STEREO DES 18033

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A PRODUCT OF © (Bass) Tony Carr (Percussion) Harold McNair (Flute, alto and tenor sax) (Piano) — OFF CENTRE ; THE JOHN CAMERON QUARTET

SIDE ONE SIDE TWO

OFF CENTRE (9:56) — BMI OMAH CHEYENNE (7:03) — BM! The title track, is based in thematic and solo content on the Musically the most ambitious track on the album, is based on a * flattened 10th chord and the diminished 5th interval. Solos by 12noterowofD EDA EYB BbhF DbAbDG GDC. After

Harold McNair on alto saxophone and John Cameron on piano are the theme statement in 3/4 and 4/4, Harold solos on tenor on a polytonal! ae followed by a ‘free’ drum solo by Tony Carr. sequence in D minor based on the row in 4/4. When this has reached its climax in a return to the original 3/4 there follows a rhythmically, GO AWAY, COME BACK ANOTHER DAY (5:04) — BMI melodically contrapuntal ‘free’ passage based solely on the tone row An autobiographical ballad based on a poem by Elizabeth I, showcases and its various inversions with piano and bass duetting against the flute of Harold McNair. a constantly changing percussion background. Sudden, erratic interjections from the tenor herald the return to regular tonality DAFINA QUERIDA (6:05) — BMI and metre, and the final theme statement. ‘Growl’ flute, various Latin instruments and the inside of the piano act as a shifting, restless backdrop to Danny Thompson’s almost WENCESLAS SQUARE (3:03) — BMI guitar-like bass, which states the theme and aiso takes the majority This slow evocation of mood owes its particular quality to the use of of the solo space on this Danny’s debut as a composer. moving tone clusters at once related and unrelated. There is no key as such but a general feeling of a tone centre of F.

SPLAT (5:00) — BM! A fairly conventional sequence, this features the fragmentary piano x Produced by Wayne Bickerton style of John Cameron, at times with the rhythm section, later as Dafina Querida composed by John and Danny Thompson an unaccompanied voice and then in dialogue with the drumming of All other titles composed and arranged by John Cameron Tony Carr. Recording Engineer: Bill Price Photography by David Wedgbury TROUBLEMAKER (4:03) — BMI! A sort of meets Rock meets Blues meets Africa, features Harold McNair and John Cameron, with the whole group once again, through the wonders of modern science, adding a wall of percussion behind the biues based theme.

