Michael Garrick Trio & Sextet - Farnborough Technical College 1965 (February 2022 British Progressive Jazz)

Recorded live at Farnborough Technical College on 23rd October 1965.

From the private collection of Roger Palmer. Previously unheard. Monophonic sound.

'I was an apprentice at RAE Farnborough from 1962-7 and discovered all the things I really wanted to do - music (I'd started playing bass), photography, archaeology - and one of the things that helped the music side were the weekly gigs that Michael organised at The Highwayman where I and a couple of other jazz lovers were regulars. I'd give a lot to be able to revisit those gigs - Michael's trio, trio plus guest (including Joe several times and sometimes with Shake, Ronnie Ross, Don Lamont, etc), Tubby, the early years of Rendell-Carr quintet (or not so early if Michael was on piano). The New Jazz Orchestra squeezed in a few times with some huge sounds and there were other treats, Dudley Moore trio, Johnny Scott quartet, and many I will have forgotten...

An offshoot of my music interest was that I and another apprentice, Derek Wickham, formed a 'music society' at the tech which enabled us to buy the Ferrograph that was used to record Michael's concert and rent records that we could play to members of the society. I did the jazz, Derek did classical - alternate weeks. Derek was also one of the Highwayman crowd and I guess that we hatched up the idea of the concert and asked Michael for a price.

I remember driving to Michael's house late in the morning and everyone was crowded into a room in his house rehearsing. Michael had agreed that we could record it - all from a single mic if I remember correctly... The hall would have been just that - a basic college hall in the 1960s with a stage and not much else. It certainly was not good enough for the annual review that we apprentices put on and used a 'theatre' known as the 'RAE Assembly Hall' (or 'rooms') which even had a couple of lights. I was in the wings on the same side as Coleridge (Goode) where I guess we had the tape recorder too... To an extent, these were musicians we knew slightly from the Highwayman, but I had the opportunity to chat a little with Coleridge...'

Roger Palmer - February 2022 

1. Leprechaun Leap 09:57

2. Promises 06:52

3. Song By The Sea 05:14

4. Parting Is Such 06:50 video

5. Childe Rolande 06:21

6. Requiem 05:07

7. Portrait Of A Young Lady 14:21

8. I Got Rhythm 04:46

9. Webster's Mood 14:15

10. Second Coming 09:25

Michael Garrick - piano

Joe Harriott - alto sax

Tony Coe - tenor sax

Ian Carr - trumpet

Coleridge Goode - bass

Colin Barnes - drums

All tracks composed by Michael Garrick ℗ 1965 except:

8 Gershwin/Gershwin ℗ 1930

Original recording - Roger Palmer

Consultation - Gabriel Garrick

Restored and produced by Matt Parker for British Progressive Jazz

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The Joe Harriott Quintet - Formation Live '61 (2021 Jazz In Britain)

Recorded live in London before a studio audience on the 24th August 1961. Previously unissued.

By the time this EP is released 60 years will have elapsed since the recordings contained within it were made, and nearly 50 years since the untimely death of pioneering West Indian free jazz altoist Joe Harriott on the 2nd January 1973, aged 42. Only in the very recent past has Harriott started to receive anything approaching the accolades he undoubtedly deserved during his lifetime. For those new to Harriott’s revolutionary sound, this is a perfectly good place to start. All of the tracks - barring Dizzy Reece’s Shepherd’s Serenade - appeared in studio form on the Quintet’s now seminal albums Free Form and Abstract, which were recorded by the same lineup as featured here, save for Les Condon who replaced regular trumpeter Shake Keane for a brief period in the summer of 1961. This is one of only two currently known recordings to include Condon in the lineup.

Harriott’s concept for Free Form involved the blending of several different genres of music. Initially bebop, trad jazz and Harriott‘s Jamaican musical roots comprised the most prominent stylistic influences on the music, but even in the early experimentation of Free Form it is already possible to detect hints of 20th century classical and folk music which would become more significant elements as the idea developed over the Quintet’s next two albums Abstract and Movement. For those already well versed in Harriott’s ‘60s output there is plenty to marvel at and absorb. Something one is immediately struck by is how much of a likeness there is between these live versions and the original album recordings, despite their apparent ‘freedom’. Here one can now fully appreciate the ‘form’ of Harriott’s concept, which only becomes clear when comparing live and studio recordings. Each piece has a specific focused direction in which it is travelling, and some passages which previously seemed improvised are revealed instead to be incredibly well crafted and rehearsed ideas.

A quick word on the recordings themselves which were sent by a donor who wished to remain anonymous to Richard Moore at the British Jazz Sound Archive, and subsequently passed on to us. The tapes were transferred to digital by persons unknown some years ago and then sadly disposed of. As a result these tracks all emanate from that final transfer, and some minor issues with the transfers that could not be corrected at a later date are still present. This explains for example the increase in pitch at the beginning of Shepherd’s Serenade on Side B, as the deck used to make the final transfer got up to speed. We feel that this though is a very minor issue overall and should not detract from what is otherwise a stellar performance and a historically significant release. 

1. Formation 05:03

2. Coda 04:52

3. Shepherd's Serenade 02:46

4. Calypso Sketches 04:26

5. Compound (drum solo) 04:04

Joe Harriott - alto sax

Les Condon - trumpet, flugelhorn

Pat Smythe - piano

Coleridge Goode - bass

Phil Seamen - drums

Front cover illustration by Piergiorgio Cupellini

Audio provided by the British Jazz Sound Archive

Executive Producer John Thurlow

Produced by Matt Parker for Jazz In Britain Ltd.

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