Welcome to the
Ian Carr + Nucleus Website
© 2003 Hux Records Ltd. Nucleus 'The Pretty Redhead'
Cover reproduced with permission of Hux Records
The cover of Ian Carr's funeral service programme
which took place on 13 March 2009 at Golders Green Crematorium, London.
The full programme is available to view here
Nucleus play at London's Cargo, August 2005
© Photo of Nucleus by Tom M Ward and used with his kind permission
From left to right: Geoff Castle, Rob Statham, Chris Batchelor, Phil Todd, Mark Wood
News
6 February 2010 - One of the towering figures of British jazz, Sir John Dankworth, has died today aged 82. Many of today's great jazz musicians started out in Sir John's orchestras including Kenny Wheeler, Mike Gibbs and Henry Lowther. It was under John Dankworth's auspices that Kenny Wheeler's first album "Windmill Tilter" was produced.
Ian Carr receiving his Services to Jazz Award
from Sir John Dankworth at the
Parliamentary Jazz Awards on 11 May 2006
(Photograph courtesy of JM Enternational / PPL)
23 January 2010 - The Rendell Carr Quintet are back in the charts! In the latest issue of Record Collector magazine (February 2010), a four page feature on the biggest eBay sales of last year ("eBaywatch 2009") lists the RCQ's "Shades of Blue" (Columbia SX 1733 mono) at number 44 out of 50 of the highest selling records of the year. It sold on eBay for a staggering £1,849 and was the only jazz album featured amongst 49 other Beatles and other pop and rock albums.
23 January 2010 - NEW FOR 2010! - The revised Melody Maker British Jazz Polls 1960-1974 are here!
Six unissued tracks by the legendary Don Rendell - Ian Carr Quintet
13 January 2010 - To coincide with the Concert celebrating Ian Carr’s life and music, an album containing over an hour’s performance by the Don Rendell – Ian Carr Quintet recorded live in December 1966 will be issued on CD by Canadian Company Reel
Recordings (who specialise in remastering reel-to-reel tapes) and on a double LP by British Company Stamford Audio. Recordings by this legendary band are extremely rare. The band were taped at the Students’ Union Jazz Club at University College London on 12th December 1966 by George Foster, then Secretary of the Jazz Society at the College. In his sleeve notes he says: “The band were on exceptional form that night, even though Dave Green had to leave after a few numbers on a prior booking at Ronnie Scott’s Club backing Ben Webster. The gig wasn’t just a student end-of term-affair either: this room was where the New Jazz Orchestra rehearsed rent-free on Sunday afternoons in return for making the rehearsals open to a student audience. Ian was a regular NJO member, Michael & Don occasional visitors. On the tape, Don mentions Neil Ardley, Mike Gibbs “and many members of the NJO here tonight”. One was Tony Reeves, the NJO’s regular bassist, standing in for Dave Green. Michael Garrick was a graduate of the College and was absolutely at home. So it was a relaxed party-like atmosphere with an audience of over 100 squeezed into the room. And I got the band’s permission to tape the gig.……I heard this band many times and I don’t think that their studio recordings ever fully captured the power and fire of which they were capable…… If you never heard this band in the flesh, you are in for a treat or maybe even a shock, for this was a very hot band.”
The tape was thought to have been lost in the late 1960s, but turned up among Ian’s possessions when his flat was cleared. The 6 tracks are
On (Rendell) 6:29, Ursula (Garrick) 11:07, Trane’s Mood (Garrick)16:22. Carolling (Garrick)5:31, Webster’s Mood (Garrick)16:54 Hot Rod (Carr/Garrick) 14:42 - The sound quality was described as “very good, better than their other taped gigs”. "Live at the Union 1966" is released on 23 February in aid of medical research into Alzheimer's Disease.
