Reel Recordings isn't simply another jazz reissue label; it has already made its mark by priding itself on not only reissuing important British jazz benchmarks but assuring the record-buying public of high fidelity — that is, crystalline sonic reproduction and an unerring commitment to quality in both packaging and sound, both of which are in danger of becoming extinct in this soulless, downloading age.
Pianist Miller stamped out any number of categorical fires at the dawn of the British Canterbury scene, a vital if often maligned chunk of Anglo music history that saw "pop" disintegrated and hybridized, evolving into varying strands of progressive rock, jazz-rock, free jazz, and psychedelia. An incestuous bunch, the musicians operated as something of a free "collective", cross-pollinating their new directions with shared band members, blending/blurring sensibilities, style and substance. Miller's worked with more of the British avant-eres than you could shake a stick at — Lol Coxhill immediately comes to mind - yet this recording, comprised of three long jams, one from 1976, two from 1985, find what was a nascent Canterbury seed in full free-jazz bloom. Accompanied by then-budding bassist Tony Moore, well-established AMM renegade Eddie Prevost on drums and the erstwhile Elton Dean on saxello, Miller and his cohorts blast through jazz's storied syntax with feckless abandon, abject seriousness, alacrity, and in-exhaustive moxie. The first two work-outs were recorded live but you'd be hard-pressed to discern as such — sound quality is masterful, dynamics impeachable, the performance invigorating. Miller trickles rain dances across the keys in either sustained note clusters or outright thuds and bursts; Dean, controlled, poised, nevertheless channels such a current of unbridled energy it's effect is positively nuclear. Prevost tentatively works a post-bop maxim but soon abandons such a pretense for freer gestures and articulations that girdle Dean and Miller's combined assault; fluid, balanced, here he anchors the frantic blowing with the same combination of valor and gusto that's graced no end of AMM sessions.
The final piece, a trio featuring Miller, Dean and the always reliable Pip Pyle on the traps, dials down the ferocity for more tender climes, but is no less a marvelous session. Dean probes inner sanctums here, Pyle ensuring solid foundations thanks to some intricate cymbal work, while Miller exorcises Monk's dormant spirit by shifting parameters throughout his legato. A timely, necessary, rescued relic, this is a document that feels like one of those unsung watershed moments in the history of British free jazz.
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