Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Out of the Long Dark The Life of Ian Carr by Alyn Shipton Ian Carr. Ian Carr (21 April 1933 – 25 February 2009) was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator. Carr performed and recorded with the Rendell-Carr quintet and jazz-rock band Nucleus, and was an associate professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He also wrote biographies of musicians Keith Jarrett and Miles Davis. Early years. Carr was born in Dumfries, Scotland, the elder brother of Mike Carr. From 1952 to 1956, he attended King's College, now Newcastle University, where he read English Literature, [1] followed by a diploma in education. Musical career. At the age of 17 Carr started to teach himself trumpet. After university he joined his brother in a Newcastle band, the EmCee Five, from 1960 to 1962, before moving to London, where he became co-leader with Don Rendell of the Rendell–Carr quintet (1963–69). In its six years, the group (including pianist Michael Garrick, bassist Dave Green, and drummer Trevor Tomkins) made five albums for EMI – all of which have been re- issued – and performed internationally. During the 1960s he also played with the New Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Neil Ardley and recorded an album with altoist Joe Harriott. After leaving the quintet, Carr went on to form the ground-breaking jazz-rock band Nucleus. [2] This led to the release of 12 albums (some under the band's name, some under Carr's), and a successful international career. In their first year Nucleus won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival, released their first album, Elastic Rock , and performed at both the Newport Jazz Festival [2] and the Village Gate jazz club. Carr also played with the United Jazz + Rock Ensemble from 1975. Carr worked as a session musician in non-jazz contexts, with Nico, No-Man, Faultline, and others. He also doubled up on flugelhorn. Writing and academic career. Apart from writing a regular column for the BBC Music Magazine , Carr wrote biographies of the jazz musicians Keith Jarrett and Miles Davis. [2] He was also the co-author of the reference work The Rough Guide to Jazz , which has passed through four editions from 1994 (originally Jazz, The Essential Companion , 1988). In addition he contributed sleeve notes for the albums of other musicians (e.g. Indo-Jazz Fusions by Joe Harriott and John Mayer). In 1987, he was appointed associate professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, [1] where he taught composition and performance, especially improvisation. He was founder of the jazz workshop at the Interchange arts scheme, where pianist Julian Joseph, among others, was one of his students. Death. Ian Carr died aged 75 on 25 February 2009, having suffered from Alzheimer's disease. A memorial service was held at Golders Green Crematorium in London the following month. In addition to fellow Nucleus member Geoff Castle, speakers at the service included artist Gerald Laing, author, critic and broadcaster Alyn Shipton, Mike Dibb (with whom Carr collaborated on two films on Miles Davis and Keith Jarrett) [3] and Carr's students Julian Joseph, Sara Dillon and Nikki Yeoh. Discography. Emcee Five. 1961: Let's Take Five 1962: Bebop from the East Coast. Rendell–Carr Quintet. 1964: Shades of Blue 1965: Live in London 1966: Dusk Fire 1966: Live at the Union 1968: Live from the Antibes Jazz Festival (plus 1964 recordings by the Don Rendell Four and Five) 1968: Phase III 1969: Change Is 1969: "Live" with the New Jazz Orchestra. 1965: Western Reunion 1966: Le Dejeuner sur L'Herbe. with the Joe Harriott / Amancio D'Silva Quartet. 1969: Hum-Dono. Springboard. 1969: Springboard (recorded in 1966) Nucleus. 1970: Elastic Rock 1971: We'll Talk about It Later 1971: Solar Plexus (released as a "Ian Carr with Nucleus" album) 1973: Labyrinth (released as a "Ian Carr with Nucleus" album) 1973: Roots (released as a "Ian Carr's Nucleus" album) 1974: Under the Sun 1975: Snakehips Etcetera 1975: Alleycat 1976: Direct Hits (compilation) (released as a "Ian Carr's Nucleus" album) 1977: In Flagranti Delicto (released as a "Ian Carr's Nucleus" album) 1979: Out of the Long Dark (released as a "Ian Carr's Nucleus" album) 1980: Awakening (released as a "Ian Carr's Nucleus" album) 1985: Live at the Theaterhaus (released as a "Ian Carr's Nucleus" album) 2003: Live in Bremen (recorded 1971) 2003: The Pretty Redhead (recorded 1971 and 1982) 2006: Hemispheres (recorded live 1970 & 1971) 2006: UK Tour '76 (recorded live in 1976 at Loughborough University) 2009: Live in Europe 1970-71 (recorded live 1970 & 1971) 2014: Nucleus With Leon Thomas - Live 1970 (recorded live Montreux Jazz Festival) 2015: Three of a Kind (three archive recordings from the 1970s and 1980s) Tribute. 