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Memorial Concert at QEH to mark anniversary of Ian Carr's death
10 December 2009 - Details of the special memorial concert for Ian Carr “A Celebration of his Life And Music” have now been released. This concert takes place on 23 February 2010 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London just two days before the first anniversary of Ian’s death, the concert will feature a host of musicians Carr worked with over the years. It will feature Michael Garrick leading the surviving members of the Don Rendell / Ian Carr Quintet (Don with Dave Green and Trevor Tomkins). Also in the concert line-up will be Henry Lowther, Art Themen and special guest Norma Winstone, recreating Michael’s band of 1970. Mike Gibbs will conduct Ian’s ‘Northumbrian Sketches’ a 30-minute suite for trumpet and string orchestra, with members of Nucleus (possibly also John Marshall) and special guest Guy Barker on trumpet. The concert will conclude with Nucleus Revisited featuring Nucleus alumni Geoff Castle, Phil Todd, Mark Wood, Rob Statham, Nic France and Chris Bachelor on trumpet with special guests Ray Russell and Tim Whitehead. Tickets are now available from the Southbank Centre here
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1 January 2010 - NEW FOR 2010! - The revised Ian Carr Discography is here!
10 December 2009 - Details of a special memorial concert for Ian Carr “A Celebration of his Life And Music” have just been released. This concert takes place on 23 February 2010 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, just two days before the first anniversary of Ian’s death, the concert will feature a host of musicians Carr worked with over the years. It will feature Michael Garrick leading the surviving members of the Don Rendell / Ian Carr Quintet (Don with Dave Green and Trevor Tomkins). Also in the concert line-up will be Henry Lowther, Art Themen and special guest Norma Winstone, recreating Michael’s band of 1970. Mike Gibbs will conduct Ian’s ‘Northumbrian Sketches’ a 30-minute suite for trumpet and string orchestra, with members of Nucleus, possibly also John Marshall, plus special guest Guy Barker on trumpet. The concert will conclude with Nucleus Revisited featuring Nucleus alumni Geoff Castle, Phil Todd, Mark Wood, Rob Statham, Nic France and Chris Bachelor on trumpet with special guests Ray Russell and Tim Whitehead. Tickets are now available from the Southbank Centre here
3 December 2009 - An obituary for Jeff Clyne appeared in yesterday's edition of The Guardian and may be viewed online here
17 November 2009 - This website is very sad to report the passing yesterday of the great bass player Jeff Clyne at the age of 72. Jeff was, of course, a founder member of Nucleus and played on its first three studio albums. He left Nucleus to join jazz rock bands Isotope and Gilgamesh. He also formed his own band 'Turning Point' which earlier this year had its two albums reissued for the first time on CD by Vocalion. Jeff Clyne began his career with Stan Tracey, the Jazz Couriers, Tubby Hayes and Keith Tippett. In 1966 Clyne also recorded a little known but excellent album with Ian Carr plus Trevor Watts and John Stevens entitled 'Springboard' for Polydor. This has yet to be reissued on CD but is regarded as one of the finest examples of contemporary British jazz. Jeff Clyne was also a highly regarded accompanist and tutor, co-directing the Wavendon jazz course, and teaching at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He will be much missed. R.I.P. Jeff.
25 February 2009 - This website is very sad to report the death of Ian Carr this afternoon. An obituary for Ian Carr can be viewed here.
A message from Selina Carr - 10 April 2009
I just would like to thank everyone so much for all their kindness and for all the letters, cards, emails, cds and dvds that I have received from my father's friends and work colleagues. I am very touched. So thank you everyone!
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Ian Carr - A Personal Tribute
The Chelsea Arts Club has a long tradition of having musician members performing. I have been running the Friday jazz slot, off and on, for around thirty years. Towards the end of his playing life, I invited Ian to play with my band at the club. He explained that he didn't know many mainstream tunes and I said that we'd play whatever he was happy with. I told him to write out a list and that we'd work round it. The list included, Stella By Starlight, All Blues, Lover Man, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise and The Man I Love. And not much more. The set lasted two hours and we always managed to make this handful of songs go the distance. We might add an improvised blues, and a tune Ian didn't know well. Ian would sit out the head and simply take a couple of choruses in the middle. The line up varied from week to week but the core was Mark Wood on guitar, Dominic Alldis or Sara Dhillon on piano and George Trebar on bass. I played tenor, clarinet and alto. When we couldn't get a bass player, I played bass. There were nights when Ian would play alone with John Butler on piano and me on bass.
Ian's fragility worsened visibly during this period and it was obvious something serious was wrong. One night, Ian invited his doctor to listen. When I asked, reluctantly, he told me the bad news. Those Friday nights remain the highlight of my own musical journey. Ian's smile of approval is something I will treasure all my life.
