It is a great pleasure to report that this is one of the best recorded British jazz LPs I have heard for a long time – the ‘presence’ is very exciting! So many British groups start with a handicap in this respect. Better still, the music is first class too. Morrissey has fully lived up to his early promise, and is now a thoroughly confident soloist, blowing hard in the tradition of Dexter Gordon. He also has a way with a ballad that is not unlike Gordon’s, as he shows on Say. Harry South contributes some exciting solos and arrangements, and wrote two of the originals, Warning and Change (Morrissey wrote March). Phil Seamen has never played better on record, which is saying something. The most startling improvement, however, is in the bass playing of Phil Bates. He is now well beyond the stage of merely playing time, and contributes fully to the group sound. Thoroughly recommended.
Discography
Storm Warning; What Is There To Say; Come Rain Or Come Shine (22¾ min) – Wind Of Change; Gel Out Of Town; March On (18¾ min)
Dick Morrissey (ten); Harry South (p); Phil Bates (bs); Phil Seamen (d). London, 22 & 29/11/65.
(Mercury 20077 MCL 33s. 1d.)