Harry Beckett: Warm Smiles (1971) RCA Victor (UK)

Selection: Warm Smiles (Beckett)

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Track List

A1  Harambee (6:36)
A2  Tender Is The Sky  (7:34)
A3  To Me, For Me  (8:45)
B1  Warm Smiles  (8:28)
B2  Tomorrow Morning Early  (9:44)

Artists: Harry Beckett’s Warm Smiles

Harry Beckett, trumpet, flugelhorn; Chris Laurence bass; John Webb, Drums; John Taylor, acoustic and Fender Rhodes electric piano; Mike Osborne, alto saxophone, Frank Ricotti, vibraphone, percussion, background vocals.

Recorded at Command Studios, London Piccadilly (credits: King Crimson, Roxy Music), engineer Gary Lyons (credits: The Swinging Blue Jeans, K-Tel 40 Pub Singalongs, remastering classic rock from US tapes –  Foreigner, Aerosmith, Grateful Dead, Cyndi Lauper, no jazz ); produced by Terry Brown, (jazz trumpeter and top pedigree UK jazz producer)

Artist Highlights

Harry Beckett’s Warm Smiles features three unsung heroes of British Jazz: trumpeter Harry Beckett, altoist Mike Osborne, and pianist John Taylor.

Harry Beckett won the 1972 Melody Maker Jazz Poll as “Top Trumpeter in Britain”. Jazz critic John Fordham notes in his Beckett Obituary (2010) “Beckett … brought a lightness and vivacity to everything he played, but a sinewy precision too – whether in the briefest vignette of a solo in the powerful, talent-packed ensembles of Mike Westbrook, Mike Gibbs, Chris McGregor or Graham Collier, or in the merciless free-fire zone of a cutting-edge small group such as that of the late saxophonist Mike Osborne. … Beckett made everybody’s music sound better “

Mike Osborne pioneered a distinctly original, cerebral and inventive approach to the alto. Like Beckett, he popped up in many jazz settings in that creative British jazz explosion of the mid 60s on, often in the company the South African jazz diaspora – Harry Miller, bass, Louis Moholo, drums, pianist Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath – and a leading light of the Mike Westbrook Concert Band  ensemble. Osborne was equally at home in the furthest out regions, in smaller groups like the ferociously unforgiving saxophone trio SOS with John Surman and Alan Skidmore (1974-5). Sadly, as a result of long term debilitating mental health problems, Osborne stepped back from his career in the early 80s, and never performed again.

Pianist John Taylor was described by critic John Fordham as “one of the great jazz pianists and composers of his generation … at a musical level comparable to Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea  and McCoy Tyner“. No small claim. Taylor’s prominent Fender Rhodes electric piano gives these pieces a characteristic ’70s feel, a toe in electric jazz-rock fusion mixed with acoustic brass and rhythm section.

British jazz, now confident of its independence from its transatlantic cousin, ventures out on its own, after dark.

Music

“Modal jazz with hints of free playing, strong compositions, creative interplay between the musicians, and refreshingly innovative soloing on each of the pieces.  A sympathetic rhythm section adds a deliciously dark yet spiritual mood to the music. ” ( All about Jazz.)

Warm Smiles: Harry Beckett’s trumpet lays down free-flowing sonic fog,  tip-toe melody lines, supple and evocative tone; Osborne’s alto incursion is typically enigmatic and creative, Taylor’s piano holds this adventurous territory together.

Other tracks such as Harambee introduce a more funky tilt, in the direction of Ian Carr/ Nucleus, melody of simple incremental fragments floating above fiery drumming underpinning, poked and prodded by the accents on the Rhodes.  A rare and beautiful album that captures the essence of British jazz exploration, over 50 years old, and fresh as a daisy.

Vinyl: RCA Victor SF 8225 Harry Beckett’s Warm Smiles (1971)

Stereo, pressed by EMI, Hayes Middlesex. 

Collector’s Corner

Good grief! Discogs has the acetate! Somebody call me an ambulance! (“OK, you’re an ambulance.) Usefully, the acetate tells us the pressing was by EMI Hayes, Middlesex. Acetate label suggests “Use lightweight pick up“. Technically it is possible to play an acetate (lacquer), but I wouldn’t let my cartridge stylus anywhere near one. Acetates are strictly of interest to the collector of artefacts and memorabilia

Full album on YouTube:

Issued in 1971, Warm Smiles was unavailable for over three decades, until 2006 and a  CD edition by Vocalion, doubled up with another Beckett album, a live recording Themes For Fega (1972). Nothing heard or seen since.

Though it has no Discogs entry, Beckett’s Themes For Fega was originally issued on vinyl – a rare RCA copy appeared in an auction of BBC Gramophone Library records:

The challenge is to find a copy of the original vinyl, difficult, though not entirely impossible.

The reissue potential of the golden era of British jazz is ignored by the current management of our record industry, too many mean girls worrying about their DEI ranking.  Pity is we never had a Michael Cuscuna to fight for and preserve our musical heritage.