Michael Garrick - 1966 - ...At Short Notice

The Michael Garrick Septet featuring Joe Harriott

1966

...At Short Notice

01. Vishnu 8:20

02. Jones 14:33

03. Sixth Seal 6:04

04. Parting Is Such 9:07

05. Promises 17:20

06. The Second Coming 12:30

07. Merlin The Wizard 14:30

08. Webster's Mood 14:13

Alto Saxophone – Joe Harriott

Bass – Coleridge Goode

Drums – Trevor Tomkins

Piano – Michael Garrick

Tenor Saxophone – Stan Robinson

Tenor Saxophone, Flute – Don Rendell

Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Ian Carr

Recorded at University College London on the 14th March 1966.

Subversion Through Jazz examines the beginning of the British progressive jazz (BPJ) movement from 1956 to 1964, attempting to identify and plot the progress of its coming into being. This eight-year period of inception was set against the backdrop of two specifically relevant world events: the failed Hungarian revolution in 1956; and the Cuban Missile Crisis, a potentially apocalyptic nuclear standoff between the United States and the USSR in the Gulf of Mexico in 1962. Like many art forms in the UK, British jazz underwent a paradigm shift during this period, transforming from imitator to innovator. A new generation of post-war musicians - spearheaded by the West Indian alto-saxophonist Joe Harriott - discovered their own sound, no longer aping American Jazz traditions but instead seeking out their own methods of expression within improvisation, embracing hugely diverse influences such as Blues, Indian music, twentieth-century Classical music, Rock’n’roll, African music, classic and contemporary poetry and literature, Caribbean music, Folk, R&B, and Soul, forging them into a uniquely British identity which would in turn influence musicians across the globe.

The obsession with British art and culture which was all-pervasive in the pop and rock music of the UK from 1965 onwards had its roots in BPJ. The musicians involved in the movement were the first post-war contemporary jazz players outside the U.S. to meld an artistic nationalism to their music, introducing non-musical influences from the worlds of British and European art and literature, left-wing politics and musical influences from outside the sphere of jazz, such as the abstract classical compositions of Cornelius Cardew and Anton Webern, brass bands, and the music-hall traditions of Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

The location of most of these artistic developments – an area of roughly four square miles in and around Soho, London - was simultaneously the covert battleground of the British Secret Service department MI5 and their adversaries the Soviet Russian KGB, an old empire pitted against a new one, and at least one significant Communist of concern to MI5, the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, took a very serious interest in the British jazz scene at this time. Inspired by his cousin, the British jazz record producer and label-owner Denis Preston, and the Italian Communist intellectual Antonio Gramsci, Hobsbawm embedded himself in the movement, authoring a study of it in 1959 entitled The Jazz Scene, for which he adopted, as jazz writer for the New Statesman magazine, the pseudonym Francis Newton, an alias he had been developing for three years prior, unbeknownst to the British agents who were surveilling him.

As the classic 1950s and 60s jazz recordings slip into the public domain, more and more labels fall over themselves to reissue iconic albums in the hope of making a few shekels. If you're one of those jazz fans who's becoming a little wearied by the torrent of re-releases of the same old Prestige, Columbia and Blue Note stuff, it might well be worth investigating Jazz in Britain, an admirable not-for-profit label and book publisher whose mission it is to unearth nuggets from the UK's still-undervalued jazz legacy.

So far this year JiB has put out excellent archive albums by Joe Harriot, Tubby Hayes, Ray Russell and others; and this live offering from 1966 by the star- studded Garrick band may be their most important release yet. Recorded live at Garrick's alma mater University College London, this documents Robinson's only appearance with Garrick's outfit, and the four hornsmen are in absolutely imperious form throughout, blowing hard and with a commitment and invention that gives the lie to that old myth that Brits just can't cut it in jazz when compared to the Yanks; and Garrick, Goode and Tomkins are an appropriately thunderous rhythm section. Three of the four tunes on this album are by the leader, demonstrating yet again that Garrick is a composer ripe for (re)discovery; the fourth is a lengthy version of Duke's ‘Jones’, which is essentially mid-1960s progressive jazz with a big grin on its face, and all the better for it.

The mono recording, while not exactly ‘high fidelity’ is eminently listenable, with all the instrumentalists coming through loud and clear; and the energy of the gig definitely comes through, which is the most important thing. An essential document of one of the 1960s UK scene's best bands, then; but be warned: only 350 copies have been pressed, so hurry!