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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. The Heart Is A Lotus |
| 2. Song By The Sea |
| 3. Torrent |
| 4. Temple Dancer |
| 5. Blues On Blues |
| 6. Voices |
| 7. Beautiful Thing |
| 8. Rustat’s Grave Song |
Product Description
Album Description
Pianist and composer Michael Garrick's classic 1970 Argo jazz album, beautifully re-mastered and presented on CD for the first time by the Vocalion label.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
If you've been collecting this fascinating wave of 60s/70s British Modern Jazz reissues, you'll be familiar with mid-60s Garrick albums like "October Woman" & "Black Marigolds." They mostly feature concise compositions for small groups but by 1970 Garrick (like Westbrook & Gibbs) had shifted things to another level, with longer looser experimental pieces for larger ensembles. The music on "Heart Like a Lotus" is mostly languid, sensual, with some endearingly cod-exotic eastern touches - but always with a swinging blues foundation (and with the odd fast & furious bop instrumental like "Torrent").
"Heart" is interesting to compare with Mike Westbrook's "Lovesongs," both being 1970 concept albums charting the course of a love affair, both unashamedly romantic & lush, with similar line-ups of a dozen or so top-notch musicians of the day, and both led by the voice of Norma Winstone (ballad-like songs with faux naïf lyrics by Garrick, soaring off into wordless vocalese). Musicians on "Heart" include the usual suspects: Ian Carr, Don Rendell, Art Themen etc. Where "Lovesongs" shows the influence of soul/rock fusion, "Heart" is still firmly jazz. Standout track? Maybe the finale: "Rustrat's Grave Song." Idiosyncratic & an acquired taste maybe, but "Heart Like A Lotus" is a fine example of this musical genre. If you already have "Troppo" & "Lovesongs" then you'll like this. Vocalian reissue, remastering as usual by Michael Dutton. Original sleeve & (brief) notes.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
"Michael Garrick is the most poetic and painterly of the Sixties British jazz men, and The Heart is a Lotus is the composer's/pianist's pastoral jazz masterpiece....`Temple Dancer' draws heavily on Garrick's interest in Eastern music (check Norma Winstone's incredible vocals here)."
Andy Thomas, Straight No Chaser Magazine, Winter 2005
"Ian Carr is his beautiful understated self, playing with a mute but a million miles from Miles on `Temple Dancer'. `Beautiful Thing' has gorgeous arco figures from Coleridge Goode, and some fine clarinet work from Art Themen and the little-remarked Jim Philip....I always thought this was the record that really established Michael Garrick's quality. Great stuff."
Brian Morton, Jazz Review, October-November 2005
"The Heart is a Lotus is put together with glorious attention to detail - nothing wasted, subtle, charming and gorgeous. There's so much here to admire....The album closes with `Rustat's Grave Song, a track that for me ranks alongside W.C Handy's `Didn't He Ramble' as one of the great funeral elegies in jazz. Any better elegy or closing track eludes me."
Duncan Heining, Jazzwise, September 2005
No.3, Top 10 Reissues of 2005, Duncan Heining, Jazzwise, December 2005-January 2006
No.7, Top 10 Reissues of 2005, Stuart Nicholson, Jazzwise, December 2005-January 2006
ARTISTS
Art Themen (flute, clarinet, soprano, tenor)
Jim Philip (flute, clarinet, tenor)
Don Rendell (flute, soprano, tenor)
Ian Carr (trumpet, flügelhorn)
Dave Green (bass)
Coleridge Goode (bass)
Trevor Tomkins (drums)
Michael Garrick (piano, harpsichord)
Norma Winstone (voice)
TRACKS
The Heart Is A Lotus (all Garrick)
Song By The Sea
Torrent
Temple Dancer
Blues On Blues
Voices
Beautiful Thing
Rustat's Grave Song
I can only agree wholeheartedly with the previous reviews. For me, this is one of the best British Jazz albums out there. One to return to, again and again
Andy Thomas, Straight No Chaser Magazine, Winter 2005
"Ian Carr is his beautiful understated self, playing with a mute but a million miles from Miles on `Temple Dancer'. `Beautiful Thing' has gorgeous arco figures from Coleridge Goode, and some fine clarinet work from Art Themen and the little-remarked Jim Philip....I always thought this was the record that really established Michael Garrick's quality. Great stuff."
Brian Morton, Jazz Review, October-November 2005
"The Heart is a Lotus is put together with glorious attention to detail - nothing wasted, subtle, charming and gorgeous. There's so much here to admire....The album closes with `Rustat's Grave Song, a track that for me ranks alongside W.C Handy's `Didn't He Ramble' as one of the great funeral elegies in jazz. Any better elegy or closing track eludes me."
Duncan Heining, Jazzwise, September 2005
No.3, Top 10 Reissues of 2005, Duncan Heining, Jazzwise, December 2005-January 2006
No.7, Top 10 Reissues of 2005, Stuart Nicholson, Jazzwise, December 2005-January 2006
ARTISTS
Art Themen (flute, clarinet, soprano, tenor)
Jim Philip (flute, clarinet, tenor)
Don Rendell (flute, soprano, tenor)
Ian Carr (trumpet, flügelhorn)
Dave Green (bass)
Coleridge Goode (bass)
Trevor Tomkins (drums)
Michael Garrick (piano, harpsichord)
Norma Winstone (voice)
TRACKS
The Heart Is A Lotus (all Garrick)
Song By The Sea
Torrent
Temple Dancer
Blues On Blues
Voices
Beautiful Thing
Rustat's Grave Song
I can only agree wholeheartedly with the previous reviews. For me, this is one of the best British Jazz albums out there. One to return to, again and again
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Perfect edition, perfect record!!!
8 Nov 2005
Format:Audio CD
Thanks to this outstanding Vocalion edition we can delight with this extraordinary album, that aged very well and stands as one of the best european jazz albuns of all time!!!! It's really amazing how beauty sparkles all over the record time, but specially "Temple Dancer" (incredible bass cadence!!), "Beautiful Thing" (astonishingly beautiful, really!!) and the eponymous title are superior music!!!! It is sad that musicians/composers with the quality of Michael Garrick never been mentioned in jazz anthologies and All Music Reviews, what kind of attitude is this??? if it is for not knowing, they are missing important things, but if it is the fact that this record never had a digital version, well, here it is available now and so don't loose time including it in the next Jazz Anthology, people!!!
Certainly we need to mention first the lovely voice of Norma Winstone that shines in six of the eight themes of this record, often reminding us the darkened beauty of Barbara Gaskin, in her Spirogyra/Hatfield And The North/National Health years, but Norma is supreme in this context...and the top-class full talented musicians that perform with true passion and heart...
Certainly we need to mention first the lovely voice of Norma Winstone that shines in six of the eight themes of this record, often reminding us the darkened beauty of Barbara Gaskin, in her Spirogyra/Hatfield And The North/National Health years, but Norma is supreme in this context...and the top-class full talented musicians that perform with true passion and heart...
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