JACK BRUCE (CREAM) Songs For A Tailor 1969 UK POLYDOR 1st PRESS ONE PLAY MINT-

JACK BRUCE
Songs For A Tailor

UK POLYDOR (583 058) FIRST PRESSING (September 1969) OF JACK BRUCE'S FANTASTIC SOLO DEBUT LP
BEAUTIFUL CONDITION - ONCE PLAYED

PRESSED ON MID-WEIGHT VINYL (132g - quite heavy for Polydor)
MATRIX: 583058 A//2 11 14 / 583058 B//2 1 3 5
THE RECORD HOUSED IN THE ORIGINAL MATT, SINGLE THICKNESS FRONT LEAF GATEFOLD SLEEVE WITH INTERNALLY PRINTED LYRICS MADE BY “MacNeill Press Ltd., London, S.E.1”
COMPLETE WITH THE ORIGINAL POLYDOR POLY-LINED INNER SLEEVE DATE CODED '099' (September 1969)

JACK BRUCE - vocals, bass, organ, piano, cello
JON HISEMAN - drums
CHRIS SPEDDING - guitar
HENRY LOWTHER - trumpet
HARRY BECKETT - trumpet
DICK HECKSTALL-SMITH - saxophone
ART THEMEN - saxophone
FELIX PAPPALARDI - vocals, percussion, guitar (and production)

With a live version of "Crossroads" going Top 30 for Cream, "Songs for a Tailor" was released in 1969, showing many more sides to Jack Bruce.
George Harrison (using his L'Angelo Misterioso moniker) appears on the first track, "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune," though his guitar is not as prominent as the performance on "Badge." The song is bass heavy with Colosseum members Dick Heckstall-Smith and Jon Hiseman providing a different flavour to what Bruce fans had become accustomed to.
Hiseman drums on eight of the ten compositions, including "Theme From an Imaginary Western," the second track, and Jack Bruce's greatest hit that never charted.
With "just" Chris Spedding on guitar and Jon Hiseman on drums, Bruce paints a masterpiece performing the bass, piano, organ, and vocals. The song is so significant it was covered by Mountain, Colosseum, and a Colosseum spin-off, Greenslade.
Bruce's omnipresence on the charts and in the studio gives the diversity on Songs for a Tailor that much more intrigue. "Tickets to Water Falls" and "Weird of Hermiston" feature the Hiseman/Spedding/Bruce trio, and though the wild abandon of Ginger Baker is replaced by Hiseman's jazz undercurrents, these are still basically two- to three-and-a-half-minute songs, not as extended as the material on Bruce's work on his John McLaughlin/Heckstall-Smith/Hiseman disc "Things We Like" recorded a year before this, but released two years after Songs for a Tailor in 1971.
The history is important because this album is one of the most unique fusions of jazz with pop and contains less emphasis on the blues, a genre so essential to Bruce's career.
"Rope Ladder to the Moon" has that refreshing sparkle found on "Tickets to Water Falls" and "Weird of Hermiston," but Bruce has only John Marshall on drums and producer Felix Pappalardi adding some vocals while he provides cellos, vocals, guitar, piano, and bass.
Side two goes back to the thick progressive sound of the first track on side one, and has a lot in common with another important album from this year, Janis Joplin's "I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!" Jack Bruce and Janis Joplin were two of the most familiar superstar voices on radio performing hard blues-pop. Joplin added horns to augment her expression the same time Jack Bruce was mixing saxes and trumpets to three tracks of this jazz/pop exploration.
"He the Richmond" deviates from that, throwing a curve with Bruce on acoustic guitar, Pappalardi on percussion, and Marshall slipping in again on drums. But the short one minute and 44 second "Boston Ball Game, 1967" proves the point about the pop/jazz fusion succinctly and is a nice little burst of creativity.
"To Isengard" has Chris Spedding, Felix Pappalardi, and Jack Bruce on acoustic guitars, a dreamy folk tune until Hiseman's drums kick in on some freeform journey, Spedding's guitar sounding more like the group Roxy Music, which he would eventually join as a sideman, over the total jazz of the bass and drums.
"The Clearout" has Spedding, Hiseman, and Bruce end the album with progressive pop slightly different from the other recordings here.
Peter Brown composed all the lyrics on Songs for a Tailor with Jack Bruce writing the music. The lyrics printed on the centre of the LP gatefold display the serious nature of this project. It is picture perfect in construction, performance, and presentation.
There is no title song, the album title is a dedication to clothing designer Jeannie Franklyn (Genie the Tailor), who used to make clothes for Cream and tragically died in May 1969 in the Fairport Convention van accident

Side 1: NEVER TELL YOUR MOTHER SHE'S OUT OF TUNE / THEME FOR AN IMAGINARY WESTERN / TICKETS TO WATERFALLS / WEIRD OF HERMISTON / ROPE LADDER TO THE MOON
Side 2: THE MINISTRY OF BAG / HE THE RICHMOND / BOSTON BALL GAME 1967 / TO ISENGARD / THE CLEAROUT

LABELS: MINT-
A pair of clean, factory-fresh labels which carry just one light spindle trace
VINYL Visual: MINT-
Both surfaces shine like new
VINYL Audio: MINT-
Play-checked at volume the record plays beautifully throughout with nothing to fault the deep, rich, warm and heavy sound
SLEEVE: EXCELLENT
Apart from a little edge rub and some creasing to the extremities the sleeve is unmarked and in fine condition
INNER SLEEVE: MINT-
The original poly-lined inner is clean, white and unmarked - no seam splits - barely seen the light of day

POST & PACKING:
A PROTECTIVE POLY SLEEVE, NEW INNER SLEEVE WITH ANTI-STATIC LINER, QUALITY BOX (NOT ENVELOPE) MAILER AND AMPLE STIFFENERS ARE ALWAYS USED TO ENSURE THAT YOUR RECORD ARRIVES SAFELY
UK: FREE (1st Class Recorded Delivery)
UK: £9.00 (Royal Mail Special Delivery Next Day by 1pm)
EUROPE: Airmail: £14.00 (International Signed For delivery)
INTERNATIONAL: Airmail: £17.00 (International Signed For delivery)
PAYMENT IS BY PAYPAL ONLY SO IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PAY BY SOME OTHER METHOD PLEASE CONTACT ME FIRST

I will combine postage for items purchased within any 10 day period.
However, at the end of each 10 day period, all outstanding items will need to be paid for in full and will be posted to you.
Any items purchased after payment will be included in the next 10 period.
I am continually adding new items which may be of interest to you and it is impractical for me to allow payment to be postponed indefinitely in the expectation that you might wish to bid on future items.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation
Guarantee: The record is unconditionally guaranteed and I will offer a complete, no quibble refund upon return of the item should you not be pleased with it in any way I will email you when payment has been received to let you know when the item will be posted. Please leave feedback upon receipt of the item so that I know you have received it safely. Thanks  526 (GS 6.6.6 (526))