Mike Taylor was an immensely talented composer and pianist who died in tragic circumstances and far too young. In his memory, Neil Ardley arranged eleven of Taylor's compositions which aptly demostrate just how good Taylor's compositional abilities were - his piano playing may be judged on his two recently reissued albums Trio and Pendulum.

This is a beautiful record by any standards and with Neil Ardley as musical director for these recordings, these rarely heard Mike Taylor compositions, are superb throughout. A typically elegant Ian Carr fluegelhorn solo is heard in Pendulum (which segues from Half Blue) and other tracks are embellished by the likes of Henry Lowther and Barbara Thompson. The ever-wonderful voice of Norma Winstone is heard to great effect on the non-instrumental titles. Winstone's voice comes to the fore particularly on spectacularly haunting songs like Summer Sounds and Timewind. However, four of the ten numbers are instrumental big or small group band arrangements such as Half Blue - Pendulum and Black and White Raga.

Quite literally, the cream of British jazz is featured in this rarer than hen's teeth album. The 'literally' bit alludes to the fact that Mike Taylor was Ginger Baker's co-writer on several Cream songs but many of the New Jazz Orchestra have played in line-ups with members of Cream and indeed Jack Bruce was himself a member of the NJO although sadly not playing on this recording (however Bruce along with Dave Gelly assembled a small band for a special edition of BBC Radio's Jazz Workshop as a tribute to Taylor). Rarer than hen's teeth refers to the fact that although recorded under the aegis of the legendary Denis Preston, this album, strangely, was never released until now. A very important album in the history of British jazz, and to say it is long overdue for release is putting it mildly. Very highly recommended.

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