1973: Mike Taylor Remembered , a tribute to Mike Taylor with Jon Hiseman, Ian Carr, Barbara Thompson, and others. (released 2007) 1972: Belladonna 1989: Old Heartland. with Don Rendell. 2001: Reunion. As co-leader. 1971: Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises (with Neil Ardley & Don Rendell) 1974: Will Power (with Neil Ardley, Mike Gibbs, and Stan Tracey) 1980: Collana Jazz 80" (with the Algemona Quartetto) 1991: Virtual Realities (Zyklus, with Warren Greveson, Neil Ardley and John L. Walters) 1993: Sounds and Sweet Airs (That Give Delight and Hurt Not) (with John Taylor) As sideman. 1965: Roy Budd (Roy Budd, piano; Dick Morrissey, tenor sax; Trevor Tomkins, drums; Ian Carr, trumpet and Harry South, arranger) with George Russell's Living Time Orchestra. 1989: The London Concert (George Russell, composer/leader) Publications. 1982: Miles Davis (William Morrow & Co.) ISBN 0-688-01321-X 1988: Jazz: The Essential Companion with Digby Fairweather & Brian Priestley (Paladin Books) ISBN 0-586-08530-0 1991: Keith Jarrett: The Man and His Music (Grafton Books) ISBN 0-246-13434-8 1999: Miles Davis: The Definitive Biography (Thunder's Mouth Press) ISBN 1-56025-241-3 2004: The Rough Guide to Jazz with Digby Fairweather & Brian Priestley (3rd edn) Rough Guides Limited. ISBN 1-84353-256-5 2008: Music Outside: Contemporary Jazz in Britain , 2nd edn., with new postscript (London: Northway Publications). ISBN 978-0-9550908-6-8 (1st edn published 1973 by Latimer New Dimensions. ISBN 0- 901539-25-2). References. ^ a b Craig Harris, Ian Carr biography allmusic. Retrieved 19 June 2013. ^ a b c Fordham, John. Obituary: Ian Carr, The Guardian , 28 February 2009. Retrieved 19 June 2013. ^ Steve Voce, "Ian Carr: Trumpeter and composer whose band Nucleus was at the forefront of the jazz-rock movement", The Independent , 27 February 2009. Bibliography. Roger Farbey, Elastic Dream: The Music of Ian Carr – A Critical Discography, 2nd Revised Edition , 2015. Roger Farbey, The Music of Ian Carr – A Critical Discography , 2010. Alyn Shipton, Out of the Long Dark: The Life of Ian Carr , 2006. External links. The Ian Carr and Nucleus Website Ian Carr / The Don Rendell / Ian Carr Quintet / Nucleus discographies at Discogs Roger Farbey, Ian Carr: The Maestro and His Music – AllAboutJazz.com 7 July 2005 John Kelman, Ian Carr and Nucleus: '70s British Jazz Rock Progenitors , 19 January 2004 – AllAboutJazz.com Ian Carr biographical sketch – European Jazz Network Ian Carr – Jazzscript. This article uses material from the article Ian Carr from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. Ian Carr. The trumpeter, composer, bandleader and author Ian Carr, who has died aged 75, was a champion of British jazz independence at a time when few believed that a creative offshoot of the music could grow in any soil but America's. He was a freethinker, a self-taught trumpeter who became an accomplished soloist, biographer, campaigner, journalist and dedicated teacher - and one of a handful, alongside Humphrey Lyttelton, John Dankworth, Michael Garrick, Stan Tracey, Courtney Pine and a few others, who changed the course of jazz in the UK. Carr's sound, on both trumpet and flugelhorn, seemed like a strikingly elegant and unhurried adaptation of the legacies of early Miles Davis and Clifford Brown, but with his own slightly melancholy fire, applied in the late 1960s to the pianist/composer Garrick's subtle and engaging home- grown repertoire. In perhaps the biggest decision of his career, he founded the pioneering jazz-rock band Nucleus in 1969 (to the consternation of some conservative acoustic jazz fans). Carr (and his co-writer Karl Jenkins, later to become a classical composer) had managed to make their repertoire a balance of shapely, long-lined, and rather English romantic lyricism with the new rock-driven electric sounds beginning to be adopted by Davis. Carr could not help making jazz news. He took Nucleus to the Montreux jazz festival (where it won the European Broadcasting Union prize) and then to the Newport jazz festival in the US in 1970, where it became one of the few British bands to make a big impact. But he also found time to research and write a book, Music Outside (1973, republished last year) about the playing and the politics of the contemporary British scene. He also played in fusion bands, big bands and occasionally even free-improv groups, though he was never convinced by the latter idiom. In 1982 Carr wrote the much-acclaimed Miles Davis: A Critical Biography, and became an associate professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. In 1991 he published Keith Jarrett: The Man and his Music, a rich profile of the pianist, and collaborated with Digby Fairweather and Brian Priestley on the reference book Jazz: The Rough Guide. He also ran workshops for the younger