Harry Beckett - Flare Up (2023 Decca British Jazz Explosion 180g Reissue LP)

Harry Beckett - Flare Up | Vinyl LP, 2023 Decca Reissue (4539723, British Jazz Explosion Series, 180g, Optimal)

• The debut album from one of the most distinctive trumpet voices in British jazz, originally released on Philips in 1970 and highly sought after since, with a triple-saxophone front line of John Surman, Mike Osborne and Alan Skidmore
• Nine tracks split between Beckett’s own compositions, four pieces by Graham Collier and one by John Surman, with John Taylor on piano, Chris Laurence on bass, Frank Ricotti on vibraphone and congas, and John Webb on drums
• British Jazz Explosion series reissue remastered from the original master tapes by Caspar Sutton-Jones at Gearbox Records, pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal, with flipback sleeve and 12x12 insert with new liner notes by Tony Higgins 

Harry Beckett was born in Barbados, learnt trumpet with the Salvation Army, and moved to London in the late 1950s. By 1970 he had played with Charles Mingus (on the 1961 film score All Night Long), worked in the bands of Graham Collier, Mike Westbrook, and Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, and established himself as a musician whose warm, lyrical trumpet and flugelhorn sat comfortably alongside players working at the more adventurous end of British jazz. For his debut, he assembled a lineup that reads like a roll call of the London scene: John Surman on baritone and soprano saxophone, Mike Osborne on alto, Alan Skidmore on tenor and soprano, John Taylor on piano, Chris Laurence on bass, Frank Ricotti on vibraphone and congas, and John Webb on drums. The three saxophonists alone represent three of the most important reed players Britain has produced.

The compositions are shared. Beckett wrote four tracks, including the title track and “Flow Stream Flow”, both of which move at pace with Webb’s drumming driving hard underneath. Collier contributed four pieces (“Go West”, “Third Road”, “The Other Side”, “Rolli’s Tune”), and the JazzMusicArchives review singles out Collier’s and Surman’s compositions as the more adventurous writing on the album. Surman wrote “Where Fortune Smiles.” “Third Road” has a funk-driven energy that earned it a place on the 2020 British Jazz Explosion compilation Journeys in Modern Jazz: Britain 1965-1972. The original 1970 Philips pressing is extremely rare and expensive on the secondhand market. This 2023 reissue is the first time the album has been available on vinyl since that original pressing. Remastered from the original master tapes by Caspar Sutton-Jones at Gearbox Records, pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal Media in Germany. Flipback sleeve on 380g heavy card with a 12x12 insert featuring new liner notes by Tony Higgins and original sleeve notes by Richard Williams.