Joe Harriott

• 4 1/2 STARS ALL MUSIC GUIDE

The magnificent Indo-Jazz suite by The Joe Harriott Double Quintet Under The Direction Of John Mayer. Features Kenny Wheeler on trumpet, band leader Joe Harriott on alto saxophone, sitar player Diwan Motihar and more. On Indo-Jazz Suite's release in 1966 its four tracks – ‘Overture’, ‘Contrasts’, ‘Raga Megha’ and ‘Raga Gaud-Saranga’ – freeze-framed something in Indo-jazz fusion that was unique to Britain.

The States may have had ‘happening’ notables like Don Ellis but never a John Mayer or a Joe Harriott. Mayer was a Calcutta-raised composer-violinist as equally at home in Hindustani classical and Indian vernacular forms as he was in Western classical and popular music forms. Kingston, Jamaica-born altoist Harriott was a jazzer who took the jazz path rather than the jazz-into-ska route.

PERSONNEL:

• Joe Harriott - (alto sax)
• Coleridge Goode - (bass)
• Alan Ganley - (drums)
• Chris Taylor - (flute)
• Pat Smythe - (piano)
• Diwan Motihar - (sitar)
• Keshav Sathe - (tabla)
• Chandrahas Paigankar - (tambura)
• Kenny Wheeler - (trumpet)
• John Mayer - (violin, harpsichord)

TRACKS:

• SIDE A
• A1. Overture
• A2. Contrasts

• SIDE B
• B1. Raga Megha
• B2. Raga Gaud-Saranga