John Taylor Sextet - Eye To Eye: Live 1971 (February 2, 2022 British Progressive Jazz)

1. And Think Again 08:53

2. Wait For Me 10:50

3. Awakening 04:31

4. Eye To Eye / Aw 04:58

Recorded live in London, April 1971

Previously unreleased

John Taylor - piano

Kenny Wheeler - trumpet, flugelhorn

Chris Pyne - trombone

Stan Sulzmann - alto sax, flute

Chris Laurence - bass

Tony Levin - drums

Tape transfer by Dave Harwood

Resorted and mastered by Matt Parker

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Splinters - Inclusivity (September 1, 2021 Jazz In Britain)

Newly mastered from Trevor Watt's original tapes. The complete recordings of the original Splinters lineup, including for the first time, the entire legendary 100 Club show and the previously unheard Grass Roots concert. The latter is believed to be the final recording of drummer Phil Seamen who died two weeks after this performance. Fully authorised.

If you are looking for a story which captures the mood of Great Britain in the early 1970s then what follows cannot be bettered. Indeed, all the folk memory leitmotifs of this period are contained within its sprawling narrative; polarised politics and protest; economic instability and wage concerns; unemployment; a very public tussle between old and new values; the forging of promising new alliances that, come the dawn, never quite delivered what they aimed to, their collective ideals crashing against the flinty realism of personal ambition, circumstantial change and individual discontent.

Then there is the cast list; a mix of moderates, mediators and extremists, all struggling to make sense of an arena in which uncertainty, novelty and hubris rub shoulder to shoulder. They even look the part, their riot of sideburns, outrageous hair, chocolate brown shirts, tank tops and leather jackets a reminder that, as far as sartorial fashion went, the 1970s was an all-time low for men of all ages. And if that were not enough, into this heady mix you can add the BBC, a rich source of anecdote and allegation that has become synonymous with the double-standards of the age, yielding both comedy gold dust and questionable personal mores in equal measure. Simon Spillett - May 2021 

1. The 100 Club: Phase 1

2. The 100 Club: Phase 2

3. The 100 Club: Phase 3

4. The 100 Club: Phase 4

5. The 100 Club: Phase 5

6. The 100 Club: Phase 6

7. The 100 Club: Phase 7

8. The 100 Club: Phase 8

9. The 100 Club: Encore

10. Grass Roots: Phase 1

11. Grass Roots: Phase 2

12. Grass Roots: Phase 3

13. Grass Roots: Phase 4

14. Grass Roots: Phase 5

15. Grass Roots: Phase 6

Tracks 1-9 recorded live at The 100 Club, London, on 22nd May 1972

Tracks 10-16 recorded at the Grass Roots club, London, on 12th September 1972

Phil Seamen - drums (left channel)

John Stevens - drums (right channel)

Tubby Hayes - tenor sax, flute

Trevor Watts - alto sax

Kenny Wheeler - trumpet, flugelhorn

Stan Tracey - piano (tracks 1-5, 10-16)

Jeff Clyne - bass

Recorded by Trevor Watts

Photography by Jak Kilby

Tape transfer by Matt Parker

Liner notes by Simon Spillett

Executive Producer John Thurlow

Produced and mastered by Matt Parker for Jazz In Britain Ltd.

© Jazz In Britain Ltd. 2021

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Lee Konitz & Kenny Wheeler Quartet - Olden Times: Live At Birdland Neuburg 1999 (2016)

This re-release of the 1999 recording Live At Birdland has been remastered for optimal sound quality and includes a bonus track not previously included on the album. Lee Konitz was born in 1927 in Chicago. When he was 11 years old, he received his first instrument, a clarinet, but later dropped the instrument in favor of the tenor saxophone. He eventually moved from tenor to alto. His greatest influences at the time were the Swing big bands he and his brother listened to on the radio, in particular Benny Goodman. He started his professional career in 1945, and played with all the greats, from Miles Davis to Joe Henderson. Kenny Wheeler was born in 1930 in St. Catharines, Ontario. He studied trumpet in Toronto and moved to London in 1952. Versatile artist as he was, he played free improv in the Globe Unity Orchestra of Alexander von Schlippenbach as well as jazz-rock in the United Jazz & Rock Ensemble.

He passed away on September 18, 2014. Light shines on this rerelease, on the glistening vibrato of the alto saxophone, the lyrical melancholy of the flugelhorn, the spinning web-like weaving of the piano as well as the clever architecture of the bass. Everything joins into a shimmer mesh of interaction and strategy of technical brilliance and solo sophistication.

01. Lennie's (Live) (8:09)

02. Where Do We Go From Here (Live) (7:34)

03. Kind Folk (Live) (8:32)

04. Thingin' (Live) (14:34)

05. On Mo (Live) (9:33)

06. Olden Times (Live) (4:21)

07. Aldebaran   Play Fiddle Play (Live) (3:59)

08. Kary's Trance (Live) (8:54)

09. Bo So (Live) (6:12)

10. No Me (Live) (6:25)

Lee Konitz – Alto Saxophone

Kenny Wheeler – Trumpet, Flugelhorn

Frank Wunsch – Piano 

Gunnar Plümer – Bass

Kenny Wheeler & John Taylor - On the way to two (2015)

Source & Label: Cam Jazz

A prized recording by Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor has been released from CAM JAZZ’s archives. The Canadian trumpeter, who died last year in September, had a long-standing recording activity on the Roman label, sharing this journey with Taylor very often. “On The Way To Two”, a new, prized duet album, was recorded in 2005 featuring 10 songs over a total 45 minutes of stunning music. Complex themes alternate with short improvised passages, as proof of that natural, special feeling that bound the two musicians. Sadly and unfortunately, while the album was being pressed, John Taylor suddenly passed away.  Before Taylor leaves us, he writes in the liner notes to this album, as a virtual remark to Wheeler:  “It was a privilege and joy to play with you for most of my life, and I wish you were here now to listen to this music again with me”.  The opening track is “Canter #2”, the second episode of a mantra featuring many of the two musicians’ albums (try finding the different “Canter” interpretations in the other Wheeler and Taylor albums). Following this is a superb “Fedora”, with the trumpet and piano intertwining as naturally as only two musicians so close to each other could do. “Sketch No. 1” is the first of three moments of sheer improvisation that emerge between tracks, during which Taylor and Wheeler pursue new expressive nuances of their instruments. And then “Who Knows?”, “Fortune's Child” and “A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing” show and celebrate the empathy that the two musicians have managed to build and develop over the years.

1  Canter
2  Fedora
3  Sketch 1
4  Quiso
5  Who Knows?
6  Sketch 2
7  Close to Mars
8  Fortune's Child
9  Sketch 3
10 A Flower is a Lovesome Thing

Kenny Wheeler - trumpet & flügelhorn
John Taylor - piano

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