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Nucleus – Live at the BBC

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What does it sound like?:

I’ve a confession to make.

Our esteemed contributor Colin-h asked me to consider reviewing this beast about two years ago, and this is how long it’s taken me to finish off these notes. Sorry about that Colin!

So here we are at last, these are my copious notes, written a little at a time over the last two years, and finally edited now into a hopefully coherent overview of what is after all a gargantuan collection of wonderful material.

This little (13 CDs!) boxed set of BBC recordings features Ian Carr’s celebrated Nucleus ensemble. I’m not going to wade in with a humungous retrospective of the man’s jazz pedigree with various well known serious alumni, I’m going to react only to the contents of these discs.

For many music fans the music they contain might be expected to be what we might term jazz-rock. But don’t let the Vertigo label connections fool you. This is first and foremost jazz. Repertoire, with Colin’s guiding hand, have assembled 13 CDs worth of BBC sessions from the band – in various constellations – across the years from 1970 to 1991; it’s an ocean of blistering brilliance to bathe in.

If you’re not already aware of Nucleus, it’s probably only fair to say that there might be a few entry criteria you’ll have to consider before investing a hefty number of your quids. If however you’re already generally familiar with the band’s material, and it’s your cut of corduroy, you’re in for a treat over the entirety of these discs.

If your idea of jazz is a bloke in a rumpled cord jacket wearing loafers, smokin’ a fag and saying ‘Niiiice’ after every extended noodling, ask yourself if this mental picture is, for you, an affectionate and convivially humourous poking of mild fun at a familiar stereotype. On the other hand perhaps you’re picturing a rather sniffy comedic dismissal of anything musical that thinks of itself as in some way progressive and mercurial; an opinion you largely share. If your mind’s eye conjures up the former friendly impression, this set is for you. If you tend towards the latter viewpoint, please just move on.

*takes drag on Senior Service, brushes ash from cords, chuckles to self*

To start with I honestly found it difficult to drag myself away from the first 4 discs in this staggeringly comprehensive boxed set. Which means that over several months I was listening most repeatedly to the Vertigo material – constituting way less than half of the music here. I was previously familiar with some of their later works, but not so much of it, and I’ve been profoundly pleased to discover that there is much to admire across the later sessions.

The 70s material inevitably contains many repeats of the same key tracks from the early albums, often performed and broadcast a year or so before they appeared on physical vinyl. This is very much to be welcomed; in fact, it’s clear that this is a jazz group first and foremost, with players of great skill and experience. As you’d hope, no two versions of the same number exactly replicate each other, the solos always give variety, the flow changes from one performance to the next, while the underlying themes raise their heads in different ways and at different times – there’s always something different to hear as the band feel their way from the opening theme to a conclusion via a different route. If you’re of a mind to enjoy an ecstatic wallow in extended improvisation there’s a lot here for you to enjoy.

It’s a happy miracle that some of these BBC sessions exist in their original broadcast quality – forms that still bear listening – they are over half a century old. Some of the recordings are by all means not sonically perfect, but they are very much good enough to investigate. Disc 2 has some terribly splashy cymbals on one long track, but get past that and there’s plenty sounding fine.

Early British jazz-rock presented itself at a time of general musical experimentation when jazzers looked enviously at the sales figures for the experimental fringes of more mainstream music selling to rock audiences (hello Yes, King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra etc. etc.) and wondered if they could introduce themselves to the same listening audience and benefit from their patronage as well. Ian Carr, with a serious jazz pedigree already under his belt, sought to join this trend and put together Nucleus at the close of the 60s, nicking players from various jazz combos to assemble a diverse set of musicians who could write and perform with the absolute best. If you don’t know the history you might be surprised to learn that the guitar player of the first line-up was Chris Spedding, later much more widely known for ‘Motor Bikin’; at the time of his belonging to Nucleus he already had wide jazz experience, playing with Jack Bruce amongst others. His departure from Nucleus after the first two albums was one of the pivots for the band’s first chameleon change.

