Results for "Harry Beckett"

London Jazz Composers Orchestra: That Time

by John Sharpe
May 26, 2020

Issued to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, That Time uncovers a fascinating window on the early years of the pioneering company which are only sparsely documented elsewhere. The first two tracks from Berlin and Donaueschingen date from 1972, some six months after the LJCO's debut album Ode (Intakt, ...

Harry Beckett

Born: May 30, 1935

West Indian Harry Beckett, born in Barbados, brought his own highly personal approaches to the trumpet to the cultural stew of the mid- to late 1960s.

Such is the distinctiveness of Beckett's playing that it continues to be the musical equivalent of DNA, and the elements of it were in place by the time he gained a significant break on record in the band of bass player and composer Graham Collier. Down Another Road, recorded in March of 1969, finds Beckett playing flugelhorn exclusively. August 1970 both Beckett and Evans were working with guitarist Ray Russell on his Rites And Rituals album. As the 1970s progressed the British jazz scene maintained creative momentum

Cartoon: Change Of Meaning

by Roger Farbey
August 9, 2019

The Confront Recording's Collectors Series is distinguished by the packaging of its CDs which arrive in a DVD sized metal box. Rather than any cover art, there are instead simple stickers affixed to the front and rear denoting the artist, title and track names. The CD itself quaintly replicates the grooves and track markers of a ...

Naima/Live in Berlin

by Duncan Heining
August 30, 2018

Saxophonist Alan Skidmore has worked in many, many different settings during a career that stretches back to the early sixties with Alexis Korner--one of the three 'Fathers of British Blues" (paternity disputed!). That career has included recordings with John Mayall and Eric Clapton, Georgie Fame, Sonny Boy Williamson, Stan Tracey, Mike Westbrook, Mike Gibbs, the Walker ...

Mosaics: The Life and Works of Graham Collier

by Duncan Heining
August 28, 2018

The following is an excerpt is from “Chapter 9: The Eighties or Graham Collier -The Wilderness Years" of Mosaics: The Life and Works of Graham Collier by Duncan Heining (Equinox Publishing, 2018). All Rights Reserved. The late Graham Collier was a bandleader, a composer and a jazz educator. As far as this latter ...

Wodgi

by Duncan Heining
August 4, 2018

Trumpeter Dave Holdsworth has graced a number of key jazz recordings over the years, notably with Mike Westbrook, Barry Guy and Tony Oxley. At the same time, he recorded rather less than many of his peers from that important period in British jazz in the late '60s/early '70s. Instead of the vagaries of a career in ...

Courtney Pine: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

by David Burke
October 16, 2017

Courtney Pine didn't pick up his beloved tenor saxophone for more than a decade, until an album exploring the black British experience demanded it. The multi-instrumentalist eschewed the horn on the likes of Europa, House of Legends and Song (The Ballad Book), his two-hander with pianist Zoe Rahman. “I spoke to Sonny Rollins about ...

John McLaughlin: Where Fortune Smiles

by Roger Farbey
September 13, 2017

Where Fortune Smiles although customarily attributed to John McLaughlin is as much John Surman's record as it was the Mahavishnu's. But it's probably more accurate to describe it as a collective recording since all five musicians were equally matched players of international standing. The cover art actually depicts all five musicians' names and the title of ...

Still Happy

By Harry Beckett

Label: My Only Desire Records
Released: 2016
Track listing: Side A: Bracelets Of Sound; Side B: Still Happy; No Time For Hello.

Harry Beckett: Still Happy

by Bruce Lindsay
July 11, 2016

Barbados-born Harry Beckett was known across the jazz world, respected as a major player on the UK scene for many years, winning the Melody Maker Trumpeter of the Year award in 1972 and recording or performing with a host of musicians including Louis Moholo, John Dankworth and John Surman. Like many jazz players he was in ...