Shake Keane - trumpet, flugelhorn
Ralph Bruce - soprano
Al Baum - alto
Jim Easton - tenor, clarinet
Eric Allen - xylophone, glockenspiel
Don Lowes - piano
Coleridge Goode - bass
Joe Gibbons - drums
01 Johnnie's Door (Mack) (3:46)
02 Altona (Mack) (3:06)
03 Chiquita Moderne (Mack) (4:03)
04 Cameo (Mack) (3:40)
05 Clockwork Boogie (Mack) (3:08)
06 Tonette (Mack) (3:10)
07 Half-Tone Poem (Mack) (3:22)
08 Ralph's Mead (Mack) (3:13)
09 Dreamy Fugue (Mack) (3:43)
Columbia/Lansdowne LP 12": 33SX1670
Recorded London March 20 1964
Contributed by bluebird.
Rip by Newmill Mark, who writes
A rare British jazz album from the adventurous Columbia Lansdowne series. This seems to be the only project Mack was destined to lead on record, and I think we can safely assume it was because his ideas were a little bit more advanced than was advisable from a commercial point of view because here is one of the very few albums composed strictly in accordance with Schoenberg's twelve-tone system!
Never re-issued, on vinyl let alone CD, anyone who has read Max Harrison's approving essays in both his Jazz Retrospect and Essential Jazz Record books will have wondered what this fascinating album actually sounded like. I know I did for many years until tracking it down, and it really is an interesting and rewarding listen. Sometimes the paths jazz didn't follow seem to have held at least as much promise as those it did, and the unfamiliar but committed musicians together with the marvellous Shake Keane and Coleridge Goode from Joe Harriott's legendary quintet deserve our thanks for bringing to such vivid life this forgotten but unique work.
Vinyl rip in FLAC with front cover & part back cover scans.
