Jazz Articles about Ian Carr

About Ian Carr

Book Review

Neil Ardley & Ian Carr: Authoritative Studies Of Paradigm Shifting British Musicians

by Chris May
April 16, 2023

Not-for-profit label Jazz In Britain is best known for carefully curated releases of historically important recordings made by British musicians in the 1960s and 1970s, most of them previously unavailable and sourced either from the musicians' own tape archives or those of BBC Radio. But from time to time, the label also publishes books. Vivien Ardley's Neil Ardley: Kaleidoscopes And Rainbows tells the story of one of Britain's most singular and, outside a niche following made up ...

Album Review

The Don Rendell / Ian Carr Quintet: Warm Up

by Chris May
February 3, 2023

British modern jazz was gaining new confidence in itself in 1965, when Warm Up, subtitled The Complete Live At The Highwayman 1965, was recorded. It needed to be. As Simon Spillett writes in his liner notes, at the time “British jazzmen bravely fought a battle on two fronts, one against the stranglehold of American influence, the other against the Beatles." British jazzwomen, of course, were fighting on three fronts; but we can discuss that another time. A fourth front, fought ...

Album Review

Karl Jenkins: Penumbra II

Read "Penumbra II" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
November 24, 2022

Multi-instrumentalist Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) is a successful composer of classical, film and TV music. But before he went over to the Dark Side, the then plain old Karl Jenkins was a member of the Rebel Alliance and a pivotal presence in British jazz rock. He was a founding member of the pioneering Nucleus in 1969 and a member of Soft Machine from 1972 until the early 1980s.

Album Review

Nucleus: Nucleus Live at the BBC

Read "Nucleus Live at the BBC" reviewed by Maurizio Comandini

by Maurizio Comandini
March 21, 2022

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 ...

Album Review

Don Rendell / Ian Carr Quintet: Blue Beginnings

Read "Blue Beginnings" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
July 12, 2021

Summer 2021 is proving to be the summer British jazz delved into its mid 1960s through mid 1970s album back catalogue and previously unreleased tape archive, with both major and specialist labels such as Jazz In Britain joining in the party. The spur to action is, of course, the new and unprecedented popularity of British jazz at home and abroad. The key to placing Blue Beginnings in its historical context is a quote from a contemporary review ...

Album Review

Ian Carr: Solar Session

Read "Solar Session" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
May 30, 2021

One of the first European jazz bandleaders to embrace synthesizers, bass guitars and other electric instruments, trumpeter, composer and author Ian Carr forged a singularly British style of jazz-rock with his band Nucleus, which he formed in 1969 and with which he recorded a dozen albums through the 1970s. Carr had previously paid extensive dues in acoustic jazz, most notably as co-leader with saxophonist Don Rendell of the highly regarded, culturally inclusive Rendell-Carr Quintet from 1964 to 1969.

Album Review

Neil Ardley: Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows Live '75

Read "Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows Live '75" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
March 15, 2021

One of the more obscure but loftiest masterpieces of British jazz, composer Neil Ardley's long-form suite Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows was released on the tiny Gull Records label in 1976. Its beauty and vitality have remained absolutely unsullied by the passing years and the album has been reissued a couple of times, most recently on Dusk Fire in 2005. In March 2021, the album has been joined by a previously unreleased live recording made at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall a year ...