John Carr

Mike Carr & The EmCee Five - Bebop From The East Coast 1960/1962 (1996) {Birdland Records MC596}
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© 1961-67, 1996 Birdland Records / Cargo Music | MC596
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Piano / Organ

A great set of Brit jazz from the early 60s with a good set of notes. The EmCee Five were a legendary bop group led by trumpeter Ian Carr, who went onto later fame in the jazz/rock years with Nucleus – but who's playing great here in his earlier stretch, in a lineup of players that includes Mike Carr on piano, Gary Cox on tenor, Spike Heatley on bass, and even a bit of guitar from a young John McLaughlin! The sound here is quite different from Carr's Nucleus years – and even from his years with Don Rendell – much more bop-structured, with that sense of tightness that made the British scene so great at the start of the 60s. Titles include many originals by Mike Carr and Gary Cox – and tunes include "Mike's Dilemma", "John's O Groats", "Groovin At The Downbeat", "The One That Got Away", "Stephenson's Rocket", "Lefty's Tune", and "The Bridge".

Neil Ardley, Ian Carr & Don Rendell - Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises (1969) {Columbia-Impressed/RePressed 986 689 9}
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© 1969, 2004 Impressed/RePressed / Columbia / Universal | 986 689 9
Jazz / Post Bop / Experimental Big Band / Fusion / British Jazz

Another masterpiece of British jazz reissued on Universal's outstanding Impressed Re-pressed series, where it joins other long unavailable classics such as Amancio D'Silva's Integration , reviewed last month. Recorded in '69, Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises is irresistible on two counts. First, for its daringly conceived and brilliantly performed music, inspired by Greek folk songs and instrumental textures and deep enough to reveal all its treasures only after many repeated listenings. Second, for being recorded at the moment when the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet, a major force in British straight-ahead jazz since '62, had broken up and Carr's equally influential jazz-rock band Nucleus was rising from the ashes.

Although he was not an original member of Kiss, drummer Eric Carr was automatically accepted and held in high regard by their legions of fans. Born Paul Caravello in Brooklyn, NY on July 15, 1950, the youngster discovered rock & roll the way many others did in the early '60s, via the Beatles…