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Keep It Light: A Panorama Of British Jazz – The Modernists box set (El)

Keep It Light: A Panorama Of British Jazz - The Modernists box set (El)
Keep It Light: A Panorama Of British Jazz – The Modernists box set (El)
Note that I independently write and research everything in this article. But it may contain affiliate links.

Interesting new release heading out from El via Cherry Red, Keep It Light: A Panorama Of British Jazz – The Modernists box set.

It’s a (fairly) budget three-disc box set, one covers British modern jazz from the mid 1950s until it was eclipsed by the beat and R&B scenes of the 1960s.

According to the early write-up:

The rise of the modernists marked an extraordinary era which saw the opening of the original Ronnie Scott’s club in Gerrard Street, Soho, and the emergence of a golden generation of exceptional musicians who would create a musical identity for British jazz.

Prominent among them, two prodigies, multi-instrumentalists, composers and school chums, Tubby Hayes, (who with Ronnie Scott would create the finest British be-bop group of all, The Jazz Couriers) and Victor Feldman, described by Benny Green as ‘the most gifted jazz musician Britain has ever produced’. Stan Tracey (another authentic jazz composer who was resident pianist at Ronnie Scott’s for seven years), also emerged along with the brilliant and much in demand Scottish arranger and trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar, the Jamaica-born saxophonist Joe Harriott, who abandoned the security of a successful quintet to devote himself to his revolutionary new ‘abstract’ music, Cleo Laine and Annie Ross, simply two of the greatest post-war female jazz vocalists in the world, and Johnny Dankworth and Dudley Moore, both leading composers of film music.

Keep It Light captures the atmosphere of the late 50s, early 60s British jazz scene; a time of creativity, style and excitement. The sound is not American. It’s not East Coast, or West Coast, but unmistakably, London.

There is a track listing below and if you want one, you can pre-order now ahead of the 26th May release date. It sells for £14.37.

Find out more at the Amazon website

Track listing:
Disc: 1
1. Hit the Road to Dreamland – DON RENDELL JAZZ SIX
2. Ignis Fatuus – DON RENDELL JAZZ SIX
3. Bellini – ANNIE ROSS WITH THE TONY KINSEY QUINTET
4. The Haunted Jazz Club – RONNIE SCOTT / JIMMY DEUCHAR QUINTET
5. Treble Gold – JIMMY DEUCHAR ENSEMBLE
6. Time Was – THE JAZZ COURIERS
7. Royal Ascot – THE JAZZ COURIERS
8. Young and Foolish – TUBBY HAYES QUARTET
9. In the Night – TUBBY HAYES QUINTET
10. Karen – VICTOR FELDMAN QUARTET
11. Serpent’s Tooth – VICTOR FELDMAN TRIO
12. Satin Doll – VICTOR FELDMAN TRIO
13. Lisa – VICTOR FELDMAN QUARTET
14. Come Sunday – VICTOR FELDMAN QUARTET
15. Strictly for the Birds – DUDLEY MOORE TRIO
16. Duddly Dell – DUDLEY MOORE TRIO

Disc: 2
1. Straight Lines – JOE HARRIOTT QUINTET
2. Abstract – JOE HARRIOTT QUINTET
3. Pictures – JOE HARRIOTT QUINTET
4. Tonal – JOE HARRIOTT QUINTET
5. Baby Blue – STAN TRACEY TRIO
6. Lullaby – TONY CROMBIE ORCHESTRA
7. Keep It Light – TONY CROMBIE ORCHESTRA
8. Just Like Old Times – TONY CROMBIE ORCHESTRA
9. It Was a Lover and His Lass – CLEO LAINE
10. Sigh No More Ladies – CLEO LAINE
11. Oh Mistress Mine – CLEO LAINE
12. Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind – CLEO LAINE
13. Cleo Laine – KEN MOULE / THE LONDON JAZZ CHAMBER GROUP
14. Zsa Zsa Gabor – KEN MOULE / THE LONDON JAZZ CHAMBER GROUP
15. The Outlaw – GEORGE SHEARING QUINTET
16. I’ll Be Around – GEORGE SHEARING QUINTET
17. My New Mambo – GEORGE SHEARING QUINTET
18. The World Is Full of Lonely Men – JOHNNY HAWKSWORTH
19. Dance – JOHNNY HAWKSWORTH
20. Listen to Music – JOHNNY HAWKSWORTH
21. The Serpent – RONNIE ROSS QUINTET
22. A Foggy Day – EDDIE THOMPSON QUINTET

Disc: 3
1. Moanin’ – THE JOHNNY DANKWORTH ORCHESTRA
2. Thieving Boy (from the Film, ‘the Criminal’) – CLEO LAINE
3. Let’s Slip Away (from the Film, ‘saturday Night and Sunday Morning’) – CLEO LAINE
4. The Golden Striker – JACK PARNELL AND HIS ORCHESTRA
5. Bad Penny Blues – HUMPHREY LYTTELTON AND HIS BAND
6. Blues in the Night – HUMPHREY LYTTELTON AND HIS BAND
7. Chorus – DIZZY REECE QUINTET
8. Basie Line – DIZZY REECE QUINTET
9. Portrait – TONY KINSEY QUINTET
10. Girl in Blue – TONY KINSEY QUINTET
11. Runnymede Groove – TONY KINSEY QUINTET
12. Country Squire – THE JAZZ MAKERS
13. The Moonraker – THE JAZZ MAKERS
14. The Five of Us – THE JAZZ FIVE
15. The Honeysuckle & the Bee – GEORGIA BROWN WITH TED HEATH
16. The Baron’s Blues – LONDON JAZZ QUARTET
17. Mirage – LONDON JAZZ QUARTET
18. Big Ben Bounce – LONDON JAZZ QUARTET
19. Grasshopper Jump – TOMMY WATT AND HIS ORCHESTRA
20. Frigid Midget – JERRY ALLEN AND HIS TRIO
21. Lunchboxer – JERRY ALLEN AND HIS TRIO
22. The Monkey and the Baboon – GEORGE MELLY
23. London Pride – BRITISH JAZZ TRIO
24. Bye Bye Blues – ANNIE ROSS

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