Barry Fantoni
21 March 2009
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This photo was sent to this website on 1/3/09 by Brian Smith
Brian Smith; Roger Sellers; Geoff Castle; Ian Carr; Bill Kristian plus persons unidentified
Calcutta, India, February, 1978
This photo was sent to this website on 28/2/09 by Brian Smith and his caption reads:
"This one Muchen,19-1-81 With ChuCho Merchan on bass and Nic France"
Also shown are Geoff Castle (keyboards), Brian Smith (here playing flute) and Ian Carr
This photo was sent to this website on 26/2/09 by Brian Smith who had just been sent it by Bill Kristian.
Ian Carr and Brian Smith...somewhere...mid-1970s
Update 2 March 2009 - There is a tribute to Ian Carr on the Elastic Rock blog here.
9 February 2009 - This website is sad to report the passing of two musicians with whom Ian Carr played. Kofi Ghanaba or Guy Warren of Ghana died on 22 December and Blossom Dearie, with whom Ian Carr recorded on her last album for Fontana 'That's Just The Way I Want To Be', who died on 7 February. Guy Warren is heard on the Rendell Carr Quintet's album 'Change-Is' and the RCQ are heard on Guy's album 'Afro Jazz'.
27 January 2009 - Ian Carr to feature on BBC Radio 3's Jazz Library! Jazz Library presented by Ian's biographer Alyn Shipton will feature the life and music of Ian Carr. This programme is scheduled for transmission on Saturday 7 February 2009 at 16:00 GMT. The following is from the press release on this programme: Few people active on the British Jazz scene have not come across Ian Carr, whether as trumpeter, bandleader, author or teacher. His insightful biographies of Miles Davis and Keith Jarrett are classics, and his work as leader of Nucleus did much to establish jazz rock in Britain. In this interview (recorded before Carr began to suffer from a long illness) he picks some of his favourite examples from his lengthy catalogue of recordings, showing how he was at the forefront of bringing some of the innovations of Miles Davis to the UK scene. The Rendell-Carr Quintet was one of the most influential bands of 60s, as was the Newcastle-based EmCee five led by Ian's younger brother Mike, which made some powerful recordings.
The new edition of Ian Carr's 'Music Outside' was launched at London's Guildhall School of Music on Friday 11th January, 2008
Photos of Ian Carr at the BBC Jazz Awards 2006, where he received the 'Services to Jazz' award
(pictured also, Jon Hiseman and Barbara Thompson)
Photographs: Mark Allan - Courtesy Air media, tours, management
Alyn Shipton's biography of Ian Carr 'Out of the Long Dark', was published by Equinox on 21 June 2006. 
Information about the book is viewable on the Equinox website
here
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Exclusive interview with Alyn Shipton, author of 'Out of the Long Dark', the biography of Ian Carr is viewable
here
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Photos of 'Out of the Long Dark' book launch, Vortex, London, 21 June 2006:
Top: Alyn Shipton, Left to right: Alyn signing a copy, Jeff Clyne, Michael Garrick and Tony Coe in the background, Michael Garrick, Alyn Shipton with Ian Carr, Michael Garrick and Don Rendell, Geoff Castle, Dill Katz (hidden) and Ian Carr, Warren Greveson with John L Walters in the background
(from Zyklus), Ian Carr with
Tony Coe, Michael Garrick and Don Rendell in the background
Ian Carr receiving his Services to Jazz Award
from Sir John Dankworth at the
Parliamentary Jazz Awards on 11 May 2006
(Photograph courtesy of JM Enternational / PPL)
Michael Garrick, Don Rendell, Paul Moylan and Alan Jackson were amongst many others
who came out to support Ian Carr at a benefit gig for him on 26 September 2006 at the 100 Club, London
For an archive of Nucleus news click here to go to the Old Heartland Nucleus News Archive page
images © BGO Records
Origins
Ian Carr was at the forefront of Jazz music for over 40 years. He began in his home town of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, where he joined his brother Mike's modern Jazz group, the EmCee Five which ran successfully from the late 1950s until the early 1960s. He then co-led the innovative modern British Jazz group the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet which released 5 albums on EMI Columbia's 'Lansdowne series' label. The Rendell-Carr Quintet is regarded by many as one of the most influential, important and original modern British Jazz groups ever. After the break-up of the Rendell-Carr Quintet, which also featured pianist Michael Garrick, Ian Carr went on to form the iconoclastic Jazz-Rock group Nucleus, which represented the United Kingdom at the 1970 Montreux Jazz Festival and won the award for top group that year. They also played the Newport Jazz Festival in the USA on the strength of Montreux.
