A fantastic group from the British scene at mid 60s – music from a time when the UK world of jazz was exploding from the work of artists like Joe Harriott and Tubby Hayes, but also held some other tremendous talents as well! The group here has trumpeter Henry Lowther and tenorist Lyn Dobson at the core – and also features work from Jon Hiseman on drums, plus piano from Ken McCarthy and bass from Ron Rubin on the quintet tracks, and bass from a pre-Cream Jack Bruce on the quartet titles! Tracks are long, open, and filled with the kind of modern expression you might know from the group of Ian Carr and Don Rendell – often modal rhythms giving strong inspiration to freer solo flights – but always with a sense of soul that keeps things from ever sounding too outside to swing. The whole thing's wonderful – a near-lost slice from these crucial years – with titles that include "Snow", "Straight Away", "Celebrity Stomp", "Night & Day", "Red Planet", "Black & White Raga", and "Softly As In A Morning Sunrise". LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic group from the British scene at mid 60s – music from a time when the UK world of jazz was exploding from the work of artists like Joe Harriott and Tubby Hayes, but also held some other tremendous talents as well! The group here has trumpeter Henry Lowther and tenorist Lyn Dobson at the core – and also features work from Jon Hiseman on drums, plus piano from Ken McCarthy and bass from Ron Rubin on the quintet tracks, and bass from a pre-Cream Jack Bruce on the quartet titles! Tracks are long, open, and filled with the kind of modern expression you might know from the group of Ian Carr and Don Rendell – often modal rhythms giving strong inspiration to freer solo flights – but always with a sense of soul that keeps things from ever sounding too outside to swing. The whole thing's wonderful – a near-lost slice from these crucial years – with titles that include "Snow", "Straight Away", "Celebrity Stomp", "Night & Day", "Red Planet", "Black & White Raga", and "Softly As In A Morning Sunrise". CD

Sonny Fortune's one of those cats who never lets us down – and even well into the 21st Century, he still sounds as soulful as he did back in the 70s! The album has Fortune opening up wonderfully on alto, soprano, and tenor sax – very much at home in the sort of modal rhythms that always suited him best, back in the day – blowing with that amazing technique we love so much – kind of a fluid groove, but with a rasp on the edge. The group features George Cables on piano, Wayne Dockery on bass, and Steve Johns on drums – and Cables and Dockery really help give the album a well-rounded depth, and match Fortune's classic vibe perfectly. There's loads of great originals by Sonny – and titles include "Wayne-ish", "Trane & Things", "Five Four Trane", "Mongo Blue", "A Space In Time", and "Sound's Silent". CD

Rare work from the hippest years of British jazz – music that starts in that late 60s time when English musicians were really finding their own sort of voice – as heard famously in the Landsdowne Series of recordings, and other key albums at the time! Yet the tracks here are from those who participated in those sets, but was all unreleased until their debut here – work from the archives of Neil Ardley and Ron Mathewson – both musicians who participate here, next to key contemporaries who include Mike Gibbs and Chris Pyne on trombones, Allan Holdsworth on guitar, Kenny Wheeler and Henry Lowther on trumpets, and Alan Skidmore, Ray Warleigh, Mike Osborne, and John Surman on reeds. The set features four different groups, but there's a very unified vibe – partly because of the tightness of the scene – and titles include "A Love Supreme" by Ron Mathewson's Mystery Machine, "Dream Sequence" by PAZ with Allan Holdsworth and the Singing Bowls Of Tibet, "The Oracle" by The Alan Cohen Band, and "Black & White Raga" by Group Sounds Five. LP, Vinyl record album