Down Another Road @ Stockholm Jazz Days '69 in Bloomington, MN

When
Graham Collier
's sextet performed their second studio album at the annual Stockholm Jazz Days Festival, British jazz was finally coming into its own. During the early 1960s, a number of younger players --
Collier
,
Neil Ardley
John Surman
Stan Tracey
Mike Westbrook
Ian Carr
, and others -- established a new aesthetic that presented a modern, skillful jazz alternative to the country's inferior attempts following WWII.
's band was among the first of this new breed of British ensembles to perform on the global jazz festival circuit. This sextet --
on double bass;
John Marshall
on drums;
Harry Beckett
on trumpet;
Nick Evans
on trombone;
Stan Sulzman
on saxophones, and
Karl Jenkins
on piano and oboe -- appeared on the studio version of
Down Another Road
, and were in the middle of a summer support tour when Swiss Radio captured this gig with its ultra-capable recording technicians.
The running order reflects the studio album with one exception: the original's abstract "Danish Blue" was replaced just before showtime by the 14-minute vanguard modal groover "Burblings for Bob." The punchy head offered by
Jenkins
, and
Marshall
introduces the horns before
Evans
goes afield in his solo. Upon return, he joins in knotty interplay with
Beckett
and
Sulzman
before they deliver fine solos. "Molewrench" is introduced with a mutant Afro-Cuban son groove from the rhythm section and horns.
syncopates and inverts the backbeat as
's flamenco-tinged bassline frames a wrenching oboe solo from
. The latter's "Lullaby for a Lonely Child" (the only tune not composed by
) is born as a deep blue rhumba. Brass and reeds offer a languid vamp as
walks alongside the melody and
offers rhythmic invention on a strolling blues. The title track's piano intro simultaneously recalls the funky underpinnings of
Horace Silver
Ramsey Lewis
before everyone takes the vamp deep, then underscores and extrapolates on it in resonant solos. "The Barley Mow" is quietly dramatic. The horns and oboe offer a nearly melodic modal intro that weds the sounds of Celtic and Middle Eastern folk to mournful Western blues. The tune slowly unfurls to reveal tense foreboding juxtaposed against intimate lyric beauty.
's bass paces the band and introduces new sections with an elegant authority. Closer "Aberdeen Angus," introduced by a piano, snare, and bass vamp, briefly recalls
Vince Guaraldi
, though
is clearly inspired by
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
as his composition stitches together hard bop, mambo, and funky soul-jazz.
's wonderfully articulated solo all but steals the show. Impeccably recorded, the source tapes were painstakingly remastered by the
Gearbox
team; the unearthed album also includes an excellent liner essay from
biographer
Duncan Heining
.
Down Another Road @ Stockholm Jazz Days '69
joins last year's previously unissued
Hamburg 1968
as an indispensable entry in
's posthumous catalog. It extends his legendary reputation not only as a brilliant composer, but as an excellent bassist and bandleader, too. Further, the quality of the music here should be of interest to modern jazz fans. ~ Thom Jurek