Overlooked gems from this key reedman on the Brit modern scene of the 60s – two rare albums in a single package! First up is Movement – one of the most obscure albums recorded by Joe Harriott – leading light of the British avant scene in the 60s – and one of the best, too! The album features Harriott working with a quintet that includes Shake Keane on trumpet, Pat Smythe on piano, Bobby Orr on drums, and Coleridge Goode on bass – playing in territory that's somewhat in the neighborhood of his Abstract and Free Form albums, but also a bit more inside, with more of a focus on swinging, hard-hitting jazz. The rhythms are often quite tight and soulful, and although the album's touched with lots of angular moments – both in the solos and backings – the overall sound is wonderfully grooving and tremendously captivating! The album's got that perfect blend of modern, modal, and soul that make the best Brit jazz albums from the mid 60s so wonderful – and the set list includes original tunes such as "Movement", "Spaces", "Blues On Blues", "Revival", "Beams", and "Count Twelve". High Spirits is pretty unique – a set of takes on tunes that come from a musical show, but recast strongly as soulful sides for the Harriott combo! Pianist Pat Smythe re-arranged all tracks in the set – and really gives them a new sort of energy – opening them up for lots of solo work on his own piano, plus alto from Harriott, and some beautiful trumpet lines from the great Shake Keane – a player who always sounds great next to Joe. The rest of the group features Coleridge Goode on bass and Bobby Orr on drums – and titles include "Home Sweet Heaven", "Something Tells Me", "Go Into Your Trance", "I Know Your Heart", and "Was She Prettier Than I". CD

A pair of legendary albums from the mighty Joe Harriott – a player who emigrated to England in the 50s, then set the scene on fire in the following decade! First up is Free Form – the landmark album that forever put saxophonist Joe Harriott on the map, and it's a brilliant batch of tracks that prove that Harriott was advancing the jazz avant garde in England as much as players like Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor were advancing it in America. Despite the "free form" of the title, the tracks are more "new thing" – somewhat structured, with a rhythmic approach that's still a little straight, but solos that go nice and outside. Joe's overall conception is a beautiful mix of angular thinking with freely expressed soulful emotion – and the record's one that ranks up there with the 10 most groundbreaking of the 60s! The group's about as fantastic as you could ever expect from England at the time – with Shake Keane on trumpet, Pat Smythe on piano, Coleridge Goode on bass, and Phil Seamen on drums – and titles include "Formation", "Coda", "Abstract", "Straight Lines", and "Impression". Next is Abstract – one of the legendary sets of avant garde jazz by the British alto genius Joe Harriott – an artist who was sometimes billed as the British Ornette Coleman – a reputation he definitely earns with the groundbreaking quality of this album! The conception is bold right from the start – strongly rhythmic, but at a level that's different from Coleman's music – with some deeply emotional undertones to the solos (which also include work from Shake Keane on trumpet!) – and occasional modal elements that also bring in some spiritual elements to work perfect with the breakout solos. The group also features crack rhythm work from Pat Smythe on piano, Coleridge Goode on bass, and Phil Seaman on drums – and the track list includes "Subject", "Shadows", "Tonal", "Oleo", "Pictures", "Idiom", "Compound" and "Modal". CD

Unreleased work from alto genius Joe Harriott – two different slices of material from a very under-recorded point in his career! The first five tracks feature Joe in that back to basics mode he was hitting at the time – working in a unique group that features Kenny Wheeler on trumpet and flugelhorn, Pat Smythe on piano, Ron Mathewson on bass, and Bill Eyden on drums – all players who are very open to modern ideas, but who also keep things on more of a groove here – with only a bit of the freedom that Harriott was bringing to his music a few years before! And yet there's still a great tension that makes the set great – swinging jazz mixed with modernism – on titles that include the Horace Silver tunes "Down & Out" and "Psychedelic Sally", plus "WSIMC", "Chronology", and "Shadows". The remaining two tracks on the set feature Joe in a very different setting – the large group of Harry South – the kind of mod jazz in 60s London, working here with a superb lineup that also features Kenny Wheeler and Ian Hamer on trumpets, Ray Warleigh on alto and flute, and Tubby Hayes and Alan Skidmore on tenor saxes! Tunes include the very swinging "Themeology" by South – plus a richly full take on "My Man's Gone Now". CD

A fantastic lost slice of work by one of the greatest modern jazz forces on the British jazz scene of the 60s – Jamaican-born saxophonist Joe Harriott, known for his groundbreaking avant jazz sessions and his experiments with Indian classical music! The sound here is quite different than those two better-known aspects of Harriott's career – and represents a return to the hardbop style he was using in the late 50s, when first making waves on the London scene. However, that's not a bad thing at all – as the album's overflowing with modern jazz undercurrents, and almost has a fresh post-Mingus approach to the horn parts and rhythm progressions. The quintet includes trumpeter Stu Hamer, drummer Phil Seaman, bassist Coleridge Goode, and pianist Pat Smythe – all well-suited players for Harriott in such a mode, and working here in a style that recalls the first great moments of British jazz from the late 50s. Titles include "Strollin South", "Just Goofin", "Time For Love", "The Rake", "Blues In C", and "Tuesday Morning Swing". CD

