A not-for-profit organisation, whose aim is to collect, curate, preserve, celebrate and promote the
24/07/2025
Jack Kenny at Jazz Views takes a deep dive into the new release on our Jazz Now label... Neil Charles' Dark Days... and into James Baldwin's work... his review makes you really think...
Watkiss loops his voice into something almost choral, building to a powerful crescendo. It’s impressive, evocative, and musically rich. JAZZ Now Records JN04SCD Neil Charles (Bass, Composition); Mark Sanders (Drums, Percussion); Pat Thomas (Piano); Cleveland Watkiss (Voice, Loops) Recorded at Cafe...
23/07/2025
Nicked from Olie Brice's Instagram... "Bass players taking over the world... Neil Charles and me are the top two selling free jazz albums on Bandcamp!"
23/07/2025
When dawn rises in Manhattan, people near the Village Vanguard or on Seventh Street, or thinking about Bill Evans' legacy, will wake to find that Geoff Castle's new album (over 40 years after it was recorded) is No. 1 on the worldwide Bandcamp CD chart on the day it was launched... 'Impressions of New York'...
22/07/2025
Launched on pre-order today with a release date set for 5th September, we’re claiming this as another ‘lost album’… discovered in Geoff Castle’s tape archives.
‘Impressions of New York’, inspired by a visit to that city, is Geoff’s first larger-scale work, which traverses both acoustic and electric areas of jazz; for a group which included tuned and LA percussion and synthesisers in an impressive line-up:
Ian Carr, Guy Barker or Dick Pearce on trumpets & flugelhorns; Paul Nieman on trombone; Brian Smith, Phil Todd or Tim Whitehead on saxes; clarinet & flutes; Glenn Cartlidge or Ed Speight on guitar; Geoff on keyboards; Ron Mathewson or Chucho Merchán on bass & bass guitar; Roger Sellers or Nic France on drums; and Frank Ricotti on vibraphone & percussion.
The suite was performed by Geoff’s ten-piece group called ‘The Impressions Orchestra’, either in full or in part, on four occasions between 1980 and 1983. Three of those concerts are included on this release. Although it was never recorded for an album, we believe Geoff did plan for this to happen; it definitely should have been and so that’s why Jazz In Britain is claiming this as another ‘lost album’ discovery.
Available both as a limited edition CD, with artwork by Alban Low, and download:
12 track album
21/07/2025
Dominiv Rivron's review of Aurora by SAROST in the International Times:
"Aurora is the first album by the new trio Sarost, a coming together of veteran free jazz/improv musicians Mark Sanders (drums), Larry Stabbins (saxophones) and Paul Rogers (bass). It was recorded in a single session the day after their performance at the 2025 Bath Jazz Weekend. Whoever wrote the notes quite rightly flags up Paul Rogers’ seven string bass: it’s a thing of wonder which makes it sound as if the man has seven fingers. Naming-checking Keith Tippett as an influence is helpful, too. all three members of Sarost played regularly with Tippett, back in the day. It’s a useful pointer to where their work lies on the jazz-improv spectrum. What else can one say? What these three musicians do, when they come together, is simply make endlessly imaginative jazz and, as someone once said, writing about music is like dancing about architecture. What stands out to me, though, listening to the album, is the lyricism all three bring to the music, while at the same time sustaining the energy and sense of movement that needs to go with the genre. Sanders, while providing the necessary powerhouse to drive the music along, even makes the drums sound lyrical. And I loved Stabbins’ solo at the start of the third track, ‘North’."
Aurora, Sarost (Jazz in Britain) LLIFT #10, various artists (Recordiau Dukes) From a Broom Cupboard in Marseille, Jumble Hole Clough (Jumble Hole Clough)
21/07/2025
Another review of Aurora by SAROST on the Orynx Improv blog:
"Classic" saxophone-double bass-drums trio in an inspired, "free" and adventurous free vein where each of the musicians goes to the end of his ideas in the direction of meticulous spontaneous sound explorations arranged in the heat of the moment. If the drums-double bass pair Mark Sanders and Paul Rogers have collaborated for more than three decades with several other major improvisers such as Evan Parker, Sarah Gail Brand, Elton Dean, Paul Dunmall, this is probably the first time that we find them both alongside saxophonist Larry Stabbins, an ace tenor so gifted for the soprano...
'A Nation' from Neil Charles' Dark Days featured on today's Other Aspects playlist on Peter Badore's WAYO 104.3FM show in Rochester, NY:
WAYO is a free-form, low-power station in Rochester, NY providing diverse and idiosyncratic arts and cultural programming.
