Chris Biscoe
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The Harry Beckett Quintet
Harry Beckett: trumpet, flugelhorn
Chris Biscoe: alto, soprano saxes
Alastair Gavin: piano
Fred T. Baker: bass guitar
Tony Marsh: drums
Harry Beckett: trumpet, flugelhorn
Chris Biscoe: alto, soprano saxes
Alastair Gavin: piano
Fred T. Baker: bass guitar
Tony Marsh: drums
"These musicians have been performing my compositions live, and on record, for many years now and every gig and recording session brings a new and exhilarating interpretaion to the music they are so familiar with. This unique CD is the first chance to experience on record the creativity and excitement generated on stage."
Harry Beckett
Harry Beckett
Reviews of "Before and After":
HARRY BECKETT QUINTET Before and After (Jazzprint JPVP017 CD)
Harry Beckett has been a valued part of the British jazz scene for so long that, when he took a year out to play with the French National Jazz Orchestra recently, people were asking each other what had upset him to make him do such a thing. This set by his band, recorded live in 1999, catches him in characteristically good form. His trumpet style is a unique mixture of meltingly warm tone and angular phrasing, and he writes wonderfully playable tunes, themes which just beg to be opened up and explored. Saxophonist Chris Biscoe, with his gentle unpredictability, makes an ideal partner.
The Observer, 5 August 2001
HARRY BECKETT QUINTET Before and After (Jazzprint JPVP017 CD)
Harry Beckett has been a valued part of the British jazz scene for so long that, when he took a year out to play with the French National Jazz Orchestra recently, people were asking each other what had upset him to make him do such a thing. This set by his band, recorded live in 1999, catches him in characteristically good form. His trumpet style is a unique mixture of meltingly warm tone and angular phrasing, and he writes wonderfully playable tunes, themes which just beg to be opened up and explored. Saxophonist Chris Biscoe, with his gentle unpredictability, makes an ideal partner.
The Observer, 5 August 2001
HARRY BECKETT QUINTET Before and After (Jazzprint JPVP017 CD)
Beckett's live album sounds confident and happy, with six positive themes and chord sequences such as Conditions and Tinseltown, all written by the leader. Beckett seems to express joy as a complex, convoluted thing, the absolute opposite of a scream of pain, and this makes him a great foil to all kinds of players.
Chris Biscoe, on alto and soprano saxes, is a wonderful, abrasive soloist, and it is nice to hear bass guitarist Fred T Baker in a hard-blowing context like this - walking fast on the title track and generating his own spin on a kind of Caribbean funk for Then as Now. The performances on Before and After have several rough edges, and a few moments where the rhythm section doesn't quite gel, but it is an honest, likeable, and - I suspect - a durable album, and it swings.
John L Walters
Guardian
Friday August 17, 2001
Beckett's live album sounds confident and happy, with six positive themes and chord sequences such as Conditions and Tinseltown, all written by the leader. Beckett seems to express joy as a complex, convoluted thing, the absolute opposite of a scream of pain, and this makes him a great foil to all kinds of players.
Chris Biscoe, on alto and soprano saxes, is a wonderful, abrasive soloist, and it is nice to hear bass guitarist Fred T Baker in a hard-blowing context like this - walking fast on the title track and generating his own spin on a kind of Caribbean funk for Then as Now. The performances on Before and After have several rough edges, and a few moments where the rhythm section doesn't quite gel, but it is an honest, likeable, and - I suspect - a durable album, and it swings.
John L Walters
Guardian
Friday August 17, 2001
1. Conditions
2. Tinseltown
3. Another Time
4. Forgive 'N' Forget
5. Then As Now
6. Before And After
2. Tinseltown
3. Another Time
4. Forgive 'N' Forget
5. Then As Now
6. Before And After
