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Stan Tracey Big Band

Alice in Jazz Land

ReSteamed Records RSJ 102

The second release from the ReSteamed Records Collectors' Series, this (mainly) big-band session was recorded a year after composer/pianist Stan Tracey's enduringly popular Under Milk Wood Suite, and it features three of the quartet from that album (Tracey, tenor player Bobby Wellins, bassist Jeff Clyne) plus four trumpets, three trombones, two altos, another tenor (usually Ronnie Scott), baritone player Harry Klein and drummer Ronnie Stephenson.

The material is named ('Pig and Pepper', 'Portrait of a Queen' etc.) loosely after scenes from Alice in Wonderland, but is not programmatic in any stricter sense, consisting of Monkishly eccentric, spiky themes leavened with the odd passage of almost Ellingtonian elegance ('Fantasies in Bloom').

The pungent power of Tracey's composition has retained its appeal well over the forty-odd years that have elapsed since the suite was recorded in 1966: the punchy, occasionally shouting ensembles are judiciously balanced against pleasingly bleary solo contributions from Wellins and characteristically percussive, idiosyncratic yet cogent soloing from Tracey himself (his tripping, delightfully discursive playing on 'Fantasies in Bloom' a particular highlight), but what is most impressive is the overall confidence, even swagger, that permeates the writing and playing ’ like all his extended works, Alice in Jazz Land, while clearly indebted to his great inspirations, Ellington and Monk, is immediately identifiable as quintessential Stan Tracey.

A revealing and highly enjoyable reminder that there was a lot more to British musical life in the 1960s than the Beatles and the Stones.