03/11/2020

Mike Taylor quartet 1964-1965 gig recording found!

After Barbara Thompson wonderful boxset, British label Jazz in Britain is going to realise a vinyl album with an old Mike Taylor Quartet's live recording taken in end 1964/early 1965 at the Studio Jazz Club (Westcliff-on-sea, Southend). The liner note are edited by jazz critic Duncan Heining.

John Thurow, who runs Jazz in Britain, announced to me this miracle:

"I run a new book publishing company and record label called Jazz In Britain and we're all about releasing archive recordings of British Progressive Jazz that comes from the musicians' own archives:
We have 'found' a recording of the Southend gig you mention in your Mike Taylor book on page 158, recollected by Digby Fairweather. As you would expect this was in the Jon Hiseman archive. We plan to release this on vinyl and download.

We are also releasing the Group Sounds Five and Group Sounds Four BBC sessions that were also in Jon's archive.
This is what we have recovered from the tape and how the vinyl will be programmed:
 

MIKE TAYLOR QUARTET - LATE 64 OR EARLY 65
STUDIO JAZZ CLUB, WESTCLIFF-ON-SEA, SOUTHEND

Mike Taylor – piano
Dave Tomlin – tenor sax
Tony Reeves – bass
Jon Hiseman – drums

A1. Son Of Red Blues 9:48
A2. Night In Tunisia 8:57
B1. Folk Dance No. 1 / Summer Sounds, Summer Sights 8:40
B2. Half Blue 5:09
B3. Untitled 6:23
 
Total time: 38:59

From the Jon Hiseman Temple Music Archive courtesy of Barbara Thompson and Ana Gracey."
 
A little philological question here is if at bass there was Tony Reeves or Jack Bruce, as Digby Fairweather remembered when I had an interview with him (read here). Duncan Heining is making some new researches about this, contacting Fairweather, Reeves and Tomlin for having eventually new clues about it. We will see. 
Anyway, this is a unexpected discover, a true gem!