The Alan Skidmore Quintet - Once Upon a Time

barabara sounds sez:

Alan Skidmore is not so much underrated as way off the radar for most people. That's too bad because he made some great albums over the years — both as a leader and a sideman — especially this one on Deram Nova from 1970. He's got a great group of freewheeling cohorts with him, especially Kenny Wheeler on flugelhorn. And it's definitely got the feel of that era — the late 60s, the UK jazz scene — when the boundaries between blues and rock and jazz were more fluid.

Dusty calls it... a real treasure, a spiralling, soaring work, comparable with the best Michael Garrick sessions of the late 60s. Over at Barabara Grange we call it a kind of a classic.

more on Alan Skidmore at Wiki...

and at his own site here...

Cleveland Watkiss - Green Chimneys

barabara sounds sez:

Cleveland Watkiss just celebrated his 50th birthday with a gig at the London Jazz festival... So let's celebrate with this little gem.

Don't know Cleveland? He's a top vocalist and super versatile. Genres mean nothing: he's sung soul, gospel, reggae, jazz, drum'n'bass — even opera and choral work. And really he's nothing like Bobby McFerrin.

He was a founder (with Courtney Pine and all) of the Jazz Crusaders Warriors (thanks anon), a pioneer of UK jungle/d&b (here's more on that), and if you don't know his 2002 album Victory’s Happy Songbook, you're missing out on a true barabara classic.

But this one — his first album (or was there one before this?) from 1991 — is straight ahead jazz, which is no doubt why it came out on Verve.

AMG (Yawno) sez:

In the late '80s, Cleveland Watkiss was thought of as a British Bobby McFerrin; where has he been since?At the time of this CD, he showed a great deal of potential and was becoming more original. He is joined by some of the top young English jazz musicians of the era (including pianist Jason Rebello and, on a couple of separate songs, Courtney Pine and Steve Williamson on sopranos) with guest appearances from American drummer Clifford Jarvis and tenorman Jean Toussaint. Watkiss is the main star throughout, singing his words to Thelonious Monk's "Green Chimneys" and Wayne Shorter's "Seeds of Sin," and contributing some adventurous originals of his own. The comparisons with McFerrin apply most tonewise; Watkiss has a similar adventurous spirit, and both singers achieving a lot less in the 1990s than one might have expected. This increasingly hard-to-find CD is well worth searching for.

update...

I've dropped links in the comments for 2 other tracks by Cleveland — Kamikaze; and the DJ Patife remix of Torch Of Freedom (from Victory's). Enjoy.

Changing The Jazz At Buckingham Palace - Tubby Hayes / Dizzy Reece

barabara sounds sez:

A tip of the hat to Bacoso over at the awesome Orgy in Rhythm who has delivered several fantastic Tubby posts recently. This one is only half Tubby — on the 2nd side Dizzy Reece takes over — but it's a good'un. You've got to love the tourist-brochure cover too (aimed at the US market?) complete with marching guards and bearskin helmets. Very 1950s kitschy.

This is from the Japanese CD reissue, and is part of the classic Savoy albums series collectively entitled 'Pre-Modern Jazz, (which sounds kind of strange to me).

For a full Tubby discography, how about this bilingual (English and Farsi) blog.

update: now in the comments, scans of the cover art.

dusty sez:

One of the rarest records on the Savoy label — and a crack session of British jazz featuring two of England's best players ever! The album's got a side of work apiece by Hayes and Reece — and the Hayes cuts are two long jammers with a laidback blowing session feel that works perfectly with his gutsy tenor. Players on those tunes include Harry South on piano and Dickie Hawdon on trumpet — and the titles are "Nicole" and "Hall Hears The Blues". The Reece material features a quartet on four tighter tunes, three of them Charlie Parker compositions ("Yardbird", "Blue Bird", and "Bluebird Number 2"), plus a mellow reading of "How Deep Is The Ocean". Reece's quartet features the great Phil Seamen on drums, and piano work by Terry Shannon, who's no slouch either! (HQ -- Hi Quality CD pressing!)

AMG (Ken Dryden) sez:

This compilation pairs two 1956 sessions led separately by tenor saxophonist Tubby Hayes and trumpeter Dizzy Reece. The opening track is pianist Harry South's slinky, extended hard bop blues "Hall Hears the Blues," in which the rhythm section (with bassist Pete Elderfield and drummer Bill Eyden) goes it alone for three minutes before Hayes and trumpeter Dick Hawdon make their presence known with outstanding back-to-back solos. The erroneous liner notes reproduced from the original album repeatedly refer to the leader as "Tubby Hall," making one wonder if the song title is also incorrect! Hayes takes charge from the kickoff of the quintet's midtempo rendition of Howard McGhee's "Nicole" (yet another variation of "I Got Rhythm"), though Hawdon is equal to the task of matching the tenor saxophonist with a superb solo of his own. The remaining four tracks feature Dizzy Reece with a quartet consisting of pianist Terry Shannon, bassist Lennie Bush, and drummer Phil Seamen. Reece focuses on songs composed or performed by Charlie Parker, offering two expressive interpretations of "Bluebird," along with a moving rendition of the standard "How Deep Is the Ocean?" and a spirited take of "Yardbird Suite" that showcases the rhythm section as well. Originally released bySavoy and finally reissued on a Japanese CD in 2000, this long unavailable music is worth investigating by hard bop fans who enjoy British jazz of the mid-'50s.