generation, including the pianists Julian Joseph and Nikki Yeoh, the vocalist Cleveland Watkiss, and the Mondesir brothers. Like Garrick, Carr was able to bring literary awareness to jazz (his early originals raised eyebrows by referring to WB Yeats or François Villon), yet he was the antithesis of a snooty jazz buff. He was steeped in the blues, and some of the bass parts for his compositions are so danceable that Nucleus records have become a source for drum and bass samplers. Carr was born in Dumfries, Scotland, and grew up in the north-east of England. Although first inspired by Louis Armstrong, Harry James and Lyttelton, through his years studying English at Newcastle University and subsequent military service with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, his interest in the trumpet remained peripheral. After two years of European travels, he returned to Tyneside in 1960 to find his younger brother, Mike, an organist, running a local hard-bop band, the EmCee Five, with John McLaughlin as the occasional guitarist and a superb saxophonist, Gary Cox. Carr then studied the trumpet devotedly for a year while he made a living as a teacher. By late 1961 he was recording with the EmCee Five for Columbia, and though shortlived, the group came to acquire cult status among the cognoscenti. Arriving in London in 1962, he worked with the Caribbean flautist Harold McNair and then with the saxophonist Don Rendell. The Rendell-Carr Quintet, which played from 1963 to 1969, consistently figured in Melody Maker's jazz polls, both for the quality of its improvisation and the distinctiveness of its unflinching, standards-averse repertoire, particularly after Garrick joined in 1965. His close friend Neil Ardley's New Jazz Orchestra was also a regular outlet for Carr as a sideman during the 1960s. But by the end of the decade, he was growing restless and became increasingly attracted to electric jazz-rock possibilities. A personal catastrophe lent momentum to his desire for a new start. In 1967 his wife, Margaret, died in childbirth. Only his responsibilities to his baby daughter, Selina, and his work helped him recover from the shock, though depression stalked him in those years. In the next decade he participated in various Garrick projects as well as helping to found Europe's United Jazz and Rock Ensemble with the bassist Eberhard Weber, the New Jazz Orchestra saxophonist Barbara Thompson, the jazz-rock drum virtuoso Jon Hiseman and others. Carr blossomed as a composer, notably in 1973 with Ban Ban Caliban, commissioned by Sam Wanamaker's Globe Playhouse Trust for a Shakespeare birthday concert. The examples of Garrick and Ardley, mingled with his own personal muses, culminated in the many-layered Out of the Long Dark (1978). Conversations with the Blues (1979), Spirit of Place (1986) and Old Heartland (1988) are also among his compositional landmarks. Nucleus remained active into the 1980s, and Carr also worked with Ardley on the adventurous electronic band Zyklus. He led Orchestra UK in 1989, with a multi-idiomatic line-up including the pianist Stan Tracey and the saxophonists John Surman and Evan Parker, and made a duet album, Songs and Sweet Airs, with the pianist John Taylor playing the Southwark Cathedral organ. In the early 1990s he played with the American composer George Russell's Living Time Orchestra on European tours. He was a consultant for television films about Davis and Jarrett, and fronted a six-part Radio 3 Jazz File on Davis's life in 2006. The same year, the writer and broadcaster Alyn Shipton published a biography of Carr, Out of the Long Dark. A succession of mini-strokes prevented him from playing in Nucleus reunions, but he received citations from both the BBC jazz awards and the Parliamentary jazz awards in 2006. However, Alzheimer's disease had by then turned him into a spectator at other people's celebrations of his achievements. He divorced his second wife, Sandy Major, in the late 1980s and is survived by Selina. Ian Henry Randall Carr, jazz trumpeter, composer, writer and broadcaster, born 21 April 1933; died 25 February 2009. Alyn Shipton. Few British jazz musicians have been at the cutting edge of as many movements as Ian Carr. A pioneer bebop player in his youth, a colleague of Eric Burdon and John McLaughlin in the R’n’B explosion of the 60s, co-leader of one of Britain’s most innovative jazz groups – the Rendell-Carr Quintet, a free-jazz colleague of John Stevens and Trevor Watts, and the founding father of jazz rock in the UK, with his band Nucleus, Carr’s musical career alone is truly remarkable, and a one-man history of British jazz in the 60s and 70s. Add to that his work as a member of the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble, and with such distinguished leaders as George Russell, Stan Tracey and Mike Gibbs, and his