Lemer, Peter - Son of Local Colour: Live at the Pizza Express, Soho
SKU
05- ESP DISK 5031CD
NOTE: We have exactly 30 copies at this very, very special price and when they are gone, the price will go up to our ‘normal’ ESP price of $14.00!
Alan Skidmore-tenor sax
John Surman-baritone and soprano sax
Peter Lemer-piano
Tony Reeves-bass
Jon Hiseman-drums
The core of this group -- John Surman, Alan Skidmore, Peter Lemer, Tony Reeves, and Jon Hiseman -- recorded an LP titled Local Colour for ESP-Disk' in 1966. Pianist and leader Lemer was one of the founding members of the Little Theatre Club (thereby one of the founding members of the English free jazz movement) and the album Local Colour is considered one of the first recordings released of UK free jazz. This new take on that album, released in celebration that everyone was still here 50 years later, and still creating great music, is indeed a wonderful celebration!
"Reading from demanding scores, Surman and Skidmore welded an inspired, rock-solid brass section alongside the nuanced bass dialogues from Reeves, Hiseman's structurally intense percussion and Lemer's keyboard effervescence ... Spells of tough, tight synchronisation, expressive solos from Surman and Skidmore deep in to their power station delivery, Reeves' sensitively syncopated bass lines and discreet pummelling by Hiseman complemented Lemer's brightly illuminated piano flights."-Geoff Winston, London Jazz News
“The plan, conceived the year after the 50th anniversary of the recording session, was to reunite the original quintet, which had existed for six months back in '66, but unfortunately Nisar Ahmad (George) Khan, tenor saxophonist on the original album, came down with something and couldn't appear. Alan Skidmore (Surman’s bandmate in SOS) was deputized and, as all familiar with his career would expect and you will hear, came through with flying local colors at the concert on February 20, 2018 at noted London jazz club Pizza Express.
Four months later, Jon Hiseman passed away at age 73 after battling a brain tumor. Five of the original album's six compositions are reprised, but with more room to stretch out on them in the concert context.
New to Lemer's ESP discography are Lemer's tribute to British saxophonist/frequent Lemer bandmate Dick Heckstall-Smith, "Big Dick"; Surman's "URH"; and a wild interpretation of Coltrane's "Impressions".”