Alan Skidmore Quintet Once Upon A Time UK LP Deram NOVA

	£		135
	$		179

Alan Skidmore Quintet – Once Upon A Time (stereo pressing) was issued in the UK in 1970 on Deram Nova SDN 11. This is the first pressing and is presented here in lovely condition. 

This was Skidmore’s first album with his Quintet and was recorded in late 1969 after having represented the UK at the Montreaux International Jazz Festival earlier in the year, winning several awards.

Once Upon a Time is one of an amazing 20 albums tenor saxophonist Alan Skidmore appeared on in 1969 and 1970 (including several veritable classics of British jazz, Mike Gibbs' Tanglewood 63, John Surman's How Many Clouds Can You See?, Stan Tracey's Seven Ages of Man, and Graham Collier's Songs for My Father). The lineup of this particular quintet, which represented Britain at the 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival, is truly stellar: in addition to Skidmore there's Canadian trumpeter/flügelhorn virtuoso Kenny Wheeler, pianist John Taylor, bassist Harry Miller, and percussionist Tony Oxley. Two of the six tracks are credited to John Surman, and one, the sultry "Old San Juan," is penned by John Warren, Surman's collaborator on Tales of the Algonquin, another classic release from the same year. If the Surman material reveals the discreet influence of the late-'60s Miles Davis quintet, Oxley's "Majaera" begins to explore the more dangerous territory of free playing he would return to the following year on his Four Compositions for Sextet. Elsewhere, John Taylor's "The Yolk" is a boisterous, brilliant piece of hard bop, and the last three tracks, segued together as a suite, explore a similarly wide range of styles. So much so that Skidmore aficionados tend to prefer the greater coherence of the following year's septet release on Philips, TCB, but Once Upon a Time remains one of the landmark albums of British jazz.

Tracks:

Side 1

1. Once Upon A Time
2. Majaera
3. The Yolk

Side 2

4. Old San Juan
5. Free For Al
6. Image

Personnel:

Alan Skidmore: Tenor saxophone

Kenny Wheeler: Flugelhorn

John Taylor: Piano

Harry Miller: Double Bass

Tony Oxley: Drums

Produced by Peter Eden

Engineer: Bill Price / David Grinsted

Single sleeve laminated on front is In Very Good ++ condition with a little unpunctured lift in the laminate and a little light creasing to the front and a narrow (1 cm x 8 cm) scar at the top of the rear - see photo. Spine text perfectly legible and opening edge unfeathered.

Supplied with the original blue polylined inner sleeve which is visible through the blue for stereo / red for mono hole in the top right of the rear sleeve.

The vinyl is in Excellent ++ condition. Plays beautifully from start to finish with no audible issues.

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Grading :

M = Mint - as new

NM = Near Mint - very few, light signs of usage that don’t affect play - the cover has only minor signs of wear.

EX = Excellent - some signs of usage, but very little lessening in sound quality – the cover might have slight wear and/or creasing.

VG = Very Good - no major deterioration in sound quality, despite noticeable surface marks and the occasional light scratch - normal wear and tear on the cover or extra items.

G = Good - the sound quality has noticeably deteriorated, perhaps with some distortion and mild scratches - the cover and contents suffer from folding, scuffing of edges, spine splits, discolouration, etc.

+ and - are used as appropriate.

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Add £3.00 per additional LP up to a MAXIMUM of 6.

Quantities above 6, please enquire BEFORE purchase and I will let you know.