Bridget John

Bridget St. John's final album fell somewhere between vintage British folk-rock and the kind of singer/songwriter approach used by Phoebe Snow or early Joni Mitchell. A low-key, agreeable affair of sophisticated romantic ruminations, although not compelling.
English singer/songwriter Bridget St. John was one of the leading lights of the British folk scene of the late '60s and early '70s, a gifted vocalist and guitarist who also wrote intelligent, impressionistic songs. After an especially active early run that produced classic albums like her psych-tinged 1971 set Songs for the Gentle Man, St. John moved to New York and all but vanished from public performance for over 20 years, re-emerging in the mid-'90s with sporadic concert appearances.

This comprehensive Bridget St. John box set includes the three sensational albums recorded for Peel’s Dandelion label, plus live recordings and recordings made for the BBC between 1968 and 1972.

An unlikely but fortunate meeting of two avant-jazz heavyweights came about in the early 1970s during an extended holiday trip to London made by trumpeter Bobby Bradford. Arranging an impromptu session with drummer John Stevens (a founding father of British free improvisation) and his group, Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Bradford appeared on two classic volumes for the Nessa label. The two complementary sets are reissued here under the slightly confusing title (given the name of the Stevens-led group) Spontaneous Music Ensemble. Bradford here is in excellent company and sounds more forceful than on his typically reserved contributions for clarinetist John Carter…