On March 14, 1965, 18 musicians gathered at Decca's cavernous studio at Broadhurst Gardens in West Hampstead, London. The average age of the band was 23. They were first brought together in 1963 by baritone saxophonist Clive Burrows, who was soon snapped up by another band, leaving the Clive Burrows Band without a name or a leader. Enter Neil Ardley, a young composer-arranger who had studied with Bill Russo and had a deep fondness for American arranger-conductor Gil Evans.
The sound of the band began to change under Ardley, who renamed them the New Jazz Orchestra (NJO). By the end of 1964, as the Beatles and the big-beat rock style flourished in London, the NJO played clubs and concerts around the city and region. The band was well-received, except for some flack from fans of the Buddy Rich Big Band, who felt the NJO was a bit staid, which was hardly accurate. [Photo above of Neil Ardley]
The first studio album by the NJO was Western Reunion. Recorded for British Decca in front of a live audience at the studio, the band featured Bob Leaper, Mike Phillipson and Tony Dudley (tp); Ian Carr (tp,flhrn); John Mumford and Paul Rutherford (tb); Peter Harvey (b-tb); Nick Palmer (fhr); Dick Hart (tu); Les Carter (fl,alto-fl); Trevor Watts (as,fl); Barbara Thompson (as,cl); Dave Gelly (ts,cl); Tom Harris (ts); Sebastian Freudenberg (bar); Mike Barrett (p); Tony Reeves (b); Jon Hiseman (d) and Neil Ardley (ldr). [Photo above of Studio 3 at Decca Studios in London]
It's interesting that the entire album was recorded in one studio sitting. That meant retakes and false starts before a master was finally in the can for each trck. According to the 2006 liner notes by Dave Gelly, the band's tenor saxophonist and clarinetist, the studio audience sat through it all for the many hours it took to capture perfect takes. [Photo above of Dave Gelly]
The tracks, composers and arrangers...
- Big "P" (Jimmy Heath)
- Shades of Blue (composed and arranged by Neil Ardley),
- So What (Miles Davis; arr. by Les Carter and Paul Rutherford)
- If You Could See Me Now (Tadd Dameron; arr. by Lionel Grigson)
- Tiny's Blues (Tiny Kahn; arr by Dave Gelly)
- Milestones (Davis; arr. by Les Carter)
- Django (John Lewis; arr. by Neil Ardley)
- Maria (Leonard Bernstein; arr. by Les Carter)
- Western Reunion (Gerry Mulligan, arr. by Neil Ardley)
The NJO has a Gil Evans feel, right down to Ian Carr's Milesian trumpet solos. The arrangements are smart and snappy, and the playing is solid and together. The band would record one more studio album, Le Dejeuner Sur L'herbe, under Ardley's direction with a slightly different lineup in 1968 for Verve. Most noticeable was the band's bassist—Cream's Jack Bruce. There also was Camden '70, a album recorded in concert in 1970. [Photo above of Neil Ardley's New Jazz Orchestra in 1970]
Neil Ardley died in 2004 at age 66.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find the New Jazz Orchestra's Western Reunion here on vinyl for about $40.
Their followup album, Le Dejeuner Sur L'herbe, can be found at Spotify here.
JazzWax clip: You can listen to the entire Western Reunion album here.
