Spanning jazz-rock, the orchestral and the avant, blessed with poke-your-ears-out sound first listens make abundantly clear, remastered involving a 96kHz 24 bit transfer from the original tapes, this is huge for fans of 1970s UK jazz that Jon Griffiths' My Only Desire Records is to issue on vinyl, CD and downloads a previously unreleased 1974 ''Love and Understanding'' monikered recording of the great pianist/composer Mike Westbrook's Citadel/Room 315, a recording that features the peerless reedist John Surman.
The live recording in Sweden predates the famous recording itself that RCA put out a year later.
'Citadel/Room 315' is a long suite conducted by Westbrook himself the origins of which derive from a Swedish Radio commission. Surman plays both baritone and soprano saxes and adds bass clarinet.
Significant for scholars of Westbrook intent on tracing the development of the work given the chronology and the newly available status of the work, a 16-piece orchestra was involved on the recording drawn from a Swedish band led by saxophonist Arne Domnérus and Argentinian trumpeter Americo Bellotto, personnel includes trumpeters Jan Allan and Bertil Lövgren, guitarist Rune Gustafsson, the great pianist Bengt 'Dear Old Stockholm' Hallberg and drummer Egil Johansen. 'Citadel/Room 315' takes its name from the unlikely circumstances of a tower block at Leeds College of Music where it was composed and where Mike's wife Kate was teaching and who inspired the piece. Mike Westbrook comments: “It’s very much about our early days together. The whole piece is about falling in love.” SG Release date is 3 April.
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