Gala Concert for Daryl Runswick's 70th birthday - Cadogan Hall, Tues 6 June

[Serial_Apologist]

In the jazz world, some will remember Daryl's work with guitar maverick Ray Russell and trumpeter Harry Beckett in the 1970s; others his 13 year stint with The Dankworths. Work with Ornette Coleman, not to mention John Cage and Luciano Berio, among many others, as well as his position as Head of Composition at Trinity College, here in London, (now retired), co-founder of the avant-garde vocal group Electric Phoenix in the early 1980s, and collaborator with, among many others, The Kings Singers, has afforded a broad-ranging career remit beyond the jazz world - reflected in the above-headed event taking place at Cadogan Hall, off Sloane Square, this coming Tuesday - the details of which to be found on Daryl's copious website, below (more than worth a read!):

http://www.darylrunswick.net

Two commemorative CDs are just now out, one of which "Daryl Runswick The Jazz Years" on ASC, is a double which will be of interest here; included are the following:

The Daryl Runswick Quartet - Don Rendell, (fl,ts,ss) Alan Branscombe (p,ep) Daryl Runswick (b) Spike Wells (d) 5 tracks, recorded Nov 1973

The London Jazz Four - Jim Philip (ss,ts,fl) Mike McNaught (p) Daryl (b) Mike Travis (d) 2 tracks, recorded Jan 1970

The Daryl Runswick Quartet - Stan Sulzmann (ts,fl) Tony Hymas (p,ep) Daryl (b) Spike Wells (d) - 2 tracks, recorded Nov 1974

- Harold Fisher (d) repl. Wells - 3 tracks recorded Nov 1978

- Alan Skidmore (ts) Mick Pyne (p) repl. Sulzmann and Hymas - 3 tracks recorded Nov 1978.

All (if I'm not mistaken) never previously released except for the two LJF tracks, which were on an LP titled "Atlantic Bridge".

Daryl's liner notes in the accompanying booklet give a lot of autobiographical detail and add a strong flavour of the times.

[Serial_Apologist]

Well now I can see you've all been dying to hear what this was like. But I have to say it mostly had little to do with jazz, although pianist Tony Hymas (Ballet Rambert, the Dankworths, Matrix, Jack Bruce, Jeff Beck's album "Guitar Shop", amo) did a fine job performing Daryl's part-aleatoric "dot music", and the concert began magnificently with a medley both touching and hilarious of Beatles/Wings arrangements by Daryl, sung by him with his group London Voices. Sadly Dame Cleo was "too frail" to attend the event, which concluded, understandably, with the King's Singers in their latest incarnation paying tribute, given that Daryl has worked longer with them than any other group of musicians and done them hundreds of arrangements - though I have to say, however well they do what they do, the KS are not my cuppa at all. Indeed, the evening, which three-quarters filled the hall, was concentrated mainly on the lighter side of this engaging personality, the only tough nut being the new Concerto for Piano and Nine Instruments receiving its premiere with Aleksander Szram, a remarkable Putin lookalike, taking the solo role. Afterwards I grabbed a few words with the mezzo-soprano Mary King, whom some may remember taking the lead soloist role in a late Prom consisting entirely of Weill and Eisler, and on mentioning this she made the best point of the whole evening by saying, "Yes, we could all really do with another Hanns Eisler, right now".

[CGR]

This is interesting.

[Serial_Apologist]

This is interesting.

Well discovered, CGR! That's also on the double Cd Ray Russell Retrospective, which includes the original RCA Live at the ICA. Much of this is a salutary reminder (or minder) of just how fantastic the scene here could be, back then, with real feeling for letting things run awhile outside any given frameworks instead of shutting the trap door again as soon as the music is getting interesting. Quite a track that, isn't it?! No further need for the wallpaper stripper.

I was a little sad that this aspect of Daryl was sidelined from Tuesday's concert, seeing as he'd once told me that working with Ray had provided him with his most creatively fulfilling work.