed by RG
Occasionally, just occasionally, art and reality collide in a label so right, so apposite, that it perfectly captures a mood, a moment, a movement. In the case of Brett Dennen, young, unsung and out of California, that label is “folk nouveau”, containing in a single phrase the peculiar combination of tradition and almost naïve purity that marks his music apart. There’ll be the inevitable comparisons with Dylan, which will serve neither to any great degree. Yes, there’s the distinctive voice, its not quite nasal whine, but it’s an individuality that worms its way beneath your guard, enticing rather than irritating and definitely the sound of now. Deceptively simple lyrics carry hidden weight, juxtaposed and somehow reinforced by the fragile beauty of the melodies and sparse, uncluttered arrangements. This is about the songs and songs are about words and tunes and Brett Dennen never forgets and never lets you forget that that’s the case. This is his second album, wrapped around the horribly addictive ‘The One Who Loves You The Most’, five minutes of the most perfectly poised and catchily understated pop you’ll hear this year. That takes hold and the other tracks weigh right in. With lyrical and musical talent to burn, a message and the skill to insinuate rather than ram it home, Mr Dennen’s going far.
Get in on the ground floor and enjoy the ride.

The Brad Shepik Trio - Places You Go
Songlines SGL SA1562-2 Reviewed by DD
The trio comprises Brad Shepik on guitar with Gary Versace on Hammond B3 organ, and Tom Rainey on drums. The album title refers to a children’s book and also to the fact that many of the tunes were written in various places: Mandelieu, Santa Barbara, Dulles, on the subway in Brooklyn. This may have coloured the tunes to some extent but the influences reflected in this album range wider than that, from American to Celtic to Indonesian music. The CD opens with a tricky, up-tempo number ‘Temoin’ which shifts between 6/8 and 7/8 and that the band nail with ease. Their prowess is amply demonstrated through the remainder of an album that spans a whole range of influences: ‘Return’ a slow-spiralling romance carries faint echoes of Bill Frisell, ‘Five and Dime’ carries the resonance of gospel and folk melody, ‘As Was’ sounds almost like a traditional folk tune and ‘Batur’ referring to a sacred volcano in Bali, successfully fuses an Indonesian scale with fuzz guitar and organ swells, whilst ‘The South’ and ‘Frozen’ are more straight ahead workouts. The closing number ‘Tides’ is rock influenced, reminding me a little of some of Zappa’s work, at least until the B3 kicks in. Whatever, it’s a fitting close to an inventive and entertaining album.

Coleman Hawkins - The Hawk Flies High
Mobile Fidelity UDSACD 2030 Reviewed by DDD
The Hawk Flies High, recorded in 1959, was a comeback album of sorts for Hawkins, who at the age of 58, had already lived out a legendary career. Listening to this Riverside title you would never suspect that Hawkins was practically a senior citizen. It’s a ferocious album with outstanding contributions from youngsters J. J. Johnson on trombone and Idrees Sulieman on trumpet. The album collects ballads, bop and blues, and the front line really “flies”. Sulieman wrote ‘Juicy Fruit’, and puts in a star turn as a soloist, beginning the piece with a bravura show of circular breathing.
Johnson drives the pace on ‘Blue Lights’, and makes it sufficiently his to remind the listener of his fabulous sessions on Columbia. I compared the SACD layer side by side with the CD layer. The CD layer on its own sounded pretty good, but compared to the SACD layer (on a relatively inexpensive combination player) it sounded like a constricted mono recording, with the images stuck in the middle. SACD opened everything up, spreading the instruments across a wide stage, sounding fabulous. I haven’t compared it to the vinyl issue, and suspect that the LP sounds even better. However, if you have a combination player, this is a great way to hear how good SACD can make these old jazz masterpieces sound.

