Don Rendell & Ian Carr Quintet - 1967 - Phase III

Don Rendell & Ian Carr Quintet

1967

Phase III

01. Crazy Jane

02. On!

03. Les Neiges D'Antan (Snows Of Yesteryear)

04. Bath Sheba

05. Black Marigolds

Bass – Dave Green

Drums – Trevor Tomkin

Piano – Michael Garrick

Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute – Don Rendell

Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Ian Carr

Recorded: London, February 23, 1967.

British jazz in the ’50s and ’60s never really became mainstream, eclipsed by transatlantic “popular music singers” and groups of young men strumming electric guitars. Even at jazz’s height, original American jazz ruled the charts, not British jazz. Even the local product fissured between reproduced Dixieland clarinet and striped waistcoat “Trad’ Jazz” and the Modernist. Older jazz fans clung on to their Charlie Parker collections, their big band swing albums, some perhaps a few even their Blue Notes. British modern jazz record titles sold in just a few thousands, hence their premium today at auction.

British jazz musicians main source of income was not from record sales, or club performance, but laying down background music for film and TV – that was over 50% of Lansdowne Studios main business. However we have reason to be grateful that Denis Preston and others struggled against the tide of popular music to bring us good music, that was not especially popular.

Rendell/ Carr Quintet shows how far British jazz in the second half of the ’60s had taken new directions. Not a jazz songbook standard in sight, moving away from the usual jazz conventions of AABA structure, heads and solos, rhythm section down in the engine room, improvised virtuosity of the soloists. The writing is more structured, a pictorial composition, storytelling, replete with literary allusions. One title in French: “Les Nieges d’Antan“, literary, not Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? Garrick’s title Black Marigolds (marigolds are orange, no?) is a steer towards Indian Classical fusion, cerebral references. This is jazz charting its own course, rather than following that set out before.

Phase III doesn’t so much swing as target the regions “above the belt”. This may well be because recruits to the British jazz scene were more likely graduating from Art College than schooled in military marching bands, but that would be just a limey guess.

Cook and Morton put their finger on Ian Carr’s Miles-like touches on trumpet: “soft harmonic slurs, dramatic stabs and out of tempo fills”, but also the parting of the ways with the other side of the Atlantic, with his “intense, highly literate vision”.

The force is strong with collectors of British jazz. Below, some of Don Rendell’s early EP’s and 10″ albums on Tempo and other Decca labels. Everyone dresses up in suit and tie for record covers. Rendell even sports braces to hold up his trousers. The Mods were yet to come.

Rendell offers a bridge between the American old and the British new, a polished jazz improviser who moves into the counterpart, opposite to Ian Carr, in a search for a very different New Land. Playing Phase III to a couple of friends, neither especially jazz aficionados, more prog-rock and experimental weird, one commented perceptively, “it sounds somehow British, though I can’t say exactly why, but it does“. The Rendell Carr Quintet earned themselves a very special place of affection in the canon of British jazz: creative, original and somehow very British.

Rendell/ Carr eventually went separate ways, and Michael Garrick’s future took an altogether different direction.

In a sort of personal quest for the sources of the mind-blowing Nucleus , “Phase III” brought me both fulfilling satisfaction and elucidatory answers; not that it sounds like that revolutionary JazzFusion combo, but a similar innovative, challenging and groundbreaking spirit is spread all over it; besides, it also made clear why these guys , collectively or individually, were winners or ranked high in Melody Maker pools for Best British Jazz Group or as musicians in their own categories.

Very idiosyncratic, using the American heritage parsimoniously or just as a means to reach their ends, and abstaining from time-honored formulas or worn clichés, this is the quintessential live group, capable of building textures and tension on-the-fly, hardened soloists who don’t have to wait for a specific chorus to make statements, owners of a frightening good ear and listening capacity, attention to what’s going on and a refined feel to what the sound calls for, which prevents any traces of cacophony, noise or chaos, every note or lick backed by a meaningful purpose; So much so that even the rehearsed (sometimes complex) parts sound spontaneous.

Contributing to that, is of course a reluctance to play versions or standards; here, the songwriting is shared between Ian Carr and Don Rendell, two comps each, and the closing track from pianist Michael Garrick’s pen; to compose the final picture, must also be taken into account the Literature influences that shaped the writing, Carr themes inspired by his favorite poet W.B.Yeats, ”Crazy Jane” a freak/Frankenstein-ed Blues with a head that sequences bars of different time signatures and melodic/harmonic flavors of Fanfare, Cabaret and dissonant Classical, before morphing into a traditional Blues structure for the solos, or by XV Century poet François Villon, the atmospheric and Free ballad “Les Neiges D’Antan” with a bowed bass intro, trumpet and soprano weaving sometimes seemingly unrelated melodies on a tempo less backing of drum flourishes alternating with mutating Classic piano inspired thematic,

Garrick’s Eastern sounding “Black Marigolds” also took inspiration from an ancient Indian story; dramatic and entrancing, it’s an extended and inspired piece of World-Fusion where muted trumpet and soprano deliver quasi-hypnotic speeches, with modal modulations and space for all musicians in a sort of ritualistic celebration with striking dynamics control.

Apparently more traditional compositions, Rendell’s Hard-Bop infected “On!” and the beautiful flugelhorn and flute lead ballad “Bath Sheba” alternating its tranquil pace with some moderate swing parts, are as unpredictable as the rest, constantly challenging the listener with unexpected stop times or burst of energy, or interweaving melodic lines and contrasting textures.

This may be a deception for those looking for continuous foot-stomping excitement; but for those searching for intelligent, inspired and unexpected alternatives it’s surely an enlightening discovery