Michael Gibbs is one of the great jazz composers of our time, and has been for the past half-century and more. To prove it, just listen to these seven tracks, recorded in 1970. Born in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Gibbs studied in the US and came to London in the late 1960s, landing in the middle of a jazz scene boiling over with youthful creativity. The music here comes from two BBC broadcasts by a handpicked band. The programmes were recorded six months apart and there’s a noticeable difference between them, revealing dynamic changes in the young composer’s approach in this short time.
The first set includes the wonderfully melodic and catchy Tanglewood 63 and June the 15th 1967, featuring Mick Pyne (piano), Chris Spedding (guitar) and Frank Ricotti (vibraphone), three leading young players of the day. Both pieces are lifted by irresistibly light and springy rock rhythms. From the second session come Five For England and Fanfare, heavier and more dissonant, with the emphasis on the lower brass instruments, and the remarkable Canticle, 12 minutes of total abstraction, first performed at Canterbury Cathedral and utterly mesmerising in its strangeness.
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