Onwards through the early years to disc 5, and a couple of post-Spedding albums have flown by and the sound of the band is still that recognisably helmed by Carr’s playing and direction, but now to my ears there is a much less exclusively British feel to the music, and they are branching out with an increasingly funky international feel. They’ve toned down the homburg and cheroot stuff, and there’s more swing evident. Partly this impression may be due to the better recording quality available, but I think it’s also a measure of the ongoing maturity of the ensemble in its new form. Synths begin to show up at the party! The album ‘Under The Sun’, which disc 5 explores, showcases Carr’s dominance of their repertoire at the time. This disc is awash with serpentine horn, piano and bass led workouts that will give your toes a good tapping. Anyone who has enjoyed albums by Soft Machine or Colosseum (check out their ‘Live At The BBC’ 6 CD set – with notes from our own @Colin-H – it’s another truly great thing) will lap this one up. As we leave disc 5 we’re now departing the Vertigo territory that was best known to me before I dived in to this collection.

Discs 6 and 7 and the gently funky American feel comes a little more to the fore as the band loses its guitar contribution for a while. Disc 6 includes a charming spoken summary of the evolution of jazz-rock in the British milieu from Charles Fox of 1980’s ‘Jazz in Britain’ programme. This is followed by a brilliant demonstration of the concepts he mentions that were championed by Ian Carr; we are treated to outstanding performances of three pieces from their album, ‘Out Of The Long Dark’. Disc 6 finishes with some interesting tracks featuring Allan Holdsworth on guitar, though I detect that here the source material might have had to be somewhat bullied into surfacing a decent sound; it’s not too bad, but definitely not up to the sonic standard of earlier tracks on this disc.

Disc 7 and beyond: As you will see if you read the great little booklet that accompanies the CDs, the lineup has now morphed yet again, and we are hearing an ensemble with only Carr himself as the thread coming through from earlier incarnations. This band come across with punchier musical arrangements than the previous lot, and we are into territory that, for me, has increased echoes of influence from the more commercial jazzy rocky things coming out of America at the time (early 80s) – the Crusaders, say, or even Ronnie Laws. It’s slightly easier listening, but it still isn’t entirely easy listening, after all, it’s Nucleus (i.e. Carr). There’s a lovely number that’s a tribute to Miles, which is just perfect, appropriately so as Carr is also the author of a pretty definitive biography of the great man. The second session on the disc contains the first iteration of one of my favourite pieces – ‘Dawn Choruses’, which swings from the get go, with particularly superb bass work and offers a beautifully tight ensemble playing at the top of their game. The rest of disc 7 easily maintains the same high standard of lyrical and melodic playing, and it just might now be my favourite from the whole collection. Discs 8 and 9 continue to take us across the eighties; the high quality of the BBC sources is now much in evidence, and some of this material has already been published on earlier discs, but here it’s accompanied by so many contemporary recordings that the arc of the years is better appreciated.

Many of the same group members are present for the recordings on disc 10, all of which are taken from a series of improvised pieces broadcast in 1991. For the life of me I can’t think of another broadcaster that would have put these marvels out to the nation. Some pieces here are duos, some trios, and there’s a quintet. What runs through all of these pieces is the marvellous level of psychic connection between the players, and it beggars belief that this magic was made up on the spot. In a way this disc is the prize of the collection; hearing many fine performances of essentially scripted pieces with uniquely individual improvisatory variations is one (fantastically brilliant) thing, but hearing an entire disc full of stuff – with one exception – made up on the spot is just brain-blowingly great, if you enjoy that sort of thing, and I certainly do. Sheer creative extemporisation demonstrating the interplay between the players evolve, weave and rush into discovered possibilities in real time. You really do need to LISTEN. You can distinctly hear the musicians feeling their way through the pieces, mentally connected through the sounds they are all making, suddenly seeing a collective route forward, exploring it, varying it, hesitating and waiting for their colleagues to find another thread, following that thread until new places to explore emerge. Bloody marvellous. I’d go so far as to say that this disc alone makes the whole thing worth having.

