RONNIE SCOTT'S QUINTET
Serious Gold
Pye NSPL 18542
Recorded 18th October 1977
Side One
1. Invitation
2. Lazy Afternoon
3. Forty Colours
Side Two
1. Hey-Oke Ballad Suite
2. Send In The Clowns
3. Interfusion
PERSONNEL
RONNIE SCOTT; tenor and soprano sax
JOHN TAYLOR; keyboards
RON MATHEWSON; bass
MARTIN DREW; drums
LOUIS STEWART; guitar
Ronnie Scott is one of the leading names in British Jazz, perhaps more famous for the jazz club that bears his name rather than his music. He's led a long and active career bringing the sounds of bop from to the UK. Quite literally, as early in his career he was a prominent feature on transatlantic ocean liners.
With such a history behind him, I made the mistake for many years of ignoring this album. I think it might have been the title, or maybe the picture of a hoary old Ronnie on the front that put me off. Or even the inclusion in the tracklisting of 'Send In The Clowns'. What a mistake that was! There's an old saying that goes 'you should never judge a book by it's cover' that comes to mind.
What this album is is a collection of complex post-bop tunes with more than a nod to the contemporary European avant-garde. Take the inclusion of Eberhard Weber's 'Forty Colours', for example. A gently unfolding piece with much emphasis on texture, this is a lovely listen. Or 'Interfusion', that rounds out the album and recalls nothing more than Ray Pizzi in it's groove-laden complexity.
Scott admits in his sleeve note that this music is "...representative of what I was into around this period.", and in some respects it is very much of it's time, but with enough decent tunes to still entertain.
2 comments:
¡Ay Carumba! Surely this cover has got to make it into your top ten of worst Jazz album covers. Fair enough, it's not as bad as this crap, but still. I demand a top ten crap Jazz album covers. Come on.
In fact, now that i think about it, that Gato Barbieri one from the other day was pretty iffy too. So that's three. And i know you'll have more.
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