For several years now, the Joe Harriott group has displayed a kind of musical schizophrenia, alternating hard-swinging jazz in the post-bop tradition with its version of free form. In this album of music from ‘High Spirits’ the group sticks to the former. The show seems to contain a number of tunes which make excellent jazz vehicles. Despite Harriott’s disclaimer (in the liner notes) that this is only ‘a slightly jazzed-up version’, there are no concessions to commercialism. There is plenty of excellent improvising by Harriott and Shake Keane. Pianist Pat Smythe also plays well, particularly on his ballad feature Forever And A Day, though his main contribution was to do all the arrangements. Coleridge Goode and Bobby Orr make a fine swinging rhythm team, Orr especially having improved considerably since he first joined the group.
Though this album may hold little interest for Harriott’s free form followers, it could well appeal strongly to post-bop enthusiasts.
Discography
Home Sweet Heaven; If I Gave You; Go Into Your Trance; You’d Better Love Me (18 min) – I Know Your Heart; Was She Prettier Than I?; Forever And A Day; Something Tells Me (20½ min)
Shake Keane (fgl-h): Joe Harriott (alt); Pat Smythe (p/arr); Coleridge Goode (bs); Bobby Orr (d). London, September 1964.
(Columbia 33 SX 1692 12inLP 32s.)
