In Stan Tracey’s lifetime, this album was routinely regarded as ‘A Classic of British Jazz’, but it is now an acknowledged ‘Jazz Classic’, one of the most celebrated jazz recordings ever made in the UK.

Reissued here on vinyl for the first time in nearly 40 years, it includes a new sleeve note by Stan Tracey’s son Clark. Originally released on UK Columbia’s Landsdowne Jazz Series (33SX 1774) and produced by Dennis Preston, many recording dates have been attributed to the album until research by Jazzwise’s Brian Priestley finally nailed it down to 4 March 1965, the source being Tracey’s own diary of the time. The album was digitally remastered by Clark Tracey and Tristan Powell for CD release, originally on labels like Blue Note, Jazzizit and Trio Records, and subsequently Clark Tracey’s Resteamed Records; it seems that the same master has been used for this limited run of pressings, although Caspar Sutton-Jones at Gearbox has cut a new lacquer, which means this new version sounds splendid.

Tracey’s music was inspired by hearing Thomas’ play Under Milk Wood on BBC radio. For readers already familiar with the music – and those who are not – it’s well worth sourcing the LP version of the original 1954 BBC broadcast, with an all-Welsh cast led by Richard Burton, available at modest outlay. Thomas had only died a matter of months before (in New York), and most of the cast had known him, not least Burton, and for many this reading has never been bettered. The power and passion of Celtic oratory creates its own musical cadences, taking on a life of its own – simultaneously, moving, uplifting and profound.

It stimulates greater subjective insight into Tracey’s eight compositions, in other words you know where the composer is coming from, not least the album’s pièce de rèsistance, ‘Starless and Bible Black,’ taken from the opening words of the play: “To begin at the beginning: It is Spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent.” And for those wondering how Nantucket figures in the fictional Welsh village of Llareggub – ‘I Lost My Step In Nantucket’ – we discover the words emerge from First Drowned in the dreams of Captain Cat: “The retired, blind sea captain, asleep in his bunk in the seashelled, ship-in-bottled, shipshape best cabin of Schooner House.”

As Clark points out in his liner notes, this music was written after-hours, while his father was resident pianist at Ronnie Scott’s, and that Stan always maintained the album’s success was due to Bobby Wellins’ interpretation of the music and his unique sound. Although ‘Bible Black’ has already been name-checked it is worth emphasising what a monumental piece of music this is. Wellins, an under appreciated talent of enormous originality, never played better than he did here. He was an important formative influence on Tommy Smith, for example, who feels students have much to learn from his fellow Scot’s melodic lyricism. He was in inspirational form throughout, the wit and charm of his playing, Monk leaning, is captured on ‘Cockle Row’ and his sheer, elegant craftsmanship on ‘Llareggub.’ Here, Tracey’s own love of Monk pops up to the surface, the pianist’s lyricism is edgier than Wellins, but not always – for example, ’Under Milk Wood,’ the unheralded blood brother of ‘Bible Black’ – often deriving as much from the thematic material at hand as their underlying harmonies. Together, these two talents made for a powerful, creative, duality.

Ultimately, this album is, for many, Tracey’s finest hour, the moment he wrote himself into the jazz history books with an album that has assumed a life of its own, a life lasting beyond that of its creators. That, perhaps, is the ultimate accolade, a work of art that has stood the test of time, and is likely to continue to do so. And only the best manage that!