discussed in Ian Carr's seminal book 'Music Outside - Contemporary Jazz in Britain'
check out the 'Nucleus News' (below) and 'Labyrinth' page
(see quick links below) for more information on other British jazz musicians.
Alyn Shipton's long-awaited 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 now viewable here |
1 August 2008 - There's a feature on ex-Nucleus virtuoso bass player Jeff Clyne in the latest edition of Jazz UK magazine(August/September Issue 82).
21 June 2008 - A review of the new 2008 Dusk Fire Records CD release of the New Jazz Orchestra live at Camden, London, 1970 is now available to view here
17 June 2008 - Just located by this website, Nucleus fans will want to see this You Tube clip which shows U.S. band Jason Smith's Tipping Point perform Elastic Rock at the Los Angeles Jazz Bakery in August 2007 - check it out here
11 June 2008 - On Stuart Maconie's excellent 'Freak Zone' (BBC Radio 6, 8th June 2008) Professor Justin Spear played 'Black Marigolds' by the Rendell Carr Quintet.
3 June 2008 - While this website does NOT condone the propagation of bootleg recordings of any kind, there are some 'Recordings of Indeterminate Origin' (ROIOs) which are distributed freely and which are of obviously great historical importance and also are highly unlikely ever to receive a legitimate release. Some blogs or websites offer links to ROIOs as a free service to genuine fans. One such website is Big O from Singapore, which is offering a free download (as 'ROIO of the week') of the incredibly rare (until today, this website was totally unaware of its existence) recording of Leon Thomas and Nucleus at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1970. This website can be found here. We reiterate that the Ian Carr and Nucleus website does NOT condone either bootlegs or ROIOs and this information has been posted at the reader's own risk.
27 May 2008 - The Michael Garrick Sextet album -'Promises' from 1965 originally released on the Argo label, finally receives its first official reissue on CD. It features Ian Carr, Joe Harriott and Tony Coe amongst others and is a classic and unmissable British jazz album and one of Garrick's best. It is released on 2 June 2008 on the Vocalion label (CDSML 8440).
15 May 2008 - A review of the Michael Garrick Sextet Revisited concert (10 May 2008) in Darlington is now available to view here
8 May 2008 - The Don Rendell / Ian Carr Quintet track 'Bath Sheba' (from the album 'Phase III') was featured on Stuart Maconie's 'Freak Zone' show on BBC Radio 6 last Sunday, 4 May 2008
21 April 2008 - Ian Carr is 75 today - Happy Birthday Ian!
16 April 2008 - A four star rating appears alongside a review of the new edition of 'Music Outside' in the latest issue of Record Collector (May 2008, No. 349)
16 April 2008 - The 75th birthday celebrations for Michael Garrick reach London in May with two dates at Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean Street. On the 6th May it's Michael Garrick with strings and on the 7th May, a reunion on the original Michael Garrick Sextet featuring Norma Winstone. This sextet will also be featured in a broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in the summer.
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The postponed Mike Osborne Memorial Concert will now be held at the 100 Club, 100 Oxford Street, London, W1
[North side between Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Circus] on Thursday 3 April 2008. Those
appearing will include: Alan Skidmore / Geoff. Gascoyne; Mike Westbrook; Steve Melling / Tony Levin;
Stan Tracey Trio with Andrew Cleyndert and Clark Tracey; Louis Moholo-Moholo ~ Dave Holdsworth /
Chris Biscoe; Evan Parker + Jeff Green / Tony Marsh / Marcio Mattos. Admission: £10.00 / Concessions: £ 7.00
Doors open 7.30 to 11.30. For more information telephone: 020 7619 9111 and Ogun will be releasing Mike Osborne's 'All Night Long - Live at Willisau' (previously released as a LP OG700) with extra material, in time for the concert. The CDs will be on sale at the gig. |
9 March 2008 - Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone (BBC Radio 6) broadcast on Sunday 2 March, included the Nucleus anthem 'Song for the Bearded Lady'
22 February 2008 - There's an enthusiastic review of the new edition of 'Music Outside' in the latest issue of Jazzwise (March 2008, issue 117) where Duncan Heining describes it as 'a very welcome new edition'.
20 February 2008 - Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone (BBC Radio 6) broadcast on Sunday 17 February, featured a section on modern British jazz, where his guest on the show was Roger Cotterrell talking about Ian Carr's recently republished book 'Music Outside'. Stuart also played tracks by the Rendell Carr Quintet, Michael Garrick and Mike Westbrook.
17 February 2008 - The latest issue of Record Collector magazine (March 2008, No 347) includes the second part of a major feature on British jazz collectables from the 1950s - 1970s, in which Ian Carr is described as 'the most important trumpet player of this period'. We think this should have been 'most important British trumpet player ever' of course! Excellent feature and highly recommended.
4 February 2008 - Jazz pianist and composer Michael Garrick will perform on Saturday March 29th at 8 pm at Hinde Street Church, London W1 (between Baker Street and Bond Street stations). Pay at the door: £7. The concert is in aid of the West London Day Centre for homeless people.
24 January 2008 - The latest edition of Record Collector magazine (February 2008, No 346) has the first part of a major feature on British jazz collectables which naturally includes albums by Ian Carr and Don Rendell amongst many others.
24 January 2008 - Trumpeter Tommy McQuater, who died on 20 January 2008 aged 93, helped many well-known fellow trumpeters during their early years including Digby Fairweather and Ian Carr.
17 January 2008 - The new edition of Ian Carr's 'Music Outside' was launched at London's Guildhall School of Music last Friday 11th January, where four of the members of the Rendell Carr Quintet were in attendance (Ian Carr, Don Rendell, Michael Garrick and Trevor Tomkins). Other guests included tenor saxophonist Stan Robinson, ex-Nucleus bassist Jeff Clyne, veteran bassist Coleridge Goode, film director Mike Dibb and the publisher of the first edition of 'Music Outside', John Latimer Smith. Music was provided by students of the jazz department at the Guildhall, led by the redoubtable Martin Hathaway, who played a selection of Ian Carr compositions. Music Outside, 2nd Edition was officially published on 1 January. It can be ordered through bookshops, online via Amazon, or directly from the publishers: Northway Publications, 39 Tytherton Road London N19 4PZ, Price £15.99 inc P+P, cheques need to be in sterling on UK bank accounts and made payable to 'Northway Publications'.
images © BGO Records
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Little known fact: Ian Carr recorded an album of contemporary music with John Taylor playing organ, entitled 'Sounds and Sweet Airs' which was produced by Jon Hiseman. This album is still available to purchase from: Discord Distribution in the UK or from Celestial Harmonies in the USA. |
Ian Carr has been 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 has 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 is also a founder member of the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble big band which has 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 has written several important books on Jazz including "Music Outside" (1973); 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 has made many appearances on BBC Radio 3. Recently he was Programme Consultant for the 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. In May 2001, Ian Carr played with his old partner Don Rendell 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 is one of the United Kingdom’s most important figures in contemporary Jazz music. As a musician, his contribution to Jazz has been exceptional and he has been a huge influence on generations of music lovers who have discovered 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.
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"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 |
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:
This site was launched 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 or if the link doesn't work just cut and paste this email address to your email outbox: admin@iancarrsnucleus.net
Site last updated 1 August 2008
