Archival set of saxophonist Alan Wakeman's BBC sessions due in August

Alan Wakeman – who notably recorded with Graham Collier & Mike Westbrook – has his '69 and '79 BBC sessions released.

Here's the scoop from Gearbox Records...

The Octet Broadcasts comprises two separate recordings from 1969 and 1979 respectively, originally made for BBC radio by British composer/saxophonist Alan Wakeman which is being released commercially for the first time. The album will be available via Gearbox Records as a double LP vinyl set, 2 CD, and digital on August 21st. 

“The next young generation of British jazz” has been applied many times to London’s current jazz scene, but this headline from Melody Maker was also used to describe Alan Wakeman and his band back in 1970. And if a prototype for Binker and Moses' viscerally energetic, semi-free sound is sought, you would be hard pressed to find a closer relative than the second part of climactic Disc 1 highlight 'Dreams'. 

The Octet Broadcasts is made up of two BBC sessions from 1969 and 1979 respectively. Taken and mastered from the original analogue tapes by Gearbox, the album offers a snapshot of a time when British jazz was at another high, featuring such names as John Taylor, Alan Skidmore, Paul Lytton, and Art Themen, who themselves were contemporaries of and collaborated with the likes of Evan Parker, Michael Garrick, Ian Carr, and Roscoe Mitchell. 

Wakeman, influenced by Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus and mentored by Mike Westbrook, was composing singular, large ensemble pieces at a time when jazz had long left the limelight and rock was in the foreground. His brand of warm, pastoral jazz, reminiscent of brass bands and traditional chorales whilst also fit to bursting with free improvisation and dramatic motifs, is representative of a magical period in British jazz which deserves to be unearthed and heard again.

An extract from the liner notes: 

Broadly speaking,  it was an exciting time for the performing arts in the late 60s and 70s, when many different disciplines and styles intermingled happily in theatre, rock, classical music, film and jazz. Concerts would become events, with visual projections, costumes and more interactive elements for audiences to appreciate.

 A distinctive, freer style of jazz was emerging in Europe and I became hugely influenced during my sixth form years by being exposed to the thoughts and music and musicians associated with Mike Westbrook when he came to teach art at my school (an experience that must have put him off teaching for life)... I should add that I wrote all the music for both dates with the particular musicians who took part in mind: the Ellington concept of the musicians making the music. - Alan Wakeman

Check out the trailer clip followed by the track listing below. 

Alan Wakeman – The Octet Broadcasts 1969 and 1979 (Gearbox)

A1 Dreams

A2 Forever

B1 Merry-Go-Round

C1 Charles Fox Introduction

C2 Chaturanga

C3 Manhattan Variation 

D1 Vienna

D2 Robatsch Defense

D3 Kingside Breakthrough

D4 Charles Fox Conclusion

1969 (Introduced by Brian Priestley)

Alan Wakeman - tenor sax, clarinet

Alan Skidmore - tenor sax, flute, two gongs

Mike Osborne - alto sax, clarinet, tambourine

Paul Rutherford - trombone, gong

Paul Nieman - trombone, gong

John Taylor - piano, castanets

Lindsay Cooper - bass, sleigh bells

Paul Lytton - drums

1979 (Introduced by Charles Fox)

Alan Wakeman - tenor sax, soprano sax

Alan Skidmore - tenor sax

Art Themen - tenor sax

Henry Lowther - trumpet 

Paul Rutherford - trombone 

Gordon Beck - piano

Chris Lawrence - bass

Nigel Morris - drums