The eleventh disc spins up and we are listening to The Ian Carr Group on Jazz Parade from 1991, introduced by the impossibly juicily named Digby Fairweather, a man who must surely have owned a bottle green cord jacket at some point. The disc kicks off with a gorgeous performance of ‘Uncertain Seduction’ wherein the always impressive but often not conspicuous guitarist Mark Wood really gets to come to the fore with an exciting array of arpeggiated contributions. That’s finally ticked off my bucket list ambition to use the word ‘arpeggiated’. There’s a lovely brisk version of ‘Full Fathom Five’ next, but wait until you get to the final piece on this disc, ‘Pandemonium’, where Mark Wood can again stretch out and display serious fretboard chops. This is stirring stuff, and had me gleefully air-guitaring those augmented chord stabs at times. This piece rocks. In fact, the whole of disc 11 is a delight. It’s as if, strangely, the temporary dropping of the Nucleus name has freed up the ensemble to play without preconceptions and the music has a freshness and joy that’s occasionally been hard to detect beneath the complexity and austerity sometimes evident. Goodness, this disc really earns its place in the collection – they’ve left some of the very best material to very late in the box!
 
Nucleus, playing live at the Bass Clef, give us ‘Dawn Choruses’, previously encountered on discs 7 and 8, to open the twelfth disc. Despite a slightly lower fi recording than the preceding blistering disc, it’s worth persevering with this one too. It’s the same scintillating lineup as the previous disc, and despite the apparent reinstatement of the Nucleus moniker, this session actually fits chronologically after disc 8 and has the same freshness they showed there. Disc 12 then is a welcome addition to previously available material from this brilliant lineup. Once again Mark Wood puts on a great display of how nimble electric guitar can contribute astonishingly well to a jazz-rock ensemble. I found this recording to be a perfect accompaniment to dodging around the kitchen putting together the ingredients for a fine king-prawn stir-fry with broccoli and fresh ginger and garlic. I’ll leave my report of disc 12 with that alarming thought dancing in your head.

And finally, we reach disc thirteen, the late arriving disc of newly unearthed ‘bonus’ material that was uncovered only just in time to be included within the box. Two recordings of Jazz Parade broadcasts from 1979 and 1980 tail-end this boxed set, each with different Nucleus lineups that fit chronologically between discs 6 and 7. It’s hard to fathom (!) that recordings of such great clarity and perfect sound existed in an off-air collection to be discovered at the last moment, but this final disc is another fabulous jewel, valuable for its rarity as much as its musical and sonic quality. Bravo to the folk who have preserved these recordings for us all to enjoy. Playing this for the first time, it was tempting to interpret its ‘bonus’ status as maybe indicative that I should have lowered expectations; but far from it, this is explosively great stuff. The first track is a honey, and the two sets that follow just carry on being involving, explosive and delightful. Harking back in time to the middle of the years covered, it’s a strong reminder of the sustained nature of the brilliance of Ian Carr and his various assemblies of talented musicians.

What does it all *mean*?

If you take any delight in Ian Carr’s work at all, you will not be disappointed with this set. Really, it’s a cornucopia of fun. Right now I’m playing the tenth disc again on my earbuds and I’m heading for the potting shed, which these days is where I keep my bottle green corduroy jacket.

Goes well with…

10 Senior Service and a Mackeson.

Release Date:

2021

Might suit people who like…

Ian Carr’s Nucleus and associated lineups.

6

Comments

  3. When Colin alerted us to this box (late 2021, I think) I mentioned that, if anyone gave me a postal order for Christmas, this set would be my first post Christmas purchase. Well, it was…

    Superb review, Foxy – accurate, detailed and juicy. I’ve been living with this set for two and a bit years now and it never fails to amaze and astonish me. However, I will never again be able to listen to disc 12 without conjuring up the image of you assembling The Dancing Jazz Stir-Fry…

  5. A superb set of recordings.
    Colin very generously gifted me his test edition of the set when it was first released officially.
    Ian Carr and Nucleus were right there at jazz-rock’s beginnings. Pretty much contemporaneously to Miles’s “In A Silent Way”, “Bitches Brew” and “Jack Johnson”, Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra’s first stirrings.

      • Not sure that Nucleus is definitively “jazz rock/fusion” – as Foxy points out, this is contemporary jazz, of which there is ample slewage in any year (cf Mike Westbrook und andere). Ditto In A Silent Way and Jack Johnson – these are Miles with McLaughlin (the only “rock”-ish player on board).

        Some jazz rock/fusion landmarks:
        1967 Larry Coryell Free Spirits
        1968 Blood Sweat & Tears
        1969 Colosseum Valentyne Suite/Soft Machine 2 (two under-kudossed jazz rock pioneers)/Tony Williams Lifetime/Chicago
        1970 Soft Machine 3 – a much more adventurous album than >/Bitches Brew
        1971 Mahavishnu/Weather Report

        (You could add Cream to the list – Jack Bruce said that he and Baker were playing jazz, but didn’t tell Clapton. I’m half convinced.)

        • I kind of agree, HP – but none of these descriptions are “definitive”, are they? They’re really journalists’ shorthand, or marketing constructs, eg:
          Nucleus sounds like jazz, jazz/rock or fusion at different times.
          Same with Soft Machine (and chuck psychedelia into the mix).
          Same with Weather Report (early albums much more jazz than rock).

        • There’s a great deal of rock-ness in “Jack Johnson” to my ears, but you may have a point with the other references. Soft Machine were definitely jazz-rock, starting with “Volume Two”.

          • There are still some vague strands of whimsy and distant psychedelia wafting around on Volume 2. The full-on, heads-down, no-nonsense jazz-rock only started with Third – no whimsy here, man!

  6. A very enjoyable read, Foxy. I’m taking what is called a “hard pass” on the music, though but, which no doubt will be seen as my loss. Ken “King” Colyer will always be my go-to UK jazzman. Him and Acker “The Baron” Bilk.

  8. Sensational review, Foxmeister! If I weren’t knee-deep in writing a fairly quickly required booklet for another ‘at the BBC’ enormo-box (this one 18CD+2Blu-ray), about which I can’t speak yet, I’d give the Nucleus set an immediate repeat listen!

  9. Great work, Vulpes! Nucleus are clearly not forgotten.

    There’s a very comprehensive fansite:

    https://elasticjazz.wixsite.com/iancarrsnucleus

    I didn’t know that Ian Carr was from Scotland or that he’d written several books on jazz.

    “As an author he wrote several critically acclaimed books on jazz including “Music Outside” (1973) which was republished as a 2nd edition in January 2008; the authorised biography of Miles Davis, “Miles Davis: A Critical Biography” (1982) which includes a third revised edition (1998). This is considered by many to be the definitive biography of Miles Davis. He also wrote “Keith Jarrett, The Man and his Music” (1992) and was co-author of “Jazz, the Essential Companion” (1987) and “The Rough Guide to Jazz” (3rd edition, 2004).”

    I found a couple of 70s live clips from European TV shows.

    A stonking set from Germany

    And another from Molde in Norway.

  10. You might enjoy this one, Fatz – filmed in Belgium 1972. Some ambient noodling and then, at 5:58, ‘Song for the Bearded Lady’ – the early Nucleus’ ‘Smoke on the Water’…

  12. The English language must be very confusing for non- English-speaker fans of improvised music from other countries.

    In my old hood, the prim suburb of Pinner in the heart of the Home Counties, if someone expressed an enthusiasm for Afro.-American sounds they would be sent to a library or newsagent where they would find a slim, tasteful volume containing, for example. an interview with Pat Methery, a tribute to Acker Bilk and an Alice Coltrane díscography.

    If said visitor then visited the North-East and expressed an enthusiasm about “jazz mags” they could be in for a surprise or too.

    That slang usage is not at all surprising. Jazz was seen many as the devil’s music.

    Until Ozzy came along the Pop Prince of Darkness was this man.