They released 12 albums either under the Nucleus or Ian Carr name between 1970 and 1980 and toured extensively worldwide. Carr wrote all the music for three of these albums (Solar Plexus, Labyrinth and Old Heartland of which the first two received bursaries from the Arts Council of Great Britain) and he wrote 8 of the 9 tracks on Out of the Long Dark. He also made significant contributions to the recordings of compositions by Jazz composer Neil Ardley on the albums, A Kaleidoscope of Rainbows (with Nucleus), Harmony of the Spheres and Zyklus and to Jazz composer and pianist Keith Tippett’s Jazz orchestra Centipede on the album Septober Energy. He was also a founder member of the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble big band which made over 10 albums between 1977 and 1999 and which continued to perform until 2002, in which year it gave a series of farewell concerts.
As an author he wrote several important books on Jazz including "Music Outside" (1973) which was republished as a 2nd edition in January 2008; the authorised biography of Miles Davis, "Miles Davis: A Critical Biography" (1982) which includes a third revised edition (1998). This is considered by many to be the definitive biography of Miles Davis. He also wrote "Keith Jarrett, The Man and his Music" (1992) and was co-author of "Jazz, the Essential Companion" (1987) and "The Rough Guide to Jazz" (3rd edition, 2004).
As a broadcaster he made many appearances on BBC Radio 3 including
introducing a six part Jazz File series on Miles Davis in 2001. He was Programme Consultant for Mike Dibb's two-part Channel 4 television documentary "The Miles Davis Story", screened in April 2001. This attracted a record television audience for Jazz of 1.2 million viewers. Similarly, he was consultant on Mike Dibb's dcoumentary "Keith Jarrett - The Art Of Improvisation", screened on Channel 4 in December 2004.
In May 2001, Ian Carr joined his old partner Don Rendell for a reunion concert playing to a packed foyer audience at the Royal Festival Hall, in one of several concerts celebrating 50 years of the South Bank.
The trumpeter, composer and author Ian Carr was one of the United Kingdom’s most important figures in contemporary Jazz music. As a musician, his contribution to Jazz was exceptional and his musical legacy remains a huge influence on generations of musicians and audiences who often have been drawn to the many layers of Jazz through an initial interest in Ian Carr’s music. His performances and recording work with his first major group, the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet in the 1960s made him a legendary figure. However, it was his later group Nucleus which was responsible for spearheading a huge revival in modern Jazz music in the 1970s. Ian Carr passed away on Wednesday 25 February 2009, aged 75.
"The Nucleus File - Evolution: Ian Carr formed Nucleus in
October 1969
to enable individual members to express themselves
as fully as possible and explore different ways of grooving.
The band,
which has always been based in London,
started with Ian (trumpet/flugelhorn),
Karl Jenkins (piano, baritone, oboe),
Brian Smith (saxes, flute), Bernie Holland (guitar),
Jeff Clyne (bass, bass guitar)
and John Marshall (drums)"
Source: Melody Maker Factfinder Series, 19 April 1975, p.48
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© Publicity shot of Nucleus by Nick White and used with his kind permission
From left to right: Dill Katz, Phil Todd, John Marshall, Ian Carr
and Mark Wood (1985 line-up)
Nick White's Website
Roots - The Early Days of Ian Carr and The EmCee Five:
Click here to go to the Roots page
Awakening - Various Nucleus and Ian Carr press releases and associated photos:
Click here to go to the Awakening page
Images - Some images of Nucleus and Ian Carr-related bands:
Click here to go to the Images page
Labyrinth - A selection of Nucleus links, discographies, reviews, etc:
Click here to go to the Labyrinth page
Old Heartland - For the archive of Nucleus news:
Click here to go to the Nucleus News Archive page
Things Past - A look back at some Nucleus gigs over the past
30 years:
Click here to go back in time
This site was devised by me as a long overdue tribute to the genius of Ian Carr and his colleagues in Nucleus
in November 2002. Please feel free to email me (Roger Farbey) or if the link doesn't work just cut and paste this email address into your email outbox: admin@iancarrsnucleus.net
Site last updated 6 February 2010
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