Rendell

The band (Don Rendell, reeds; Ian Carr, tpt, flug; Michael Garrick, pno; Dave Green, bass; Trevor Tomkins, drums) had invited forty friends to witness this recording and to alleviate the sterility of studio recordings. The whole enterprise is a success. There is urgency, emotion and wonderful playing throughout. It just shows just how good British jazz was fifty years ago.

Don Rendell is one of the legends of British Jazz. Although best-known for the classic albums like Shades of Blue and Dusk Fire he recorded in the 60s as part of the Don Rendell Ian Carr Quintet he made his name in the 50s as one of the leading tenor players on the British scene moving from side-man to recording under his own name.

Many have tried - and failed - to reissue these albums by legitimate means. However, two decades since our initial approach, Universal Music has gone to great lengths to research their vast archives, and we have finally managed to succeed.

Although the present album is the quintet’s debut, it could maybe be seen as their second one, since the band evolved out of the formation that had recorded Rendell’s Roarin’ album four years previously. Featuring the amazing Ian Carr on trumpet and the well-travelled Trevor Tomkins on drums, the quintet being completed by a usual-suspect of Green on bass and Purbrook on piano, although the latter’s departure would be the only line-up change in the quintet’s history. Some of these members were also involved in the cross-town rivals, The New Jazz Orchestra, and together, these two groups will carry more or less the who’s who of the next 15 or 20 years of the country’s jazz scene.