    Let’s not forget the Jazz Riot of 1960.

    https://www.theguardian.com/news/2012/jul/29/from-the-observer-archive-beaulieu-riot

    The locals were not happy.

    “I wouldn’t mind so much,” confided one outraged hotelkeeper, “if they washed now and then.” Certainly one could see his point as the jazz fans turned up in their standard uniform of rumpled jeans and T-shirts, sandals and haircuts that must have wrung the hearts of the two former Irish Guards sergeants who were running the campsite behind the car park.”

        • I see “a” Colosseum are playing a special upcoming gig fairly soon, supporting “a” Soft Machine. Disregarding the latter, who are possibly quite listenable, Colosseum now include original member , oh, nobody. Clem Clemson was in by album 3 and Mark Clark from 4, along with the singing outside toilet, Farlowe. No Greenslade, Heckstall-Smith or Hiseman = Brentford Shopping Centre, not Colosseum.

          • Back in the day, did you ever actually review for NME, retro? Or was it an ambition? Because you seem to have adopted the house style in the comment above.

            And: “Possibly quite listenable” – does that imply that you haven’t heard them?

            • Far too young, @fitterstoke, just reading and absorbing in my formative years. Plus, my words, at least above, are neither big nor clever, unlike Chris Farlowe, who is certainly one of those. Valentyne Suite was and remains a 50 years on favourite record, and I have some love for the debut and the sort of follow-up to VS, for the American market. Then foghorn leghorn joined and ruined the band. Irrevocably, having had to wade through their recent retrospective boxset; believe me, I know and I’m right.
              PS I suspect he wouldn’t be much fond of me either.
              Re the Softs, I haven’t heard the current incarnation, but I suspect I may like, if anything along the lines of later SF, like Bundles. Oddly, I am not keen on their heyday or albums up to then, finding too much noodle under my denture, but Bundles and Alive and Well; Recorded in Paris I have and enjoy. I suspect the latter because later Fairport fiddler Ric Sanders was in the band at the time.

              • VS is an absolute stormer of an album. No quite the first album side to be filled by a “proper” composition, but a magnificent piece, with dynamics and thematic development and some brilliant soloing. Never gets old. And the “songs” side is equally impressive, with early use of loops, more strong melodies, and James Litherland sounding absolutely right. There was an early CD release where Hiseman effectively airbrushed him out of the album, something he claimed (after its less than friendly reception) to be “a mistake”, which it certainly was, as baffling and wrongheaded as getting Foggy Farlowe on board as a replacement. I’m off to cue up VS again.

              • Apologies, @retropath2 – not intending to imply anything about your age!
                In fact, I can remember a period where the NME encouraged “The Kids” to write in with reviews, etc. Given your later/current journalistic and reviewing exploits and your robust style, along with your stout defence of the “snarky review” as an art form, I seriously considered that maybe you had been one of them!

                Also, apologies for “snarking” at you in a number of threads about the NME – the irony is not lost on me!

  14. Googling the names of Carr and Hiseman together, I came across a 1973 album on which they had both played, along with many other big jazz names of the time: Mike Taylor Remembered.

    I’d never heard of pianist and composer Mike Taylor..

    Here’s the background story which gives an excellent picture of the jazz scene of the 1970s..

    https://www.trunkrecords.com/releases/mike_taylor_07/mike_taylor.php

    Taylor’s tragic life story:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Taylor_(musician)

    Here’s the Mike Taylor Trio from 1967.

    • As did Cream! He and Pete Baker ( before he became Ginger) wróte together.

      Just found this very detailed and interesting biog of Tylor.

      https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-not-so-strange-and-bizarre-life-of-mike-taylor-mike-taylor-by-duncan-heining

      “Taylor collaborated with old friend Ginger Baker on songs for the third Cream album, Wheels Of Fire. They produced three songs—the whimsical “Passing The Time,” eccentric “Pressed Rat And Warthog” and stirring, magnificent “Those Were The Days.” For the first time, he was making some money from his music and he was also writing for the New Jazz Orchestra. The band’s second and finest album, Déjeuner Sur L’herbe, includes two fine tunes by Taylor—”Ballad” and “Study” (based on an exercise played by Spanish guitarist Segovia).”