An unusual British jazz group gets even more unusual – with a sound that's even more mindblowing than some of their better-known records! The combo's headed by pianist John Mayer, who cut two fantastic Indo Jazz Fusions with reedman Joe Harriott in the late 60s – working here on an unreleased studio session from a few years later – with stunning guest work on harmonica from the great Larry Adler! At the core are the familiar Indo Jazz Fusions sounds – reeds from Stan Sulzmann on alto and flute, plus sitar from Clem Alford, guitar from Jim Moyes, bass from Jeff Clyne, drums from John Marshall, and tablas from Krishav Sathe – players who continue that jazz-meets-Indian spirit at the start of the set – then step back slightly on the Eastern tip from track two onwards – as Adler comes in with these amazingly eerie harmonica lines – a very strange but compelling blend with the energy of the rest of the group, and quite different than any of Larry's better-known recordings from earlier years. Once things get going, the mix of harmonica and Indian modes really steps up – a really cool mix, with lots of modal energy – on titles that include "Raga Malika", "Serenade", "Raga Megha", "Summertime", and "Sarabande". CD

A really amazing little record – one that's partly in the "jazz meets Indian" mode of Joe Harriott's experiments of the 60s – but a performance that also brings in a lot more from spiritual jazz, even though most of the instrumentation is more traditional! The set is live, and the tracks are all long – led by Sarathy Korwar on tablas and drums – a player with very pulsating approach, even when gentle – which sets the tone for the ensemble's mix of flute, acoustic guitar, keyboards, flute, sitar, santoor, tabla, alto, and mridangam – all spun out with lots of modal energy, working well together as a force in sound – but also taking some great solo moments too. Titles include great remakes of "The Creator Has A Master Plan" and "Journey In Satchidananda" – plus "Hajj", "Earthy", "Mishrank", "Malkauns", "Mind Ecology", and "A Street In Bombay". CD

Some of the greatest British jazz of the 60s – two early albums by the groundbreaking Ian Carr/Don Rendell quintet! Shades Of Blue is the debut of a legendary British jazz group – one who not only gave that nation's scene a fresh voice in music, but who also really set the tone for many other acts to come! After a stretch when the London scene was doing a great job of matching American efforts in bop and swing, players like Don Rendell and Ian Carr found a way to really carve out some bold space of their own – here, by matching their own strong sense of writing and arranging, always filled with beautiful tone and color, with some of the more modern phrasing and styles that were just creeping up around town. The set's not nearly as experimental as the work of Joe Harriott, but has all the hallmarks of that generation's openness to new ways of expression – often given a surprisingly soulful swing, and captured perfectly as one of the early entries in the famous Lansdowne Series recordings. The rest of the group is equally great – and in addition to Rendell on tenor and soprano sax, and Carr on trumpet and flugelhorn – the combo includes Colin Purbrook on piano, Dave Green on bass, and Trevor Tompkin on drums. Titles include "Garrison 64", "Blue Mosque", "Just Blue", "Latin Blue", "Sailin", and "Big City Strut". Dusk Fire has a great group getting even better – as the legendary pairing of tenorist Don Rendell and trumpeter Ian Carr is joined by pianist Michael Garrick – who was really helping to shape the sound of British jazz at the time! The album's only the second from the Rendell/Carr Quintet, but it's already moving strongly forward – with this sense of composition and focus that's really amazing – served up in original tunes by all three creative forces in the lead – often with this great balance between soulful swing and modern ideas that makes the whole thing a dream all the way through! Don plays tenor, soprano sax, flute, and clarinet; Carr plays trumpet and flugelhorn; Garrick is on piano, Dave Green is on bass, and Trevor Tomkin is on drums – on titles that include "Prayer", "Dusk Fire", "Hot Rod", "Spooks", "Jubal", and "Tan Samfu". CD

An overstuffed package of classic work from the Caribbean – most of it from midcentury, at a time before reggae and other styles would bring even more exposure to the scene! The music here is in a nice mix of modes – separate by island identity, but drawn together in a good way by the package, and given more detail in the large booklet of notes – which features details in both English and French. Styles run the gamut from mambo to voodoo, biguine to goombay, calypso to cha cha, and lots more in between – with a total of 48 cuts by artists who include Compay Segundo, Facundo Rivera, Dioris Vallardes, Luis Quintero, Joe Harriott, Ruben McCoy, Theophilus Beckford, Sidney Bean, Josephine Premice, The Mighty Terror, Blind Blake, Cout Ossie, Cecil Lloyd, Mongo Santamaria, Henri Salvador, and many others! CD

Incredible early work from one of Germany's greatest modernists – one of the key records that showed the world that German jazz was way more than just a rehashing of American modes in the postwar years! This rare 1963 recording features the quintet of trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff – a groundbreaking unit that includes tenorist Heinz Sauer, altoist Gunter Kronberg, bassist Gunter Lenz, and drummer Ralf Hubner – a fantastic combo that comes together in a stark modernist groove that's right up there with the best work of Ornette Coleman or Joe Harriott from the time – very rhythmic, in ways that offset the freedom of the horn solos beautifully – letting the saxes and trombones soar, while the bass and drums lock into a tight groove. The no-piano, three-horn frontline is incredibly strong – bracing and powerful, but never in a way that's too cold or modern, thanks to an inherent sense of soul in allt he players. Titles include "Varie", "Ballade Fur Jessica Rose", "Club Trois", "Set Em Up", and "Tension". CD