19/07/2025
Thank you Chris Welch for the review of the Bobby Wellins - Kenny Wheeler 'Endangered Species' album in Jazzwise...
"Gentle piano chords lull the listener into a state of blissful transcendence during the opening moments of the The Endangered Species, a remarkable jazz suite in three movements by the late Bobby Wellins. It’s thanks to drummer Spike Wells’ archive that we can now hear the suite and other rare performances brought back to life on this unmissable 3CD set."
Full review here:
10/07/2025
Thank you René Yedema for this marvellous review you wrote for our recent release, Variation And Creation: The Story Of Paz, for the Dutch progressive rock-magazine iO Pages.
(And thank you Google translate)
Mike Oldfield, Soft Machine, Ian Dury And The Blockheads, Gilgamesh, Matching Mole, Pacific Eardrum, U.K., Mirage, Nucleus, Nick Drake; these seemingly randomly chosen acts cross paths with one specific band: Paz. This British Latin, jazz, and crossover band, founded in 1972 by Dick Crouch, released fourteen studio, live, and compilation albums between 1978 and 2020, but it has never been a household name in the genre to the general public. However, this does not apply to the numerous musicians who have joined for sessions, concerts, and demo recordings over the years, such as flautist/saxophonist Ray Warleigh, guitarists Brian Godding, Phil Lee, and Allan Holdsworth, bassists Laurence Cottle and Ron Mathewson, and keyboardist Dave MacRae. From over 35 hours of cassette and tape recordings, obtained from the musicians involved, their heirs, and friends, a team from Jazz In Britain, along with a BBC technician, selected the 3-CD set Variation And Creation: The Story Of Paz. Tracks from regular albums were avoided, unless they were variant versions or tracks from the first two discs, which were never released on CD. To emphasize diversity, a chronological order was omitted, so that the three packed discs display a wide variety of style. This also includes occasional covers of compositions by, for example, John Coltrane (Love Supreme), Michael Shrieve/Richard Kermode (Yours Is The Light by Santana), Joe Zawinul (In A Silent Way), and Gabriel Fauré (Pavane). Despite the presence of Holdsworth and Godding, among others, Paz rarely ventured into complex jazz-rock territory. jazz-rock regions, apart from somewhat Canterbury Scene-like pieces like Solar Wind and Lefthand Righthand. Nevertheless, the impressively documented and—given the provenance of much of the material— sounding Variation And Creation convincingly reflects the versatility of British jazz fusion history.
08/07/2025
Thank you... you've got Neil Charles Dark Days album, launched yesterday on our imprint Jazz Now label... as it's brand new music, to No. 4 on the best-selling Bandcamp jazz CD chart...
Re-releases from Bobby Wellins/Kenny Wheeler Quintet, Larry Stabbins/Keith Tippet/Louis Moholo-Moholo, and Charles Mingus Quintet
07/07/2025
Jazz In Britain is proud to announce the latest release on its ‘new music’ imprint JAZZ NOW, which is the debut album by double bassist and composer Neil Charles. Dark Days features Neil’s musical settings of texts by American author James Baldwin. Neil has selected brief snippets of text which are delivered in exciting fashion by Cleveland Watkiss over a background of themes and improvisation from three of the UK’s finest exponents of the genre. Available on CD, in a limited edition of 500 copies in a 6 panel digifile which includes a 12 page booklet with liner notes and photographs, or as a download with printable artwork included.
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Jazz in Britain Ltd incorporating the British Jazz Sound Archive
A not-for-profit organisation, whose aim is to collect, curate, preserve, celebrate and promote the legacy of British jazz musicians. The archive collects, curates and preserves off-air and other recordings of British jazz performances.
The organisation will publish books, release vinyl, CDs and downloads, working in partnership with musicians and their families. The source material will either come from musicians’ own archives, or from the collections of fans who had the foresight to preserve copies of off-air recordings. Recordings will only be used with the approval of the musicians or their families and subject to appropriate copyright clearance and royalty payments.
Interest is sought from anyone who has recordings that could be contributed to the archive, and from musicians (or their families/estates) who are willing to contribute material from their own archives.
From jazz innovations in the 1950s, to the golden age of 1960s and 70s modern jazz, jazz-rock and free improvisation, and all the original music created since; the archive intends to ensure that music is not lost, but heard, and that musicians receive recompense, recognition and appreciation.
