Alice In Jazz Land by The Stan Tracey Big Band, released on Columbia in 1966.

Nick Reynolds wrote for the BBC:

...Alice In Jazz Land originally released in 1966 is the follow up to Tracey’s Under Milk Wood album, one of the best known British jazz albums...

A crack team of legendary British players was put together for this session. But Stan himself sets the tone in the first thirty seconds of the title cut with an aggressive, audacious piano intro that makes you sit up and go ‘Wow!’. This is an album that exemplifies the classic British big band sound: tart, bright, punchy. But it also pushes the envelope way out with its’ confidence and wild musical invention. It’s full of fantastic loud, huge, wide chords that are big enough to stick your whole head in.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/3gqv/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sFQ9zzB7eU&list=RD0sFQ9zzB7eU&start_radio=1

#StanTracey #BritJazz #AliceinWonderland #AlanBranscombe #JeffClyne #BobbyWellins #RonnieScott #TubbyHayes #KennyWheeler #Jazz #Music

A Jazz Suite Inspired by Dylan Thomas's "Under Milk Wood" is an album by the English pianist Stan Tracey and his quartet, that was released by the Columbia subsidiary of EMI in 1965. The music was written in response to the 1953 BBC radio play Under Milk Wood, by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. It has often been cited as one of the best jazz recordings made in the United Kingdom.

In a series of articles for The Guardian newspaper titled "50 great moments in jazz", John Fordham wrote of the album: "Under Milk Wood was an evocative collection of sparky themes inspired by the Dylan Thomas radio play (it's sometimes performed with a narrator reading the parts). And thanks to Tracey's sparing piano and Wellins's softly hooting sax, the rippling tone-poem 'Starless and Bible Black' is widely acclaimed as one of the great jazz performances". - Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd-aDGOSC3o&list=RDFd-aDGOSC3o&start_radio=1

#StanTracey #BobbyWellins #JeffClyne #DylanThomas #UnderMilkWood #BritJazz #Jazz #Music

The New Departures Quartet by The New Departures Quartet, released on Transatlantic in 1965.

[Stan Tracey] became active too in Michael Horovitz's New Departures project, mixing poetry performances with jazz, where the musicians interacted spontaneously with the words.[5] The New Departures group recorded an album in 1964 with saxophonist Bobby Wellins, a partnership that continued for several decades. Both men contributed original compositions to the album - Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoHeZEJbqHE&list=RDFoHeZEJbqHE&start_radio=1

#JeffClyne #LaurieMorgan
#StanTracey #BobbyWellins #jazz #BritJazz