15/10/2025
Sensational news – vintage jazz / folk / psych music mogul (books, records, everything) Richard Morton Jack is running a crowdfunder towards a reprint of his epic volume ‘Labyrinth: British Jazz on Record 1960-75’, which sold out its first run in 2023 and now fetches silly money on eBay if copies come up. I have a copy – it’s a thing of beauty. Heartily recommended!
At £65 it’s actually great value for money – a huge sized volume containing reproductions of impossible to find albums (front and back covers) and rare press and promotional materials from the period, plus Richard’s penetrating notes on the music. It is, in my view, a stunning testament to the photography, iconography and graphic design of the 60s lets alone the informational and aesthetic value.
The crowdfunder is offering (if the target sum is met) either (1) a reprint of the book (with poster) or (2) the book (with poster) + art cards + an EXCLUSIVE LP featuring unreleased Rendell-Carr Quintet recordings on vinyl from 1969, authorised by surviving member Dave Green and the estates of Don Rendell and Ian Carr, for only £95.
Hats off to Richard! He explains more – with illustration of the book itself – in the promo video at Kickstarter (link in the comments).
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Here is some of his Kickstarter blurb:
The period covered by the book is widely considered to be ‘the golden age’ of British jazz, but the music remains largely overlooked, with little changing in the intervening fifty years other than the sums collectors will pay for LPs by Ian Carr, Joe Harriott, Stan Tracey, Michael Garrick, Don Rendell, Norma Winstone and others. Labyrinth’s aim is to raise awareness of their magnificent music, as well as to be a beautiful object in itself.
Originally published by Lansdowne Books as a limited edition hardback in 2024, Labyrinth is easily the most comprehensive overview of the subject ever published. It was named Music Book of the Year by Shindig! magazine, which called it: ‘A seriously impressive work, music curation at its finest… For anyone with even a cursory interest in a genre often untouched by music scholars, it’s essential’.
However, it quickly sold out, meaning that copies have sold online for multiples of its original price.
Celebrating over three hundred albums, it reproduces their fabulous artwork (front and back in many cases), with meticulously researched background information about each (including excerpts from vintage reviews), and a long and personal introduction by legendary double bassist / producer Tony Reeves (Mike Taylor Quartet, New Jazz Orchestra, Colosseum).
Covering trad jazz, mainstream jazz, abstract jazz, avant-garde jazz, serial jazz, free jazz, Indo-jazz, jazz-rock and more, Labyrinth tells a story Britain should be proud of: open-minded and creative musicians pushing the boundaries of their art in the face of penury and indifference, and welcoming influences from a range of other cultures via immigrant musicians such as Joe Harriott (Jamaica), Amancio D’Silva (India), Guy Warren (Ghana) and Harry Beckett (Barbados).
Here’s the link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/labyrinthbook/labyrinth-british-jazz-on-record-1960-1975?ref=discovery&term=labyrinth&total_hits=300&category_id=45
I bought this book when it came out and it is truly a thing of beauty. I read somewhere that copies were going on eBay at upwards of £200 so this kickstarter campaign is very welcome.
I am an avid British jazz enthusiast and there are albums in this book that even I hadn’t heard of!
It’s a magnificent thing – if you have any interest in British Jazz, and you can find £65 to invest, I’d urge you to do so. You’ll need a huge bookshelf if you want to keep it upright – it’s a monster! The only book I own that’s more massive (!) than this one is his ‘Pressing News’ volume.
Ditto!
Adding my voice to the praise for this book. If I didn’t already have it, I’d be in for this, the package with the music added.
Three more days to reach the target required for a second printing (with the bonus of an exclusive Rendell-Carr Quintet album available)…
‘Labyrinth: British Jazz on Record 1960-75’ is, in my view, essential for any fan of that magical era in British jazz – from the late 1950s wave of world-class modernists like Don Rendell, Tubby Hayes and Dick Morrissey who all flourished in the early 60s to the ‘new wave’ of progressive jazzers like Mike Gibbs, Mike Westbrook, John McLaughlan and the like who emerged on record in the later 60s, through a heady period a year or two either side of 1970 when major labels were taking a punt on jazz adventurers, hoping they might be a further extension of the commercially successful progressive rock bands of the day.
They weren’t – but fabulous recordings were made, and not only that, fabulous *artefacts* in the form of their LP sleeves and period press ads. This is the stuff that RMJ has assiduously collected (the expense of doing so is staggering – many of these records are worth many hundreds each, some in four figures) and presented herein – front and back covers of around 300 key albums, at 3/4 size plus further visuals and commentary. It’s a delight for the eyes as well as of informational value to the reader – as most of these albums contained detailed essays on the back cover.