work as a player seems even more remarkable. In this full length biography, Alyn Shipton examines the fascinating mix of ingredients that comprise the man and his music, and in the process draws a vivid picture of Carr’s home region, the North-East of England, of National Service, of such literary influences as W. Somerset Maughan, of post-war continental Europe and its Bohemian arts scene, and of the London jazz world from the 1960s onwards. The book shows that jazz does not have to have an American accent to be original and innovative, and to inspire audiences all around the world. Alyn Shipton. WINNER of 2014 ARSC Award for best research in Pop Music and WINNER of 2014 ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award for Pop Biography. The first full biography of Harry Nilsson, praised by Popmatters as “The Perfect Biography of an Imperfect Man”. Paul McCartney and John Lennon described him as the Beatles’ “favorite group,” and yet no figure in popular music is as much of a paradox as Harry Nilsson. A major celebrity at a time when stadium rock was in its infancy and huge concerts and festivals were becoming the norm, Nilsson’s instrument was the studio, his stage the dubbing booth, his greatest technical triumphs were masterful examples of studio craft, and he studiously avoided live performance. He was a gifted composer of songs for a wide variety of performers, having created vivid flights of imagination for the Ronettes, the Yardbirds and the Monkees, yet Nilsson’s own biggest hits were almost all written, ironically, by other composers and lyricists. He won two Grammies, had two top ten singles, and numerous album successes. Once described by his producer Richard Perry as “the finest white male singer on the planet,” near the end of his life, his career was marked by voice-damaging substance abuse and the infamous deaths of both Keith Moon and Mama Cass in his London flat. His music remains prevalent today, through the 1995 tribute album For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson (featuring performances of Nilsson’s hits by Ringo Starr, Stevie Nicks, Fred Schneider and others) and recent covers, such as Aimee Mann’s recording of “One” (popularized as the main track on the Magnolia soundtrack) and Neko Case’s arrangement of “Don’t Forget Me” on her album, Middle Cyclone. Alyn traces Nilsson’s life from his Brooklyn childhood to his Los Angeles adolescence, and charts his gradual move into the spotlight as a talented songwriter. With interviews from Nilsson’s friends, family and associates, and material drawn from an unfinished draft autobiography Nilsson was writing prior to his death, Shipton probes beneath the enigma and the paradox to discover the real Harry Nilsson, and thereby reveals one of the most creative talents in 20th century popular music. The Essential Nilsson. The profound musical gifts of Harry Nilsson are on full display in THE ESSENTIAL NILSSON . This two-disc set presents some of Nilsson’s most well-known songs, and includes two previously unreleased tracks, remastered tracks, and single versions. Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)? A wildly entertaining, star-studded documentary that tells the story of Harry Nilsson. Director John Scheinfeld brings added emotion and intimacy to the story with over 50 Nilsson recordings, rare or never-before-seen film clips, home movies and personal photos. The DVD also contains 93 minutes of Bonus Material Deleted Scenes, Extended Sequences, an Alternate Ending and more. Nilsson: The Life Of A Singer-Songwriter. In this first ever full-length biography, author Alyn Shipton traces Harry Nilsson’s life from his Brooklyn childhood to his Los Angeles adolescence and his gradual emergence as a uniquely talented singer-songwriter. With interviews from friends, family, and associates, and material drawn from an unfinished autobiography, Shipton probes beneath the enigma to discover the real Harry Nilsson. The book is in stores now. ‘Nilsson: The Life Of A Singer-Songwriter’ By Alyn Shipton – EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT. On July 18th the first official biography of Harry Nilsson hits the shelves. Nilsson’s estate granted author Alyn Shipton unprecedented access to Harry’s files, friends, family, and even Nilsson’s own unfinished autobiography, for Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter (Oxford University Press), which is now available for pre-order at Amazon. Shipton, a celebrated author and the jazz critic for The Times of London, has written numerous books about music and the people that make it, including Hi-De-Ho: The Life Of Cab Calloway , A New History Of Jazz , Out Of The Long Dark: The Life Of Ian Carr , Fats Waller: A Cheerful Little Earful and Groovin’ High: The Life Of Dizzy Gillespie , among others. In January, we