Unreleased John Taylor sextet Eye to Eye live album from the 1970s set for February

An unreleased live album of four tracks from 1971 by John Taylor's sextet is quite a revelation and to be released by the British Progressive Jazz label on 2 February. The band is similar to the Pause and Think Again album line-up released that …

Published: 10 Jan 2022. Updated: 2 years.

An unreleased live album of four tracks from 1971 by John Taylor's sextet is quite a revelation and to be released by the British Progressive Jazz label on 2 February.

The band is similar to the Pause and Think Again album line-up released that same year and shares some material in common. (But there's no John Surman or Norma Winstone on these newly unveiled tracks.)

The horn interplay between Kenny Wheeler, Chris Pyne and Stan Sulzmann is really dynamic and sparkling and you get a sense of turbulent momentum on all the tracks. The band is completed by JT, bassist Chris Laurence and drummer Tony Levin whose thundering solo on the title track is a big highlight of these tracks greeted by shell shocked audience applause. A must for UK jazz fans of the period. The tracks in no way sound dated and share an adventurousness that chimes with today's most progressively-inclined UK new bands.

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Blue Moods. Myth and Wisdom. Posi-Tone Records ***

It's often a good idea to wallow from time to time in the music of Charles Mingus given how he remains one of the most significant of all jazz composers. And certainly you can do this here on a very easy going undemanding canter through some Mingus …

Published: 10 Jan 2022. Updated: 2 years.

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It's often a good idea to wallow from time to time in the music of Charles Mingus given how he remains one of the most significant of all jazz composers. And certainly you can do this here on a very easy going undemanding canter through some Mingus classics. This album could have been made decades ago by the sound of it. It's rich with a ringing lush tenor varnish and a generous bass swinging discipline from Boris Kozlov at the heart of it all as a twinkling gregarious presence. Looking for more of a raucous sense of freedom or postmodern re-examination? No, it's not her. But nostalgia, and not only 'Nostalgia in Times Square', is certainly a smouldering factor at play. But if completely new to the world of Mingus step right in as some of the gems of his huge catalogue of compositions are included and rendered lovingly and faithfully. And the Blue Moods guys (collective personnel: tenor saxophonist Diego Rivera, pianist Art Hirahara, bassist Boris Kozlov, drummer Joe Strasser, pianist David Kikoski on three tracks) have a ball into the bargain.