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Michael Garrick Band

Home Stretch Blues

Vocalion CDSML 8426

Recorded for Argo in 1972 (in three hours), this album documents the music made by Michael Garrick's working band of the time: saxophonists Art Themen and Don Rendell, trumpeter/violinist Henry Lowther, bassist Dave Green, drummer Trevor Tomkins and singer Norma Winstone.

The title track, with its rolling rhythm inspired by the journeys between gigs undertaken by the band, sets the tone: a lively, catchy but engagingly subtle tune explored by the soaring wordless vocals of Winstone and the eccentric tenor of Rendell, all underpinned by a jaunty yet elegant rhythm section.

Subsequent pieces feature various combinations of the above (although Rendell appears on only one other track) plus the poised, surefooted blaze of Lowther's trumpet, the unexpected rattle of the leader's harpsichord, and the free-jazz inflexions of Themen, but what most impresses is the sheer quality of Garrick's compositions.

Rich, varied and naggingly memorable, they utilise the instrumental (and vocal) resources available with wit and economy, and touch on Garrick's now-familiar themes (the power of religious ceremonial, the revisiting of music familiar from childhood, the emotional trajectory traced by life-experience), all present and correct in his latest projects, three decades on (see, for instance, Yet Another Spring).

An intriguing album, worth visiting for much more than its (considerable) nostalgic appeal.