        • And why not @Moose the Mooche?

          Whenever I read about Ginger, he is portrayed as a raving loony. The Wild Man of Rock. So I was gobsmacked this morning to discover that in the 90s he had a trio with those two very wonderful musicians, Bill Frisell and Charlie Haden. And acquitted himself magnificently.

          I presume that Toad was not on the setlist!

          Ginger’s name clearly put bums on seats.

    • @Kaisfatdad There was a planned Volume 3 of Gilles Peterson’s Impressed series but due either to some copyright issues or, more likely, record company finances it was never issued. I have an ‘unofficial’ copy somewhere but this playlist covers all three volumes (with a few gaps). Tracks 12 to 21 are from the unissued Vol 3:

      • Thanks a lot @jazzjet. That was very thoughtful of you. I’m listening to it as I write and Gilles really did a fine job.

        I knew a little about this period but this thread has highlighted the connections between different artists and opened my ears to lots of new names.

        Not least the (pre-Nucleus) Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet. Superb!

        Just stumbled across this. Gilles talking to Don Rendell and Michael Garrick!

  17. I can’t believe we’ve got so far without mentioning Donovan. After all, he did invent British jazz.

    Ian Carr never actually played with the Mellow Yellow Hitmaker, but when he arrived in London from Scotland in 1962, one of the first musicians he played with was the magnificent Caribbean flautist and saxophonist, Harold McNair.

    https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/feb/28/obituary-ian-carr-jazz

    McNair is perhaps best-known as a member of Donovan’s touring band. His playing on the live Donovan in Concert album is superb.

    Along with the saxophonist Don Rendell, Carr then formed The Rendell-Carr Quintet, “which played from 1963 to 1969, consistently figured in Melody Maker’s jazz polls, both for the quality of its improvisation and the distinctiveness of its unflinching, standards-averse repertoire, particularly after (Michael) Garrick joined in 1965.”

    While Googling around I found this obituary for Barbara Thompson.

    https://amp.theguardian.com/music/2022/jul/28/barbara-thompson-obituary

    What an inspiration she must have been for women jazz musicians.

    Anyone got any thoughts on how the many exciting modern British jazz musicians have been inspired or influenced by Carr, Thompson, Carr, Westbrook etc?

    The Stockholm Jazz Festival which takes place in the autumn hav just released further details of the line up and British names are high on the list.

    For example, Emma-Jean Thackray played at Fasching during a previous festival and brought the house down.

      • Perhaps not so surprising, @fitterstoke. That obituary was published in late July, a time of year when most of are so busy making sandcastles or jumping around in festival moshpits that we don’t have time to read the papers.

        But you are absolutely right. She was a musician well- worthy of an RIP thread.

        It’s never too late to honour her.

        Here’s one of her compositions: Concerto for 3 Saxophones.

        • Had you intended to attach anything, @Kaisfatdad?

          I blame myself, really – I had intended to place an RIP thread for Barbara T and, in fact, vaguely thought that I might have done it. Clearly, I didn’t – must have been one of those “do it now or write it down” moments, where neither actually occurred.
          Have I had me tea yet?

          • And after listening to that, concerto, YouTube kindly chose this for me.

            And let me introduce you to this lovely track from the New Jazz Orchestra.

            A galaxy of Britjazz stars!

            Credits:
            Bass – Jack Bruce
            Design [Sleeve] – Grahame Dudley
            Drums – Jon Hiseman
            Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet – Dave Gelly
            Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet – Jim Philip
            Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Dick Heckstall-Smith
            Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute – Barbara Thompson
            Trombone – Derek Wadsworth, John Mumford, Michael Gibbs, Tony Russell
            Trumpet – Derek Watkins, Harry Beckett, Henry Lowther
            Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Ian Carr
            Tuba – George Smith
            Vibraphone, Marimba – Frank Ricotti

            Notes:
            Recorded on September 17 & 18, 1968.

