Son of Local Colour: Live at the Pizza Express, Soho - Jazz Performance Album - Perfect for Dinner Parties & Relaxing Evenings

This is an album by British Jazz pianist / composer Peter Lemer and his quintet, which features saxophonists John Surman and Alan Skidmore, bassist Tony Reeves and drummer Jon Hiseman – all iconic figures of the British Jazz scene. The album presents eight tracks, five by Lemer, one by Surman, one by Carla Bley and finally one by John Coltrane. The album was recorded live at the Pizza Express in London, on February 20th, 2018.But the story behind this album goes back fifty years into the past, when the almost identical lineup of the quintet (with George Khan in place of Skidmore) released the album “Local Colour”, which was recorded a couple of years earlier, on the pioneering independent record label ESP Disk, founded in 1963 and run by a Jewish NY lawyer and Avant-Garde Music protagonist Bernard Stollman, and which yours truly proudly stored in his collection ever since.That album was the first modern / Avant-Garde British Jazz album to be released in the US, together with several other modern European Jazz albums, including even recordings originating from behind the Iron Curtain. At that time most Americans were completely unaware of the existence of modern Jazz outside of the US. It was also the first recording, which features Surman. Five of the compositions on that album are also present on the album, approached in a completely new and different way.Despite the fact that the musicians are five decades older this time, they seem not to have lost any of the vigor and passion, and with the added experience of a lifetime the music obviously gained an unprecedented level of depth and finesse. The new album also offers a closure of sorts, as it was the last recording by Hiseman, before his tragic death just four months after this album was recorded.Overall, this is a fine Avant-Garde Jazz album, beautifully executed by these superb players, which will certainly be a cherished addition to every serious British Jazz collection, and the unusual circumstances surrounding it add to its historic value, serving as a half-Century time bridge between the early days of modern British Jazz and now. Brilliant stuff!