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Archive Music From Gordon Beck And Brand New Releases
by Bob Osborne
This week we focus on a new release from the excellent Jazz In Britain label. The Progress Box Set from Gordon Beck's Gyroscope is a compilation of studio, live, radio and rehearsal session recordings from the tape archives of Ron Mathewson and Gordon. The release provides a chronological audio history of Gyroscope's formation and development, indeed their 'Progress.' I am featuring three tracks from the release. In addition there is a selection of other new releases including three new albums ...
Continue ReadingNucleus: Nucleus Live at the BBC
by Maurizio Comandini
Dio salvi la regina. E la BBC. L'emittente di stato britannica ha capito fin da subito che da quelle belle energie musicali, che spuntavano come l'erba di Hyde Park sotto al tiepido sole di quelle latitudini, passavano le scelte esistenziali e culturali delle nuove generazioni e sin dagli anni sessanta ha dato ampio spazio alla musica, premiando non solo il pop ma anche le proposte più articolate e di nicchia e ha conservato in archivio una buona parte di quelle ...
Continue ReadingAlan Wakeman: The Octet Broadcasts 1969 and 1979
by Chris May
Despite a perception fostered by the more breathless media coverage given to the young lions who have emerged on the London scene since the mid 2010s, an identifiably British strand of jazz did not kick off when Shabaka Hutchings' Sons Of Kemet released its debut album in 2013. The groundwork was laid back in the 1950s by musicians such as saxophonist Joe Harriott and pianist Stan Tracey. In the 1970s, two bandleaders who carried the torch for ...
Continue ReadingGordon Beck Quartet Featuring Joy Marshall: When Sunny Gets Blue: Spring ’68 Sessions
by Roger Farbey
For British jazz fans, the late Gordon Beck probably needs no introduction. Beck was undoubtedly one of the best and most undervalued pianists the UK has produced. Joy Marshall, however, is perhaps not so well-known. Born in New York, Marshall moved to England in 1962 at the age of 25, where she resided until her tragic death in November 1968. She married saxophonist Peter King in November 1962, but later became romantically involved with Tubby Hayes, who was smitten by ...
Continue ReadingGordon Beck: Jubilation! Trios, Quartets and Septets In Session 1964-1984
by Roger Farbey
For this 3 CD box set, the estate of Gordon Beck, who died on 6 November 2011 aged 76, granted access to Beck's collection of analogue tapes of live and some studio performances. None of these recordings has ever been previously released. Beck was indubitably one of Britain's finest jazz pianists. He recorded on three key Tubby Hayes albums, 100% Proof and two live albums, Late Spot At Scott's and Down In The Village, considered by many to be Hayes's ...
Continue ReadingGordon Beck: Jazz Trio
by Marc Medwin
British pianist Gordon Beck is simply not as well known here in the States as he should be, given his long and fruitful career, and hopefully this reissue of a 1972 release on the Italian Dire label will help set that right. The propulsive rhythm section of what at that time constituted the Phil Woods Rhythm Machine gets two extended workouts, all recorded in one morning while on a European tour. It would be fine to cite ...
Continue ReadingGordon Beck: Gyroscope
by Andrey Henkin
Like Stan Tracey and Howard Riley, British pianist Gordon Beck suffers from his own obscurity. In addition to having played with the considerable British personality Allan Holdsworth, Beck's third and fourth records as leader, Experiments with Pops (released by Major Minor) and Gyroscope (released on Morgan), featured two of British jazz' major figures, guitarist John McLaughlin and drummer Tony Oxley. For all of these associations, few actually know of Beck's work. The reissue of both on the private label Art ...
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