CDLK 4252

“Michael Garrick is the most poetic and painterly of the Sixties British jazz men, and The Heart is a Lotus is the composer’s/pianist’s pastoral jazz masterpiece….‘Temple Dancer’ draws heavily on Garrick’s interest in Eastern music (check Norma Winstone’s incredible vocals here).”
Andy Thomas, Straight No Chaser Magazine, Winter 2005

“Ian Carr is his beautiful understated self, playing with a mute but a million miles from Miles on ‘Temple Dancer’. ‘Beautiful Thing’ has gorgeous arco figures from Coleridge Goode, and some fine clarinet work from Art Themen and the little-remarked Jim Philip….I always thought this was the record that really established Michael Garrick’s quality. Great stuff.”
Brian Morton, Jazz Review, October-November 2005

“The Heart is a Lotus is put together with glorious attention to detail – nothing wasted, subtle, charming and gorgeous. There’s so much here to admire….The album closes with ‘Rustat’s Grave Song, a track that for me ranks alongside W.C Handy’s ‘Didn’t He Ramble’ as one of the great funeral elegies in jazz. Any better elegy or closing track eludes me.”
Duncan Heining, Jazzwise, September 2005

No.3, Top 10 Reissues of 2005, Duncan Heining, Jazzwise, December 2005-January 2006

No.7, Top 10 Reissues of 2005, Stuart Nicholson, Jazzwise, December 2005-January 2006

CDSML 8400

CDSML 8426

This CD features Michael Garrick’s 1971 Argo album Mr Smith’s Apocalypse. Recorded under the name of Garrick’s Fairground (conducted by Peter Mound), it is a jazz cantata with music by Garrick and words by poet and Garrick collaborator John Smith. Alongside the pianist, this compelling work features the Somerford Junior School Choir conducted by Mary Tickner, and the instrumental prowess of Don Rendell and Art Themen (saxes, reeds), Norma Winstone (voice), Coleridge Goode (double bass) and Henry Lowther (trumpet, flugelhorn). Also included is Garrick Fairground’s rare, two-track 1971 Epiphany Argo EP, featuring the same line-up as Mr Smith’s Apocalypse, except that Dave Green (double bass) replaces Coleridge Goode.

"Michael Garrick - born in 1933 - is a peculiar character of English music who undoubtedly should be better known and appreciated by a larger segment of record-consuming population. His compositional attitude shows both admiration for traditions and the urge of trying new solutions in settings and orchestrations that mix lots of different ideas and influences. This probably derives from being self-taught (hey - the best talents own gifts, did you ever notice that?) and, in fact, he was once expelled by a piano lesson for inserting a quote from "In the mood" during a pupils' exhibition. The main feature Garrick is remembered for, though, is the fusion of jazz and poetry, of which this CD - reissuing an LP from 1971 - is a great example. The basic concept underlying poet John Smith's writings is that "god never seems to listen, never intervenes when most desperately needed and prayed to" (this was then; one wonders what Mr. Smith would have written today). The leader, who plays organ throughout, adapted the lyrics to the score in such a fashion that the outcome, a so called "jazz cantata", sounds like a cross of twisted excerpts from musicals - "Jesus Christ Superstar" to "Tommy", to name a couple that sprang to mind - enhanced by strange intervallic designs and harmonically complicated passages nearing the whole to the most intricate progressive rock. The principal vocalists are Norma Winstone, George Murcell and Betty Mulcahy besides Smith himself; the band comprises Henry Lowther (trumpet, flugelhorn), Don Rendell and Art Themen (tenor & soprano saxes, clarinet, flute), Coleridge Goode (double bass), Trevor Tompkins (percussion). Eccentric, abnormal music that requires attention in large doses and repays it in full. The reissue is completed by two tracks, "Epiphany" and "Blessed are the peacemakers", that came out in the same year on an EP, then disappeared; the latter in particular is a splendid song, somehow recalling the work of Christian and Stella Vander in Magma and Offering, a reinforcement of my suggestion to get a copy of this forgotten gem. Bizarre, yet so interesting"
Massimo Ricci, www.touchingextremes.org, February 2008

CDSML 8444