Christopher Dell - The World We Knew - Celebrating Bert Kaempfert
ACT 9449-2 (CD) Reviewed by DD
Don’t let the title put you off. This is no MOR jazzfest but rather an intelligent exploration and re-interpretation (Dell talks of the original tunes as having “the morbid charm of a ruined building, the beauty of which becomes apparent if we take a second look”). Even old chestnuts like ‘Swingin’ Safari’ and ‘Spanish Eyes’ are given new life and impetus. One of the strongest of the numbers here is based on perhaps the corniest original, ‘Strangers in the Night’. With not a “doobey, doobey, doo” in earshot the number is given a much more meditative, spacey treatment that creates a curious tension in that it’s near impossible to remove
the crooning of the Hoboken Canary from your mind whilst you’re listening to it - it’s almost as though Sinatra is running through the number in an adjoining studio in the far corner of your mind whilst you listen to this radically different interpretation: Odd, very odd, but strangely enjoyable. Less familiar originals such as Afrikaan Beat 2’ and ‘Weidersehn’ come up as fresh and funky tunes in their own right. This is a charming set superbly arranged and played (despite the occasional lapse into drum’n’bass treatments), that genuinely provides a fresh insight to familiar melodies and a stimulating musical journey. It benefits too from a solid, full-bodied and dynamic recording.

Jimmy Scott - All The Way
Warner Jazz 8122-77655-2 Reviewed by DD
Originally released on Sire Records in 1992, a time when Jimmy Scott had virtually been forgotten, this is the album that helped to re-launch his career reminding previous fans of his genius and introducing him to a whole new audience. To those unfamiliar with Scott, his near soprano voice takes some getting used to but stick with him and after a few numbers you’ll be hooked. He can invest a song with intense drama and real emotion like few others. Take his version here of the classic ‘I’m Getting Sentimental Over You’, from the opening line you sense just what he’s feeling in his impassioned delivery, his near whispered first rendition of the title, his entreaty to “Make up your mind…” he delivers a novel’s worth of emotion in a single song. Other standouts include the title song, ‘Embraceable You’, and the bonus track originally recorded for the film Glengarry Glen Ross, ‘On the Street of Dreams’.
Backed by a great band comprising Kenny Barron (piano), Ron Carter (bass), John Pisano (guitar), David ‘Fathead” Newman (sax), and Grady Tate (drums) along with judiciously applied strings, the support for Scott is nicely judged; superb playing but properly sensitive to the man himself, providing the perfect platform for his soulful delivery.
Produced by Tommy Lipuma and mastered by Doug Sax the recording matches the talent on show.

Joachim Kuhn & Michael Gibbs - Europeana - Jazzophony No 1
ACTSACD 9804-2 Reviewed by DD
Mike Gibb’s Europeana was originally released in recorded form to some acclaim in 1995, although it was not to receive a public performance until September 2006. ACT has now re-released the album, re-mastered for SACD in both two-channel and surround sound formats. The release is also by way of a tribute to two of the players on the original release who have since died, the German trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff and the French bass player Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark.
Mike Gibbs composed the piece as a vehicle to bring together a range of European traditional folk melodies in an arrangement for symphony orchestra and jazz soloists. Containing elements that invoke traditional classical music, swing, free jazz, blues and flamenco, this could easily have been a very unwieldy beast indeed. So it’s a significant tribute to both Gibb’s skill and the quality of the musicians involved here that the piece has an overall coherence and hangs together as well as it does. Some elements are inevitably more successful than others in this rich and heady mix, a great example being the superbly innovative and technically accomplished trombone soloing from Albert Mangelsdorff in ‘Three Angels’ an adaptation of a 13th Century German folksong.
The treatment of the lovely ‘She Moved Through The Fair’ also works particularly well with soprano sax floating above the layers of orchestral sound. An especially notable touch is Richard Galliano’s accordion giving texture to ‘The Shepherd of Breton’. The orchestra works really well here, providing a distant and evocative backdrop behind the more frenetic jazz musicians upfront. Even that old chestnut ‘Londonderry Air’ comes up pretty fresh, at least in the opening jazz section, although sadly as soon as the orchestra lead in with the main theme it’s near impossible to dispel the elevator music connotations that have dragged this lovely tune way, way down. Still, what are skip buttons on CD players for?
All in all this is well worth digging into. It’s a bold, complex and ambitious work that involves some superb players for its realisation. Admittedly, there’s a slight touch of the curate’s egg about it, but it is well worth the sampling and seldom has a musical concept been more appropriate to the surround medium. An enjoyable kaleidoscope of contrasting emotions, wallow at will…

Booker Ervin - That’s It!
Pure Pleasure CJS 9014 Reviewed by DDD
Booker Ervin is something of an acquired taste with his edgy, hard tenor sound – but one I acquired long ago. If you’ve heard much of Mingus, you’ve probably acquired the taste too, even if you didn’t pay much heed to the identity of the sidemen. Here, Ervin teams up with George Tucker on drums, Horace Parlan on piano and Al Harewood on drums to present a quintessential Candid recording: which means it’s a little more out there than the normal fare, and perhaps a little more adventurous than the artist’s product for other labels. Ervin puts in a fierce performance here, playing mostly his own compositions, while his ballads demonstrate that he was not all hard edges. He died at the early age of 40 after turning in a remarkable string of albums on Prestige, but this early outing stands up to the best of those. Whet your appetite on this album and then explore his playing on the two Mingus Candid albums, along with Eric Dolphy. That combination (also found on Mingus, Mingus and Mal Waldron’s Quest) is like catnip to some jazz loving mice. Pure Pleasure has done a marvelous job mastering this 180-gram vinyl release, which compares favorably with the original. In both versions, the stereo effect is a little artificial with instruments stuck in the speakers and a lack of center fill, but still essential. Highly recommended.

Tubby Hayes - The Little Giant
Proper 117 Reviewed by DD
If the archetypal model of a jazz great involves undeniable musical brilliance snuffed out at a tragically early age, then Britain has its own candidate to vie for a place in the US dominated Jazz Hall Of Fame. This four CD set provides a welcome and comprehensive insight into the early days of one of the UK’s very greatest jazz musicians, Tubby Hayes. (As a small measure, have you seen just how much his original releases cost?) Dying in 1973 at the horribly young age of 38, Hayes had already long cemented his international reputation as a fiercely talented tenor saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist and arranger. This set traces his progression from a remarkably trim and prodigiously gifted teenager with Vic Lewis’ Band through to his establishment as a leading jazz name and as a band-leader in his own right.
The first CD covers the Lewis Band in a set of 1954 recordings largely arranged by Gerry Mulligan with the young lion very much to the fore. These are followed by a lovely live version of ‘Too Marvellous for Words’ and ‘The Creep’ the former highlighting the astonishing capability and maturity of such a young player, before moving to a live set with the Lewis band and a further batch with the Jack Parnell Orchestra, before closing with Hayes leading his own orchestra in a set of 1955 recordings. The second CD comprises 1955 recordings with Hayes leading his own orchestra and quartet along with recordings with the Jimmy Deuchar Ensemble and the Dizzy Reece Quartet.
The Hayes Quartet recordings are for me the strongest of the CD, giving the greatest hint of things to come through confident workouts like ‘Dance of the Aerophragytes’ and tender ballads like ‘There’s No You’. Disc 3 sees more 1955 recordings with Feldman along with a previously unreleased 1956 BBC recorded set of five tunes from the Hayes Orchestra. These fairly woolly recordings are easily outclassed by the following live Festival Hall set from the full Hayes Orchestra and the closing trio of tunes from his quintet. Disc 4, all 1956 recordings, covers three tunes from the Hayes Quartet, giving the band time to stretch out to great effect, notably here in ‘Hall Hears the Blues’, a couple of live numbers from The Railway Arms featuring some great soloing on ‘Laker’s Day’, two more from the Feldman ‘ninetet’, before closing with a final pair from the Feldman Big Band.
This very enjoyable set delivers an affordable and fascinating overview of the early days of the man as he took his first strides towards jazz stardom. With all four discs costing the same as a single full-priced CD this an essential purchase – whichever side of the Atlantic you reside.

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