This double album repackages a pair of cherished vinyl albums by one of Britain’s best-loved modern-jazz instrumentalists. Dick Morrissey was a crowd pleasing tenorman who as so sadly often is the case died far too young. Inspired by Tubby Hayes and Stanley Turrentine, he had a front edge of Tubby’s tone in his sound, followed by a righteous central core of deep Turrentine blue that combined to make his work both distinctive and highly accessible to live audiences.

Recorded in 1965 and 1966, for some reason these albums are presented in reverse chronological order. Both featured Harry South on piano and Phil Bates on bass, with drummer Bill Eyden replacing Phil Seamen on the later session, Here and Now. South contributed a couple of originals to this, including an excellent minor blues, ‘Sunday Lunch’. Dick also selected two Hayes numbers, ‘Off The Wagon’ and ‘Don’t Fall Over The Bridge’, the latter played with admirable clarity and precision at the sort of speed Hayes so relished. Dick’s solo comes straight to the point and there’s also a fine drum solo from Eyden, who toured with Tubby during those years. ‘Storm Warning’, another minor-key South original, opens the earlier album. Kicked along by Seamen’s edgy latin beat, it draws a tremendous solo from Morrissey, playing with the sort of fire he always exhibited in live performances. South, who goes into a Red Garland chordal mode here, sounds more comfortable on the ballads, ‘What Is There To Say’ and ‘Come Rain Or Come Shine’, which both highlight the soulful side of Morrissey’s art. ‘Wind of Change’, by South, has a ‘Sidewinder’ kind of beat yet Morrissey’s simple yet weighty solo adds a touch of Coltrane steel to the piece, as he similarly does to ‘Get Out Of Town’, a rarely played song perfected by Peggy Lee. ‘March On’, a brisk blues by Morrissey with stirring stop-time choruses, brings this reissue to a storming close. Every serious collector of British modern jazz ought to own it. The music has a timeless vitality and the sound, remastered by Michael Dutton, is so good that at key moments you can hear the players’ grunts of effort and almost feel the beads of sweat flying over Phil’s cymbals.