The excellent release is a reminder of what verged on being a golden age.
Jazz In Britain JIB-75-S-CD
Gordon Beck (piano); Ray Warleigh (alto saxophone, flute); Iain Ballamy (tenor and soprano saxophone); Dave Green (bass); Spike Wells (drums)
Clusters / Suite No1 / Sunbird / Nice One / Pay Now, Live Later / At The Edge / I Can’t Tell You To Begin
Gordon Beck was one of Britain’s first truly world-class modern jazz pianists—an artist of formidable technique, intellectual depth, and rhythmic sophistication, whose playing consistently avoided cliché and predictability.
The new release posed a challenge to Simon Spillett: “Write something new on Gordon.” Daunting, perhaps, given how thoroughly he has already chronicled Beck’s career. Yet Spillett succeeds in uncovering fresh insights, particularly emphasizing the widely recognized truth that Beck never received the recognition in the UK that his talent warranted.
Contributions from Iain Ballamy, Dave Green, Spike Wells, and Liam Noble add further depth and variety. Each offers a distinct perspective: Wells—who supplied the archival recordings—calls Beck “one of the most fluent and dynamic British jazz pianists I have ever heard.” Noble recalls Beck’s admiration for John Taylor. Ballamy reflects on performing with Beck and Ray Warleigh, noting Beck’s characteristic pessimism about the state of the world. Green, meanwhile, remembers their collaborations with the French violinist Didier Lockwood.
Beck joined Tubby Hayes in 1962, appearing with him at Antibes—a session later issued by Jazz in Britain. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s he was a familiar figure at Ronnie Scott’s, leading a succession of groups that included the house trio with Jeff Clyne and Tony Oxley. His forward-looking ensemble Gyroscope featured guitarist John McLaughlin. From 1969 to 1972 he was part of Phil Woods’ European Rhythm Machine, before forming a fruitful partnership with singer Helen Merrill. Later, he worked with Ian Carr’s Nucleus and, in his final years, focused increasingly on solo performance and jazz education.
“Clusters,” opening the set, highlights Spike Wells’s subtle brushwork and Dave Green’s resonant bass tone. The oft-stated view that Beck played virtually without cliché is quickly confirmed. Originally from the Gyroscope period with Clyne and Oxley, the present trio proves a worthy successor to that forward-looking lineage.
The assertive introduction to “Suite No. 1” soon gives way to an exploratory, almost Debussy-like solo passage—Beck at his most adventurous, anxious to avoid the obvious and reveling in creative freedom. “Sunbird,” first recorded in 1979 with Allan Holdsworth, J‑F Jenny-Clark, and Aldo Romano, is heard here in a later version featuring Ray Warleigh and Iain Ballamy, with Wells and Green maintaining superb rhythmic drive.
“Nice One,” originally recorded in 1974 with Stan Sulzmann, Ron Mathewson, and Tony Levin for Beck’s own cassette label, is revived here with contrasting saxophone voices from Ballamy and Warleigh. Ballamy transcends his early Coltrane influence, and both horn players deliver spirited performances. Beck’s solo—precise, propulsive, and rhythmically charged—recalls the energy of his days with Phil Woods.
The previously unreleased “Pay Now, Live Later,” inexplicably shelved until now, is a striking highlight. Warleigh and Ballamy respond inventively to the edgy theme, underpinned by Beck’s angular, rhythmically assertive comping. His solo is bracing, sharp‑edged, and utterly uncompromising—the album’s boldest moment. The muted audience response seems oddly out of step with the performance’s intensity.
The excellent release is a reminder of what verged on being a golden age.
The archive transfers, engineered and mastered by Dave Dring from Spike Wells’s tapes, sound exceptionally clear. The CD comes housed in a digisleeve with a 20‑page booklet written by Simon Spillett, and its distinctive cover design is by Alban Low.