    • As Junior said, Fatz, the Graeme Bell band from Oz were a very significant influence on the development of jazz in Britain – which really only began circa 1945 (yes, of course there were moments before that, but it was a handful of gifted jazzers – George Chisholm, Nat Gonella – getting a solo in this or that dance band, really). I’m alas too busy with deadlines to write extensively on this thread, but if you were interested in the subject, Dave Gelly’s ‘An Unholy Row’ is a fabulous book on the beginnings of British jazz after the war – 1945-60. Beautifully written and entertaining. Some books on jazz in Britain are hard going. Have fun!

      • Thanks for the tip @Colin_H. I will check that out.

        Interesting to see that Jack Bruce was playing on that New Jazz Orchestra album..

        1968 – the year Cream broke up. And so he went back to his jazz roots.

        • Jack played on lots with several jazzers in the immediate post-Cream period, inc. Mike Gibbs Band (on some live / BBC stuff in that context) and hgis own ‘Things We Like’ album (rec 1968, released 1971).

          C

            • Thanks for the tip @Colin_H and @fitterstoke. I remember liking Songs for a Tailor back in the day.

              Jack was responsible for my very first visit to a jazz club: Ronny Scott’s in Soho. I’m pretty sure I was still at school.

              I’d never heard of Larry Coryell who was playing that evening. But I most certainly had heard of his bass player, our Jack! The band were brilliant. Coryell is a wonderful guitarist.

              Later on in the set, Graham Bond turned up, if I remember correctly.
              The set went on well into the night, long after the last train to Pinner had departed. So I had to “crash at the pad” of my friend’s older sister who had a flat in Sadler’s Wells.

              I felt very adult. Heaven knows how I persuaded my parents to allow me to do all this!

              He’s Larry with some fine French jazzers.

                  • Wow! Thanks to the wonders of Spotify I’ve just given it a listen. I see what you mean about it being different @fitterstoke. Cream fans who were used to the like of Disraeli Gears must have been gobsmacked.

                    Dick Heckstall-Smith is in very fine form.

                    Here he is with Jack in 1988,

                    How about this? A Tony Palmer doc on Jack Bruce from 1969!

                    I had a quick look. It’s a fascinating period piece from a time long gone when bands like the Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones would perform free concerts in the park. And dinosaurs wandered joyous and unfettered through Regents Park.

              • Ronnie Scott’s used to regularly be open till after 3am in the days of Ronnie himself and then Pete King.
                A first set by the support act, a first set by the headline artist, a second set by the support and finally another set by the headliner.
                By then it would be well after 2am.

                  • During that Lifetime period Jack and John were part of Carla Bley’s team for the rather baffling ‘Escalator Over the Hill’. ‘Rawalpindi Blues’ from it is the closest indicator of John’s ‘Mahavishnu sound’ pre the MO:

                    • Thanks for that blogspot about Johnny McLaughlin’s Swingin’ Jazz @H.P. Saucecraft.

                      Those musicians in the 60s had a preposterous level of production nd could release a couple of albums a year. But that one does seem to be a little too good to be true. Or just deeply obscure. I can’t find it any of his discographies.

                      A swinging decade indeed! What with Ronny Scott’s, the Marquee, the Rainbow, 100 Club, the ICA, The Albert Hall, Hammersmith Odeon, Watford Town Hall (to name just a few venues that I can off the cuff remember going to), it’s amazing that anyone had time to work, study or sleep.

                    • Okay, I see what the fake Fontana thing is – it’s two BBC ‘Jazz Club’ concerts from 1967: the Mike Carr Trio (May) and the second Danny Thompson Trio broadcast (September). Great stuff.

    • It just goes to show, @Junior Wells, what a wonderfully eclectic we are.

      Incidentally, We all know about the rock bands, such as the Triffids and the Go-Betweens, who relocated to London in search of fame and fortune.

      Were there any Australian jazz musicians who also did so?

