DON RENDELL — Change Is ( as The Don Rendell & Ian Carr Quintet) (review)

DON RENDELL — Change Is ( as The Don Rendell & Ian Carr Quintet) album cover Album · 1969 · Post Bop Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Sean Trane
Last album of a quintet that was definitely maturing quickly and developing some of the more innovative post-bop jazz around, but whatever extra outside help was brought in to expand their musical soundscapes and explorations were also what killed the group. If Pyne and Clyne were most welcome by the whole group (Mike on the piano, and Jeff on the second bass, both having subbed in the group for certain gigs), and so was Robinson on sax, with his first ever studio-session. Where the problem arose was with Guy Warren, with his very different sense of percussions, which was obviously dictated by his Ghanaian origins. The latter was brought in by trumpet player Ian Carr, and it didn’t sit too well with the other founding member Rendell, who was older and probably a little less adventurous than his younger colleague. Tensions arose, causing Carr to found Nucleus, a logical but rockier continuation of what he was trying to develop here.

Changes are rather evident with the opening Elastic Dream, which features an African intro, followed by Clyne bowed-contrabass and Green’s usual bass. Once the theme gets there, you can easily recognise a Nucleus theme of their Elastic Rock debut album, only not as “rocky”. This included with Robinson’s clarinet and Warren’s unexpected drum outbreaks, segueing into One Green Eye that will set the direction points definitely into improvised and dissonant territories, but rest assured nothing excruciating at all. The following almost 14-mins Boy, Dog And Carrot (don’t ask ;o))) is definitely more standard-jazz, even if Garrick uses some harpsichord in its second part, once the track changed dramatically into a slightly more raga-feel. On the flipside, Michael Garrick counters with two compositions that also delve into Indian or Mid-Eastern influenced, notably Cold Mountains (Garrick will also use it on his own solo album of the same name), when the tempo picks up on the piano, coming close to Brubeck’s Blue Rondo passage, and ends-up in a drums than bass solo, before slowly picking up with Michael’s piano. Black Hair sees Rendell on flute, but it is rather anecdotic, especially when leaving the floor for the excellent Mirage, a fitting DCQ outro, where Carr’s trumpet, Rendell’s sax and Garrick’s piano give you one last moment of bravura.

Well however good this last Change Is might be, it doesn’t beat their second album Dusk Fire’s excellence, but it is well in the line of Phase III and their Live album. Soooo, one shouldn’t be sad that bthe RCQ parted, because it allowed some of its member to create some fantastic music such as Carr with his Nucleus venture, but Garrick as well, with his early-70’s sextet adventures with the delicious Winstone behind the mike. Definitely worth the detour, like most of RCQ’s albums.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Mikolaj Trzaska, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Paal Nilssen-Love : The Last Temple vol.3 Avant-Garde Jazz
MIKOŁAJ TRZASKA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Mikolaj Trzaska, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Paal Nilssen-Love : The Last Temple, Vol.1 Avant-Garde Jazz
MIKOŁAJ TRZASKA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Mikołaj Trzaska / Ingebrigt Håker Flaten / Paal Nilssen-Love : The Last Temple Vol.2 Avant-Garde Jazz
MIKOŁAJ TRZASKA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Sustain Avant-Garde Jazz
AALY TRIO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Sunset Park Post Bop
TOBIAS MEINHART
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

FASCINATING RHYTHM - The Amazing Keystone Big Band feat. Neima Naouri
THE AMAZING KEYSTONE BIG BAND
snobb· 1 day ago
Alicante
RENAUD GARCIA-FONS
js· 1 day ago
She's Forty with Me
WILTON CRAWLEY
js· 1 day ago
Tall Tillie's Too Tight
WILTON CRAWLEY
js· 1 day ago
Rhoda Scott Ladies and Gentlemen - special guest : David Linx
RHODA SCOTT
snobb· 1 day ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed