From the JJ archive

JJ 12/69: Don Rendell/Ian Carr – Change Is

First published in Jazz Journal December 1969

31 December 2019

3919

By all accounts this is the last LP in the Rendell/Carr partnership which has produced much good music and several durable albums. Change Is constitutes a fond farewell by the quintet, augmented on various tracks by Stan Robinson, Jeff Clyne, Guy Warren and Mike Pyne.

If the set is perhaps uneven, this was because the group were reaching out for new things, especially on Elastic Dream and Cold Mountain. Some of the playing on the opening track is a trifle vapid but on One Green Eye, a pleasant Pyne composition with the composer sitting in at the keyboard to good effect and Stan Robinson making his record debut blowing beautiful tenor, and Boy, a lilting chart by the co-leaders featuring excellent Garrick harpsichord, things really jell. Both tracks would need to be included in a Best of Rendell/Carr LP (not such a bad idea at that).

Cold Mountain is a very down theme which, like Black Hair, was written by Michael Garrick and inspired by raga scales. Don employs his pensive soprano on the former and uses flute on the latter. Carr plays interesting flugelhorn on Mountain, switches to trumpet for Hair and returns to the larger horn for Mirage, which sports his finest solo of the date. Bassist Dave Green is impressive on Mountain.

One of the best British groups of the 1960s bows out extremely gracefully with the aptly titled Rendell piece Mirage. Rendell’s solo is a peach. In the 70s, one hopes that Rendell and Carr apart will be as artistically productive as Rendell and Carr together were.
Mark Gardner

Discography
Elastic Dream; One Green Eye; Boy, Dog And Carrot (24 min)—Cold Mountain; Black Hair; Mirage (26½ min)
Ian Carr (tpt/flg-h); Don Rendell (fit/sop/ten): Michael Garrick (pno/harpsichord); Dave Green (bs); Trevor Tompkin (dm); Mike Pyne (pno) replaces Garrick on One Green Eye: Jeff Clyne (bs) is added for Elastic Dream; Guy Warren (talking dm/bells/maraccas) is added for Elastic Dream and Boy Dog And Carrot; Stan Robinson (clt/ten) is added for Elastic Dream & One Green Eye. London, 1969.
Columbia SCX 6368 37s 4d