New Jazz Orchestra: Camden '70

Colosseum toured with theNew Jazz Orchestra in 1970 but this is the first time that any records of that tour have surfaced. Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Tony Reeves featured in both bands. The New Jazz Orchestra recorded so little, that anything new is welcome. That it should be this good is an embarrassment of riches. True the sound is far from perfect, occasionally the ensembles seem a little ragged (Monitors! What monitors?) and some of the woodwind solos are very low in the mix. Forget all that. This is a little slice of history, of that marvellous period in British Jazz when it danced with Rock music, as if the two were made for each other. Jack Bruce's "Rope Ladder To The Moon" is given a stomping rendition, despite a nearly inaudible vocal from Dave Clempson. Better yet are Neil Ardley's lustrous "Shades Of Blue" with fine playing from Clempson and "Mike Gibbs"' epic "Tanglewood." But best of all is the fact that virtually all of the tracks from the NJO's Le Déjeuner Sur L'herbe album are present—only Howard Riley's "Angle" is missing—including Mike Taylor's "Ballad" and "Study" with its show-stopping performances by Heckstall-Smith and Barbara Thompson. If that isn't enough to tempt collectors, then what is?