asked Shipton how a longtime jazzhead suddenly became a Harryhead, and he told us that it began with a BBC documentary he put together on Nilsson producer Richard Perry. Alyn has very kindly offered us this advance excerpt from the upcoming book, exclusively for Harry’s fans here, for which we are most grateful. The new book is also included as part of Sony Music’s press campaign for the upcoming 17CD box set. – The excerpt from Nilsson: The Life Of A Singer-Songwriter is copyright ©2013 Alyn Shipton. At the very start of July 1984 Nilsson was in New York, hanging out with Terry Southern. The co-author of Candy, creator of the screenplay for The Magic Christian and co-writer of the movies Dr. Strangelove and Easy Rider, among other films. Southern was already discussing with Nilsson the idea that the two of them should form a movie production company. More than that, they had become regular drinking and social buddies. Southern had recently been a member of the Saturday Night Live writing team and during his time on that television show, with its high- pressure demands on the writers to be consistently funny, his drug and alcohol intake had rivaled that of Nilsson. When they hooked up in New York, Southern was working on a possible film biography of Jim Morrison and his early novel, Flash and Filigree, had been newly republished with an introduction by William Burroughs, which reinforced his credentials as one of the hippest of hip writers. Around the beginning of July, the pair bumped into the singer Jimmy Buffett in a Manhattan bar, who invited them to go up to Boston where he was to appear in a huge free concert. For various reasons Nilsson and Southern arrived late and missed the show, only catching up with Buffett when it was over. Nilsson takes up the story: I said, “Well we’re gonna go now, goodbye.” And I said to Terry, “Let’s go!” “Where?” “Washington. We’ll catch Ringo playing the drums for the Beach Boys.” “Um, right.” So, we got a plane from Boston to Washington. It was the largest concert, I think, ever, in history. There were a million plus people who showed up at this street concert. It was very, very hot. 102 degrees hot. I was wearing a black leather jacket and shades, just for a look, and I didn’t care. Terry was looking like a youthful man of indeterminate age who had just found the secret of looking rumpled and acceptable. We went to what was presumably the back entrance, where there’s this poor guard and we gave him a double act. I said, “Look, obviously we’re not kids looking for autographs.” He said, “But you don’t have any passes.” I said, “Can’t you just call Ringo in his trailer and he’ll okay it?” He said, “I can’t leave my post.” I said, “You can’t leave your post?” And he said, “No.” I said, “Good. Watch my father for me, I’ll leave him as collateral and I’ll be back in ten minutes. Thank you.” And I walked right past him. He couldn’t come after me, because he’d be leaving his post. Meanwhile, Terry’s sitting there pissed because I called him my father. Inside, I leaned up against one of the two hundred trailers. “Do you happen to know where Ringo Starr’s dressing room is?” This guy says, “You’re leaning on it.” I open the door and there were all the Boys, Beach. And they were singing a song, and, they’re all trying to tell Ringo how to play the drums at this one special part. He saw me walk in with a look of relief and disbelief that there I was and there he was. So he stopped everything, we embraced and he explained who I was to everyone. I said, “There’s one other problem. Terry’s being held hostage, right now, at the back gate. Can we send somebody to bring him in?” Just then, someone said, “Show time!” And everybody runs out of the trailer. I’m caught up with the crowd, saying, “We gotta find somebody to send back to the gate! I don’t want to go back there, I’ll never get back in.” The next thing you know, a few steps later, we’re standing on the stage, and there are the Beach Boys playing to a million people, and I’m standing on the stage looking at my dear friend Ringo.” There is a film of this event, released as the closing climax to the documentary The Beach Boys—An American Band , which came out in January 1985. On both sides of the stage there is a crowd of onlookers, and Nilsson can clearly be perceived among them in three scenes, wearing his shades and a black leather jacket, with his hair dark with sweat. Nilsson was invited to travel down to Florida for the next Beach Boys show at which Ringo would again be guesting in place of the band’s original drummer Dennis Wilson (who had drowned the previous December). But Nilsson and Southern (who finally talked his way in) were too exhausted after their trip to Boston to accept and so they returned to New York. The city was to become Nilsson’s base for the next few years.