Up From The Vaults: Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet Albums Back on Vinyl
Friday, October 12, 2018
Long regarded as among the most notable and, in recent decades, most collectable albums in British jazz history, the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet EMI/Columbia recordings are to be reissued on vinyl for the first time since they were released in the 1960s.
Produced by Denis Preston at the famous Lansdowne Studios in London’s Holland Park, crucible of many landmark UK jazz albums as well as recordings by a broad arc of names from Shirley Bassey and Acker Bilk to John Lennon, Queen and the Sex Pistols, The Complete Lansdowne Recordings 1965-1969 is released as a five LP box set on 16 November by Jazzman Records and includes Shades Of Blue (1965), Dusk Fire (1966), Phase 111 (1968), Change Is (1969) and Live (1969).
This acclaimed post-hard bop quintet featured Don Rendell on tenor and soprano sax and flute; Ian Carr, trumpet and flugelhorn; Colin Purbrook replaced by Michael Garrick, piano; Dave Green, bass, and Trevor Tomkins, drums, and were active during a period of substantial musical and cultural change in the UK where musicians were concentrating solely on their own compositions while absorbing an esoteric range of influences rather than relying on standards and mainstream repertoire. Carr and Garrick in particular were pushing forward and by the quintet’s final two albums were already signposting the next stage of their careers, which would take them in even more progressive directions.
All of these Rendell/Carr titles were reissued on CD by the BGO label between 2004-2010, but it’s taken Jazzman’s Gerald Short 20 years of research and negotiation to license and reissue these albums on vinyl, thwarted along the way by missing original documentation and Universal’s takeover of EMI. All albums have been remastered from the original analogue tapes at Abbey Road studios, are pressed on high quality vinyl and presented in exact replicas of the original album sleeves. The box set also includes a booklet containing liner notes by BBC Radio 3 presenter and Jazzwise writer, Alyn Shipton, who penned the sleeve notes for the BGO reissue CDs, along with previously unseen photos and interviews with Dave Green and Trevor Tomkins.
Hopefully, with the release of this important box set, the way will be cleared for other sought-after titles from EMI/Columbia’s 1960s Lansdowne Series jazz albums to be reissued on vinyl, including vital titles by Joe Harriott, Stan Tracey, Mike Taylor Trio, and Amancio D’Silva, among others.
– Jon Newey
For more info visit www.jazzmanrecords.co.uk