      Just discovered this excellent overview of Ian Carr and Nucleus’s discography.

      https://www.allaboutjazz.com/ian-carr-and-nucleus-70s-british-jazz-rock-progenitors-ian-carr-by-john-kelman

      I knew that their contemporaries, Soft Machine had done Peel Sessions. I hadn’t realised that Nucleus had too! Three of the sessions are in the box set that Vulpes reviewed, (There’s a link between the two bands. Karl Jenkins and John Marshall departed Nucleus to join Mike Ratledge and Hugh Hopper in Soft Machine.)

      https://peel.fandom.com/wiki/Nucleus

      This is hilarious:

      “Peel in an interview with Wire magazine, published in January 1995, described Ian Carr as a serious and frightening man:

      “Ian Carr was an incredibly serious man and he used to come in and lecture Walters and myself on the inadequacies of almost every other musician apart from himself. And we were so frightened of him that when he said “How about a session for Nucleus?”, we didn’t like to say no.”

  19. Graeme Bell’s jazz band had global success in 50s I think.
    Luke Howard , Melbourne minimalist does overseas tours but not resident o/s ever but i could be wrong.
    The Necks tour frequently but remain Australia domiciled.
    Barney McCall was based in New York for quite some time. Ditto Allen Zavod and kiwi / Aussie resident Mike Nock.
    Tal Wilkenfeld formerly bassist with Jeff Beck still overseas based.

  21. I am impressed that you remember, @mike_H, the details of an evening at Ronnie Scott’s. Both the headliners and the support act played two sets! That was certainly value for money. But then again it was not cheap to go there. And with such a late finish, very impractical for those of us living in the suburbs.

    A 1989 Omníbus programme about the history of the club which was founded in 1959,

    Going further back in time, here’s very groovy Pathé News clip from 1950 of young people jiving at Mack’s Restaurant in Oxford Street. Strictly no alcoholic drinks.

    And while we’re in Soho, I can’t resist posting a short film about the Marquee Club.

    That, and the Roundhouse, were my homes from home in my schooldays. Was there was an age limit to get in? No one had IDs anyway so if you looked old enough that was enough.

    (I’m now so used to Sweden where they diligently check your ID to make sure you are old enough to drink. To my astonishment, I was recently asked for my ID when entering a pub. They are not taking any chances!)

    There are several vintage clips on YT of bands like the Stones, The Faces and The Who playing at the Marquee. Enjoy!

  22. The Gilles Peterson “Impressed” Playlist posted above by @jazzjet above is a treasure trove of delights.

    For example, try a Street in Bombay by Amancio D*Silva. Tablas combined with some gorgeous, lyrical guitar.

    What a remarkable story! Jonathan Miller of all people played a key role.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amancio_D%27Silva#On_compilations

    “He was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, to Goan parents. He took up guitar in his teens, influenced by American jazz guitarists such as Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery whom he heard on the radio, and soon began performing with local jazz groups. By his early 20s he had formed his own group, including saxophonist Braz Gonzalvez and pianist Anacleto Naronha, and toured around India. He met his future wife Joyce, an Irish-born teacher, in Simla. He gained such a reputation as a musician that Gayatri Devi, the Maharani of Jaipur at the time and an ardent jazz lover, became his benefactor and bought him his first quality guitar, a Gibson.[1]

    In 1967, he travelled to London with his family, primarily to seek medical treatment for his son Stephano. He and Joyce had two other children, Maria and Francesca. He worked as a cleaner, and also as a musician at the “Prospect of Whitby” pub and at the Spanish Garden Club in the West End, and began living in Ealing. Jonathan Miller introduced him to record producer Dennis Preston, who set up a collaboration between D’Silva and leading British musicians Don Rendell and Ian Carr. This resulted in the EMI album Integration…introducing Amancio D’Silva, which received critical acclaim as a unique fusion of jazz and Indian music styles.”

    No surprise to read that he knew John Mayer and Joe Herriot of Indo Jazz Fusions.

    Here’ s another track from Amancio which features Ian Carr.

    “The tune was written for the then Maharani of Jaipur, whom Amancio worked for leading the house and at her palace. She helped the family relocate to England amidst a crisis. “

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