The jazz musician of today has to be seen in very different terms from tenor solo which follows is in 4/4, and based on a tonal centre which John Cameron, M.A., at 25 has achieved more than many music men do those which used to apply. He is rather like one of those nineteenth evolves out of the tone row on which the actual theme is based. Or to in a life-time. Since coming down from Cambridge in 1965 he has worked century explorers who thought nothing of disappearing into the crystallise the whole business, the musicians are relying less on the with such artists as , Julie Felix, Bobbie Gentry, Matt Munro, unknown, as if to say, ‘‘Excuse me, but I’m just going for a walk through formal structure and more on their own powers of invention. The listener Richard Harris and many more. He has arranged and conducted more Africa’. The African analogy is especially apt today, when the modern need not bother too much about time signatures and polytonality. than fifty.television shows — composed the “24 Hours” theme tune — musician is turning repeatedly to the rhythmic origins of his music in an All he need be concerned about is the effect of the music, and judged by written and scored the music for “Kes” and scored for “Poor Cow” — attempt to lend it fresh authority, and the observant listener will find that criterion, “Omah Cheyenne” turns out to be a complete success. in fact, given the space, the list would be endless. copious evidence of this process in this album, especially in the track In its way ‘Wenceslas Square” is an even more remarkable performance, In a business where young people are often regarded with some Troublemaker’. Of course, the jazzman as explorer is not a very new even though on first hearing it sounds far less spectacular. Once again scepticism John has already proved his ability. As a conductor he is idea. Indeed, it is a definition which has applied ever since jazz began. the soloist disappears into the unknown in his desire to find freedom from respected by musicians and producers, because of his professionalism in The difference today is merely one of degree. The jazzman has been restrictive key centres. The result is exquisite, and demonstrates to what Squeezing every ounce of creation from a tune. probing for so long now that whereas in pre-war days even his most extent the sophisticated jazz musician of today has mastered the elusive This album is just one side of John — the jazz side. He plays piano In his adventurous journeys were still within the aural experience of his nuances of impressionism. ‘’Splat’’ and ‘Off Centre’ are exercises in own way, and although he is a comparatively unkown quantity in the audience, today he has travelled so far and so fast that the purists are slightly more familiar territory, but the entire contents of this album are jazz world, | feel sure that this is a situation which won't last for long. baffled, and even begin to suspect that what he is playing Is no longer suffused with a desire on the part of its four creators to surprise them- Wayne Bickerton jazz at all. The purists are wrong, of course. Purists nearly always are, selves as well as the listener. This no doubt accounts for the freshness but the jazz found in albums of this type does require a few clues to aid and vitality of much of the playing. the listener, occasional ashes of a musical camp fire, so to speak, which | have said that quartets of this kind are really fabulous creatures with ©1969, The Decca Record Company Limited, London hint at the direction in which the musicians are headed. eight arms, four imaginations and one central co-ordinating brain. DERAM RECORDS The John Cameron Quartet is an extremely tightly integrated group whose Nevertheless, as a saxophone player myself, | find it impossible not to Soie U.S. Distributor London Records, Inc. members have evidently arrived at that elusive point when mutual single out the brilliance of Harold McNair’s musicianship on every track. 539 West 25th Street, New York, N.Y. 10001 understanding begins to approach the realms of telepathy. Time and Whether on alto, tenor or flute, McNair is always in full command of his again in these seven tracks the interplay between the four musicians Is of material, and in the title track gives a perfect demonstration of the the subtlest kind, and speaks of an extremely high standard of profes- conventional post-Charlie Parker saxophonist moving into less familiar sionalism. Not that there is any point in defining in a single word or but just as interesting territory. As for the sensitivity and technical authori- phrase what the group is up to. Its working methods are too eclectic ty of his flute playing, frankly | am astonished. and too diversified to be nailed down by a cliché. None of these seven As for John Cameron, the leader of the group, his prowess in this album tracks is quite like any of the others, and the music ranges from a more or should serve as an effective warning against the convention of labelling less conventional modern approach to highly technical experiments» musicians and then stuffing them into ill-fitting pigeon holes. Much of which are redeemed, not by the new Ideas so much as by the very Cameron's work these days takes the form of scoring instrumental excellent instrumental playing. backgrounds for popular artists, an activity which has evidently had no ~The longest trek undertaken by Cameron's tiny party in this album can adverse effect on the quality of his jazz. - be found in ‘“Omah Cheyenne”, where both of the two main props of the To be an explorer is a particularly frustrating profession, because there is conventional jazz musician, tonality and regularity of pulse, are thrown always the implied comment that to travel is better than to arrive. aside, which is rather like Dr. Livingstone setting out for Ujiji without Cameron’s quartet has obviously done a great amount of travelling. This compass or map. The theme statement of “Omah Cheyenne” reveals a album offers very tempting evidence that it has now arrived. 3/4 pattern modified at the end of the phrase by two bars in 4/4. The Benny Green

LINER: DES 18033 Printed in U.S.A. STEREO e SIDE ONE DES 18033

OFF CENTRE

1. OFF CENTRE (Cameron - 9:56)

3. DAFINA QUERIDA (Cameron; Thompson - 6:05)

JOHN CAMERON QUARTET

ZAL 8843

rs "> Won RESERVED - UNAUTHORISE® ag STEREO La SIDE TWO DES 18033 OFF CENTRE

1. OMAR CHEYENNE (Cameron - 7:03)

2. WENCESLAS SQUARE (Cameron - 3:03)

3. SPLAT (Cameron - 5:00)

4. TROUBLEMAKER (Cameron - 4:03)

JOHN CAMERON QUARTET "Recap ZAL 8844 PED y ORK RESERVED - yNAUTHOR'S x0 *0