A side-effect of Dankworth’s demise last year is the reissue of more of his long unavailable middle-period work, for instance in these two double-albums. The first leads off with Zodiac Variations, a guest-heavy follow-up to the popular What The Dickens, while the more visual inspiration of the $1,000,000 Collection refers to paintings (rather like Tim Whitehead’s recent Turner Watercolours). Before the early-1970s volume above came, of course, the Dankworth-sponsored Windmill Tilter written by and featuring Kenny Wheeler (Jazzwise 138), now reissued on BGO.

The personnel listing here only has space for the main soloists but Kenny, who owed much of his growing prominence to John, is a presence on three of the four albums, with the younger Henry Lowther overlapping. Dankworth himself, while less individual than either Wheeler or Tony Coe, makes good use of his few solos and, whereas Full Circle begins the process of spreading the writing around (including Mike Gibbs’ ‘A Family Joy’ and his version of Jarrett’s ‘Grow Your Own’), JD’s originals are very recognisable texturally and melodically. In the 1970s, the influence of his film and TV work is hard to ignore (Lifeline includes the iconic Tomorrow’s World theme), but the now-dated tones adopted by guitar and bass-guitar are outweighed by the discreet use of strings on ‘Lifeline Suite’. The highpoint is probably the Variations, partly done with a New York small-group assembled by Clark Terry, who plays some lead-parts on nearly half of the 13 tracks, which were then overdubbed in London. (If that sounds complicated, the use of all 12 keys to cover the signs of the Zodiac, and featuring only soloists born under the correct sign, is even more so.) Naturally, few of these pieces were heard live but many from the 1967 Collection and the 1971 Full Circle were played by these line-ups at Ronnie’s and elsewhere, and they still sound good today.