Alan SKIDMORE Quintet - Once Upon A Time 1970

Alan SKIDMORE Quintet - Once Upon A Time 1970
SDN 11

Jazz

Spiralling, soaring work from the Alan Skidmore Quintet -- a group led by one of the greatest British tenor talents at the end of the 60s! Skidmore's name turns up often in some of the larger ensemble sessions from the period, but this album's one of his few smaller group outings -- and it's a real treasure that we'd rank with the most free-thinking jazz on Deram as the time. Skidmore's joined in the group by an all-star lineup that includes Kenny Wheeler on flugelhorn, John Taylor on piano, Harry Miller on bass, and Tony Oxley on drums -- and all players are working here in a cohesive, vibrant style that's quite different than some of the freer, more "out" work of later years. There's a real love of color and tone on the session -- and the tunes unfold with a soaring quality that's really tremendous -- one that's rarely too free, and which explores the shades and hues that were showing up in some of the best British jazz of the time. For one point of reference, we might compare the record to the depth of the best Michael Garrick sessions of the late 60s -- but there's also a bit more straightforward quality here that we really love. Titles include "Old San Juan", "Once Upon A Time", "The Yolk", "Free For Al", and "Image". 
From Dusty Groove.
**
Once Upon a Time is one of an amazing 20 albums tenor saxophonist Alan Skidmore appeared on in 1969 and 1970 (including several veritable classics of British jazz, Mike Gibbs' Tanglewood 63, John Surman's How Many Clouds Can You See?, Stan Tracey's Seven Ages of Man, and Graham Collier's Songs for My Father). The lineup of this particular quintet, which represented Britain at the 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival, is truly stellar: in addition to Skidmore there's Canadian trumpeter/flügelhorn virtuoso Kenny Wheeler, pianist John Taylor, bassist Harry Miller, and percussionist Tony Oxley. Two of the six tracks are credited to John Surman, and one, the sultry "Old San Juan," is penned by John Warren, Surman's collaborator on Tales of the Algonquin, another classic release from the same year. If the Surman material reveals the discreet influence of the late-'60s Miles Davis quintet, Oxley's "Majaera" begins to explore the more dangerous territory of free playing he would return to the following year on his Four Compositions for Sextet. Elsewhere, John Taylor's "The Yolk" is a boisterous, brilliant piece of hard bop, and the last three tracks, segued together as a suite, explore a similarly wide range of styles. So much so that Skidmore aficionados tend to prefer the greater coherence of the following year's septet release on Philips, TCB, but Once Upon a Time remains one of the landmark albums of British jazz.
By Dan Warburton.
**
Bass- Harry Miller
Drums- Tony Oxley
Flugelhorn- Kenny Wheeler
Piano- John Taylor  
Tenor Sax- Alan Skidmore
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A1. Once Upon A Time  
A2. Majaera  
A3. The Yolk  
B1. Old San Juan  
B2. Free For Al  
B3. Image  
**

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