Neil Ardley

• 2-CD SET

• DIGIPACK CASE

One of the more obscure but loftiest masterpieces of British jazz, composer Neil Ardley's long-form suite Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows was released on the tiny Gull Records label in 1976. Its beauty and vitality have remained absolutely unsullied by the passing years and the album has been reissued a couple of times, most recently on Dusk Fire in 2005. In March 2021, the album has been joined by a previously unreleased live recording made at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall a year earlier. Performed by the same twelve-strong lineup of star players, Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows Live '75 features a far longer score, at one hour and forty-two minutes twice the length of the studio edition. It is recognisably the same piece of music but a substantially different one, too, and not just in duration. And it is another stone masterpiece.

PERSONNEL:

• Neil Ardley - composer/conductor
• Ian Carr - trumpet
• Bob Bertles - tenor sax
• Tony Coe - tenor sax
• Brian Smith - tenor sax
• Barbara Thompson - tenor sax
• Paul Buckmaster - cello
• Kenny Shaw - guitar, electric
• Geoff Castle - keyboards
• Dave MacRae - keyboards
• Roger Sutton - bass, electric
• Roger Sellers - drums
• Trevor Tomkins - percussion

• Additional Instrumentation
• Ian Carr - trumpet, electric trumpet, flugelhorn
• Bob Bertles - tenor & soprano sax
• Tony Coe - tenor sax, clarinet, bass clarinet
• Brian Smith - tenor & soprano sax, flute
• Barbara Thompson - tenor, alto & soprano sax, flute
• Paul Buckmaster - cello
• Ken Shaw - electric guitar
• Geoff Castle - electric piano, synthesizer
• Dave MacRae - electric piano, synthesizer
• Roger Sutton - bass guitar
• Roger Sellers - drums, percussion
• Trevor Tomkins - percussion

Recorded live in London, October 20, 1975

TRACKS:

• CD ONE
• 01. Intro
• 02. Prologue/Rainbow 1
• 03. Interlude 1
• 04. Rainbow 2
• 05. Interlude 2
• 06. Rainbow 3 (incomplete)

• CD TWO
• 01. Rainbow 4
• 02. Rainbow 5/Rainbow 6
• 03. Interlude 3
• 04. Interlude 4
• 05. Rainbow 7
• 06. Rainbow 8
• 07. Interlude 5
• 08. Rainbow 9
• 09. Epilogue
• 10. Outro