This is the first ever CD reissue of his 1965 Decca stereo album Songs of the British Isles. Here the famous Scottish tenor is heard giving unique and beautiful interpretations of traditional songs – in arrangements by Bob Sharples – including Cockles and Mussels, Greensleeves and Island Moon among many others.

CDLF 8131

CDLK 4198

The orchestra of British jazz icon John Dankworth was formed in 1953, following the disbandment of the popular and hugely successful Johnny Dankworth Seven. The Johnny Dankworth Orchestra featured in its ranks many of Britain ’s leading jazz musicians of the ’50s including drummer Kenny Clare, trumpeter Dickie Hawdon, tenor saxophonist Danny Moss and trombonist Laurie Monk. 5 Steps to Dankworth showcases this wonderful big band powering its way through up-tempo swingers including Export Blues and Limehouse Blues and, in contrast, easing gracefully through numbers such as Ellington’s and Strayhorn’s Just a Sittin’ and a Rockin’. Journey into Jazz was the Dankworth orchestra’s first full-length album recording, made in front of an invited audience at London ’s Abbey Road Studios. Alongside swinging big band staples such as Take the ‘A’ Train and Jersey Bounce, it contains the Johnny Dankworth-David Lindup collaboration Itinerary of an Orchestra. A lengthy suite conceived as the jazz equivalent of Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, it contains some excellent examples of tight-knit ensemble playing, an exciting Kenny Clare drum solo, and a helping of the Dankworth brand of up-tempo jazz. Bonus tracks are included, taken from the Dankworth orchestra’s various 45-rpm single releases.

CDNJT 5303