Joe Harriott (as) Harry South (p) Hank Shaw (tp) (*) or Shake Keane (tp, fhr) Coleridge Goode (b) Bobby Orr (drs) Frank Holder (bng) (*)

Recorded in London, England; May 5, 1959 and (*) April 8 & 21, 1960

SIDE 1

1. Still Goofin’ (2:45) (Joe Harriott)

2. Count Twelve (3:38) (Joe Harriott)

3. Senor Blues (4:00) (Horace Silver)

4. Southern Horizons (*) (6:33) (Harry South)

5. Jumpin’ with Joe (3:28) (Harry South)

SIDE 2

1. Liggin’ (*) (5:48) (Harry South)

2. Caravan (*) (5:40) (Tizol-Ellington)

3. You Go to My Head (*) (6:32) (Gillespie-Coots)

4. Tuesday Morning Swing (*) (3:00) (Joe Harriott)

　　　Jazz is probably as popular today in Scandinavia, France, and Britain as it is in the United States, but, because it is not indigenous, it is seldom taken for granted there in the way it is in its homeland. The audience is knowing, inquisitive and persistent, but these very qualities tend to a degree to inhibit the playing of the European musician. There is a pressure upon him to conform to the American image, and it is extremely difficult for him to create outside that pattern. He knows only too well that a large section of his audience regards him as a substitute for the real thing. Nevertheless, the gap between American and European jazz standards has been steadily narrowing since World War II.

　　　This ‘narrowing’ process was furthered by the appearance on the post-war British scene of a number of musicians who were not European and who consequently neither knew nor cared about those inhibitions which afflicted European jazz. Britain, licking its war wounds and rebuilding, had been conditions and a labor shortage. So, like their brothers and fathers during the war years, many people n the British West Indies took ship for England. Among them were such musicians as Dizzy Reece (the only one to date to have attempted the further step of trying to establish himself on the American scene), Joe Harriott and Coleridge Goode from Jamaica, and Shakespeare Keane from St. Vincent.

　　　To them, a big sprawling city like London represented a challenge in itself. But there was work and a common tongue, and they gradually found a place for themselves sin that metropolitan music world. They brought to it something a little different, too, something more extroverted and abandoned than was its norm.

　　　JOE HARRIOTT, who had learned clarinet of school, soon began t make a name for himself as a saxophonist. He played tenor and baritone, but it was his driving alto that attracted attention. He took all kinds of gigs, went to the Paris Festival with Tony Kinsey in 1954, joined the big band of British modern-jazz pioneer Ronnie Scott the following year, then reverted to small combinations, and two Londoners and a Scot (drummer Bobby Orr). In 1960, “Shake” Keane, erstwhile native of St. Vincent and student of classics at London University, replaced Harry Show on trumpet and introduced the flugelhorn into the group.

　　　Almost a year separates the sessions represented here. It was a year that saw a steady growth in popularity for the Harriott quintet. (The group is at times augmented to sextet size here by the addition of Frank Holder, formerly featured with Johnny Dankworth’s orchestra, on bongos, but this increase was or recording purposes only.) The band’s instrumentation, neat arrangements and routines, swinging rhythm section and forthright horn solos distinguished it from the competition, as did the originals written by the leader and by pianist Harry South. (Three selections by each man are included here.)

　　　But it should be noted that, once established, Harriott and his men, all in their thirties, were not for standing still. They are attuned to their times, ambitious, and not lacking in courage. This album was for them a kind of launching pad. We commend it to your attention, but we also advise you to look forward to their very different second album on Jazzland – which will show what happened when they blasted off from here in new directions!

STANLEY DANCE

Another JAZZLAND album of British jazz is:

　　The Message from Britain – tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott jazz Couriers – JLP 34 & Stereo 934S

Other outstanding LPs include:

　　Lookin’ at Monk – ‘Lockjaw’ Davis – Johnny Griffin Quintet – JLP 39 & Stereo 939S

　　Junior Mance Trio at the Village Vanguard – JLP 41 & Stereo 941S

　　Gemini – Les Spann, flute ad guitar, with Julius Watkins – JLP 35 & Stereo 935S

　　Getting’ Together – Paul Gonsalves, with Nat Adderley – JLP 36 & Stereo 936S

　　Harold Land in New York, with Kenny Dorham – JLP 33 & Stereo 933S

　　A Story Tale – Clifford Jordan and Sonny Red – JLP 40 & Stereo 940S

　　The Resurgence of Dexter Gordon – JLP 29 & Stereo 929S