1. Something Special
2. Ultimate Tribute
3. Fantastic Things
4. The Storyteller
5. Facing It
6. Rise & Shine (Cry of Triumph)
7. The Forgotten Man
8. Out of the Blue
9. Switch Up!
1. Like You Didn't Know
11. Are You Sitting Comfortably?
12. Everything Will Flip
Harry Beckett - Trumpet
Carlton "Bubblers" Ogilvie - Piano, organ,
bass, vocals, programming beats
Dave "Flash" Wright - Sax, flute
Jazzwad, Paget King - Drum programme, bass,
piano
Skip McDonald - Guitar
Orphy Robinson - Vibes
Junior Delgado - Vocals
Louie Beckett - Sound effects, additional
production
Alan Glen - Mouth organ
Deji Bakari - Steel pan
Nick Coplowe , Doug Wimbish - Bass
Earlier this year, my review
of Graham Collier's Down Another Road
on this website probably made it clear that
I admire trumpeter Harry Beckett. His new
album puts him in an unusual context. Producer
Adrian Sherwood supplies a background of programmed
electronic rhythm, dub, reggae and vocals,
over which Beckett improvises. The mix is
intriguing, although jazz devotees will find
that the jazz element is often outweighed
by the other elements - especially the militantly
repetitive beats, which conflict with jazz
flexibility. As a result, Harry is left to
rhapsodise sparingly above an over-busy accompaniment
which hinders him rather than helping - and
often takes over completely.
As Harry Beckett has West
Indian roots (he was born in Barbados), you
might have expected the mix with reggae and
dub elements to work better but they actually
conflict with hearing Beckett meaningfully.
This isn't so much a Harry Beckett album as
an Adrian Sherwood production with Harry as
a mere ingredient in a complicated mix aimed
at the dance-floor instead of the jazz listener.
As Mitsuru Ogawa's (misprinted) sleeve-notes
frankly say: "It isn't jazz".
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
On-U Sound ONUCD 12
