By this time (1973), the band were pretty much a straight-forward fusion ensemble with many of their biggest quirks and oddities excised. And all the quirky old personnel too, with only Mike Ratledge remaining (for the time being at least). Hugh Hoppper left and is replaced by the great (but not as quirky) bassist Roy Babbington along with Karl Jenkins and John Marshall. The band is now 75% comprised of ex-Nucleus players, and while they don't sound like Nucleus at all, they also don't really sound so...

Roy Babbington : Electric 6-string bass
Karl Jenkins : Soprano sax, baritone sax, oboe, electric piano

John Marshall : Drums

Mike Ratledge : Electric piano, organ

From their beginnings as a psychedelic rock band in 1966, sharing stages with Pink Floyd and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, to being one of the originators of electric jazz/rock by early 1969, Britain’s Soft Machine were restlessly creative. The Dutch Lesson captures them..

A very good album from 'way back when' with a fairly incredible story! I had never seen or heard it before now, although I knew its legend...!
Chris Spedding Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
Roger Potter Bass, Double Bass
John Marshall Drums
John Mitchell Piano, Electric Piano
Paul Rutherford Trombone

"Between 1969 and 1972, Chris Spedding was a rock guitarist whose unique sound, style and musical literacy meant regular employment on the exploding British progressive jazz.

"Electronic duo Spring Heel Jack return with a collaboration with the legendary American trumpeter and Pulitzer Prize nominee Wadada Leo Smith. Wadada was born in the Mississippi Delta and became immersed in the music of the great blues masters as a young musician. He then moved to Chicago and became an early member of the AACM alongside the likes of Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Braxton, Malachi Favors and Roscoe Mitchell. Recorded 2017 in London, this LP sees Smith's authoritative trumpet joined by...

“Exactly 50 years ago, SUPERSISTER toured the Netherlands and Europe in its last – and special line-up. The American saxophone /nadasvaram player Charlie Mariano had just recently left the band and surprisingly ex-Soft Machine member Elton Dean was found as his successor. This also completed the circle that started out in the early 1970s with the ‘common sounds’ Supersister had with the British Canterbury scene, Soft Machine being an influential member.
With primal band members Ron van Eck (bass)....

John Surman - soprano and baritone saxophone, bass clarinet
Alan Skidmore - tenor saxophone and flute
Ronnie Scott - tenor saxophone
Mike Osborne - alto saxophone
Malcolm Griffiths - trombone
Erich Kleinschuster - trombone
Kenny Wheeler - trumpet and flugelhorn
Fritz Pauer - piano
Harry Miller - bass
Alan Jackson - drums

Recorded April 18, 1969 in Hamburg, Germany…

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...

John Taylor-Piano
Chris Lawrence-Bass
Tony Levin-Drums

A very nice, rather hip piano trio session from three Brit-jazz masters from MPS. It was recorded in 1972 and 1973 and released in 1973. This was John's second album, after the fantastic "Pause And Think Again".
There was one previous CD version, only in Japan, in 2006 but this is the first time it's ever been reissued on vinyl!

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...

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...

Limited initial pressing of 999 individually hand-numbered copies!

Recorded live in Piacenza, Italy, this is a 47' improvisation on a Steinway Grand piano by one of the most individualistic and recognizable pianists working today.

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 a hand-numbered, hand-packaged, limited edition of 500 copies on blue vinyl!“

Another true masterpiece. A Mid Autumn Night's Dream faithfully report a one-shot concert that took place at Conservatorio Nicolini in Piacenza on October 1st, 2016. The four giants of new music never played together before: Keith Tippett, Julie Tippetts, Lino Capra Vaccina, and Paolo Tofani. As the lights turned off something magic started. A spontaneous interplay, an amazing flowing of notes. The subject was...

"In mid-October, 1969, I left the UK to meet up with bassist Barre Phillips and drummer Stu Martin to begin working with them as "The Trio".-John Surman (notes to “Way Back When”)
This was the band that Surman joined in the fall of 1969 that led to him becoming an early Brit-jazz expatriate for about 3 years but that also led to him becoming internationally known, especially on the European continent.
Their first release was a pretty powerful blast then as it still is today.
Due to his...

The roots of 'Brit-jazz' are right here. Conditionally recommended!

"First released in May 1961 as a (slightly premature) 10th Anniversary celebration of the famous Soho jazz venue. Founded in 1952, the Flamingo in Wardour Street played host to..

Nine previously unreleased tracks from the golden era of British jazz.
John Stevens Seven - Sixes & Nines (Kenny Wheeler)
Recorded in London, December 1965
Kenny Wheeler - flugelhorn
Chris Pyne - trombone
Ray Warleigh - alto sax
Alan Skidmore - tenor sax
Mike Pyne - piano
Ron Mathewson - double bass
John Stevens - drums

John Surman Sextet - Skid & Badger (John Warren)
Recorded in London, November 1970
John Surman - baritone & sopr

“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...

This compilation, which includes over 20' of music that has never before been released, combines a retrospective with new works. The trio is unique and this is recommended to anyone interested in the Brit-jazz scene at this price.

"MIKE WESTBROOK has led and composed for a succession of big bands and small groups since the 1960's. The Trio is the longest established and most widely travelled of all WESTBROOK ensembles. This collection digitally re-mastered by JON HISEMAN, presents...

Music by Mike Westbrook
Lyrics and singing by Kate Westbrook
Accordion by Kate Street
This is a very stripped down recording by a great, theatrical singer with well-placed, simple accompaniment.

“Kate is a fine writer and performer, with a brilliant approach to text.
The life of choreographer Bronislava Nijinska provides the inspiration for Kate's most recent piece, a collaboration with composer Mike Westbrook and accordionist Karen Street.
It's a moving piece, and Kate's

This 1969 double album was the third release by Mike Westbrook and it was a quite radical anti-war release, featuring 26 amazing musicians, including Alan Skidmore, David Holdsworth, John Surman, Kenny Wheeler, Malcolm Griffiths, Paul Rutherford, Mike Gibbs, Mike Osborne, Harry Miller, Barre Phillips, Alan Jackson, John Marshall and many others legends.
This has over a full album's worth of unreleased, never-before heard material on disc 3 from the beginning of the modern Brit-jazz movement...

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.