Name: The Octet Broadcasts 1969 and 1979
Brand: Alan Wakeman

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

GB1562CD

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2020-08-21

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

The Orchard

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5060708610166

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

GB1562

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Black

5060708610159

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2 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

Artist

Alan Wakeman

Genre GB

Jazz

Label GB

Gearbox

Gearbox is a British independent label founded in 2009 by Darrel Sheinman. Based in London and Tokyo, Gearbox releases new music by contemporary artists as well as previously-unreleased archival recordings. They are well known for their jazz releases, including the "BBC Jazz For Moderns" series taken from jazz programmes on the BBC. The label also has a series called Japanese Editions featuring legendary performances at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London.

In addition to their record releases, Gearbox operates a mastering studio located at Tileyard Studios in King's Cross, London. Equipped with vintage analog equipment, including a 1967 Haeco Scully lathe with Westrex amplifiers, they offer high-quality lacquer cutting and mastering services. The studio also provides direct-to-disc or tape recording using the adjacent recording studio.

For its own releases, Gearbox Records collaborates with Optimal Media GmbH. Known engineers associated with the label include Darrel Sheinman (Daz), Caspar Sutton-Jones (caspar@gearbox), Cicely Balston (2013-2016), Carla Iannace (since 2021 - carla@gearbox), and Kristina Rhodes (2021-2023). The studio is credited on releases as Gearbox Records Studio or Gearbox Recording.

The next young generation of British jazz” has been applied many times to London’s current jazz scene, but this headline from Melody Maker was actually used to describe Alan Wakeman and his band back in 1970. And if a prototype for Binker and Moses' viscerally energetic semi-free sound is sought, you would be hard pressed to find a closer relative than the second part of climactic Disc 1 highlight Dreams. Elsewhere, the dexterously varied compositions ooze curiously English-sounding brass band pastoral warmth, nods to traditional chorales and on Disc 2 (from the 1979 broadcast) leanings toward atonal conceptual forms This unearthed gem features two separate Wakeman Octet ensemble recordings, made in ‘69 and ‘79 for BBC radio broadcast, both of which are being released commercially for the first time as a double album, mastered directly from the original analogue tapes and treated to the highest production values synonymous with Gearbox Records. Important for the quality of the music but also as a document of an under-explored era, the recordings offer a snapshot of a time when the quality of British jazz was, as now, at a high. Featuring John Taylor, Alan Skidmore, Paul Lytton, Art Themen, Gordon Beck and many more.

The Octet Broadcasts 1969 and 1979

Music GB