Simcock and the Delta Saxophone Quartet are not the first (nor will they be the last) jazzers to reimagine the works of King Crimson. Indeed, Ian Wallace, one of the Crims’ drummers had an enjoyable piano-led trio that re-worked the catalogue within a jazz idiom. But Simcock, commissioned by the Delta Saxophone Quartet, has gone a step beyond orchestrating songs into a sax context or ripping off a Crims theme as a head. Instead Simcock has reconceived a range of Crims songs, from different eras, with tight but apposite arrangements that maximise the Crims element but also play up the mighty strengths of the Deltas. As a commissioning group, the quartet has a reputation in the classical world, having worked with the likes of Gavin Bryars and Mark-Anthony Turnage. But their jazz credentials are equally impeccable, with Whyman and Caldwell having played with Mike Westbrook while Blevins has ripped it up variously with all from Guy Barker to Colin Towns, from Eastwood (K) to Minogue (K). Simcock has clocked when the originals need no tampering with. So that coruscating theme from ‘The Great Deceiver’ is there in all its splendour, while he replicates that gorgeous slow coalescence that sets up ‘The Night Watch’. Yet he also throws in a light touch of baroque counterpoint as befits the song’s 17th century references. He salvages Belew’s self-mocking melody to ‘Dinosaur’ and keeps its humour, but all those bluesy piano colours are of course new to the song. There are notably few piano interventions, although the parping theme of ‘Vroom’ resolves splendidly into a Nyman-esque ‘Coda’ around which Simcock rocks rambunctiously. But his primary presence is as arranger, his ambition to set off the quartet’s many talents. The exception is his self-penned, affectionate and positively lyrical tribute to one of Crimson’s most hard-edged themes on ‘A Kind of Red’. Fashion-obsessed critics remain quick to condemn Crimson as ridiculous. Well, this tribute to the dinosaurs is also ridiculous.

Ridiculously good.

Jazzwise spoke to Gwilym Simcock about the album

A concept album based on the ultimate concept album band?

Funnily enough the plan was cooked up at Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium during a Europa League match. I think we were playing Dynamo Kiev… myself and Chris Caldwell are massive Stoke fans and that was the first time we met.

What were Caldwell and the Quartet looking for?

Chris gave me a blank page to do what I wanted. I knew the Delta Quartet had a history of delving into the prog rock repertoire, but I didn’t really know the Crims’ music at all! I wasn’t familiar with the genre, but my dad liked Emerson, Lake & Palmer, so I did have some prog rock experience as a child, but without realising it!

So knowing the Crimson back catalogue wasn’t a criteria for joining Earthworks?

I think it must have been quite amusing for Bill [Bruford, the Crims’ famed drummer and Earthworks leader] that I didn’t really know who he was! Bill is a fantastic guy and he’s a big supporter of my career. He came to the premiere of the Crimson! project, so it was a thrill to have him there…

How did you decide on songs from six decades of recording?

I literally went through the entire King Crimson discography to pick pieces that I felt would work for the sax quartet. We’d also agreed that we wanted the music to be performable without me being there. The only criteria were whether I felt each piece would translate from the more expanded forces of a prog rock band down to a sax quartet. As it happened, the final selection pretty much covered a wide spread of the Crimson back catalogue!

Were you being perverse choosing material that doesn’t have sax or keys on the original?

Overall its a very different sound, but that was one of the most interesting elements: trying to translate these expansive sounds into just the four/five voices.

Any idea what Mr Fripp makes of it?

I hope the KC boys would approve. I wanted to include an original composition as a sort of homage to the music I’d researched, and that’s what opens the album: ‘A Kind of Red’.