What does it sound like?:

This can only be the most impressionistic of reviews, because the quantity of music is immense and I don’t have the requisite muso ‘chops’ to critique it properly even if I had the time. But I *have* had the time so far to listen to around two-thirds of it, and some of that twice, and it’s terrific, so…

What is it and what does it sound like? Well, it’s 28 BBC broadcasts spanning 1969–90 by groups led by British jazz woodwind maestro Barbara Thompson (principally the Latin-ish Jubiaba and the melodic jazz-rock-ish Paraphernalia, along with a 1969 quintet session with co-leader Art Themen, a 1989 quartet session, a 1970 octet + strings session and a 1971 12-piece + strings session) plus a few fantastic broadcasts in which Babs was a player – a New Jazz Orchestra session from 1969, a Dave Gelly Sextet session (in tribute to enigmatic late pianist Mike Taylor) in 1969 and a 1978 session in which she was a featured addition to the Don Rendell Five, Don being one of the British jazz greats of the 1950s–60s whose playing was progressive and distinctive, but who eschewed the jump into ‘jazz-rock’ … Continue reading Barbara Thompson – Live at the BBC