RPM Label Collects Rare British Jazz On "Turtle Records" Box Set

Though jazz may be one of the most quintessentially American art forms, its influence and power naturally spread around the world in various forms. In Great Britain, the popular Dixieland-inspired "trad jazz" (or "traditional jazz") boom - epitomized by artists including The Three Bs: Mr. Acker Bilk, Chris Barber and Kenny Ball - was followed by a period of intense experimentation among jazz musicians concurrent with the rhythm and blues and rock revolutions. Rock and R&B artists, too, reciprocated as they incorporated jazz-based improvisation techniques into their own music. Progressive jazz sounds were leading to an indigenous style of "British jazz" and among its chief proponents was producer Peter Eden. Between 1968 and 1972, Eden produced and/or oversaw some 20 albums capturing this sound, three of which were released on his own Turtle Records label in 1970 and 1971. Now, those three albums are receiving their first-ever CD release via Cherry Red's RPM imprint in the recent 3-CD box set Turtle Records: Pioneering British Jazz 1970-1971.

This new set, housed in a small clamshell box, includes three original Turtle Records releases in replica mini-LP sleeves: alto saxophonist Mike Osborne's Outback; pianist Howard Riley's Flight; and pianist John Taylor's Pause, and Think Again. RPM previously told part of the Peter Eden story via the release earlier this year of The Eve Folk Recordings, spotlighting the label founded by onetime Donovan manager Eden and his business partner, songwriter Geoff Stephens. Following flirtations with psychedelia, pop and beyond, Eden began to concentrate on the burgeoning progressive-jazz sounds in 1968. He produced artists on Decca's Deram label including baritone saxophonist John Surman and progressive bandleader Mike Westbrook, and also found time for projects at Spark Records and, after 1970, at Pye's "underground" Dawn imprint (where Surman joined him). 1970 was also the year when he decided to form his own label, and Turtle Records was born even as he was managing the Dawn Records stable of artists.

The three LPs released on Turtle Records have been exceedingly rare; Colin Harper's liner notes point out that it would cost roughly £838 GBP (or $1,283.00 USD) to acquire all three today. The three artists all reflected different aspects of jazz. Per Eden, Riley explored "European-style music...then Mike Osborne came in from another angle, free-form, like Ornette Coleman; then John Taylor was another side - very good ensemble writing, very melodic."

Outback was Mike Osborne's debut record as a leader; he was joined on its two lengthy tracks by Harry Beckett on trumpet, Louis Moholo on drums, Chris McGregor on piano and Harry Miller on bass. Influenced by Jackie McLean and Joe Henderson, Osborne had previously played with Westbrook and Surman before forming a trio with Miller and Moholo. In 1970, the Melody Maker Reader's Poll voted him the No. 1 Alto in Britain. He would be the first and last artist on Turtle; his sophomore LP for the label, Shapes, was shelved for decades. Osborne went on to record for labels including John Jack's Cadillac Records and Ogun Records before his career was stalled by drug abuse and mental illness. He died in 2007. (Note that Osborne's name was spelled incorrectly on the original LP, as "Osbourne.")

Howard Riley came to Turtle with a varied background, conversant in jazz traditions (including bebop, which he had played as a teenager) and in 20th century European modern classical music. On his Turtle release Flight, bassist Barry Guy and percussionist/drummer Tony Oxley. Riley, Guy and drummer Alan Jackson had previously played in The Howard Riley Trio, sharing stages with John McLaughlin (who would occasionally turn the trio into a quartet) and even Pink Floyd, and recording for CBS Records. Riley was no fan, however, of so-called jazz rock, and earned plaudits for his accessible fusion of classical techniques with experimentation. On Flight, with Oxley having replaced Jackson in the Trio, electronic sounds (via "mini-synthesizer boxes") were to the fore. The album was also more heavily improvised than the "composed" style of the CBS records. As the 1970s went on, the Trio eventually wound down, and Riley moved into solo piano work.

The final album in the box, John Taylor's Pause and Think Again, features Chris Laurence on bass, Tony Levin on drums, Stan Sulzmann on alto sax, Chris Pyne on trombone, John Surman on soprano sax, Kenny Wheeler on trumpet and Taylor's then-wife Norma Winstone on vocals for the song "Soft Winds." Taylor admits in the notes that free jazz was never his "cup of tea," but was more influenced by Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis. Pause and Think Again was produced by John Surman rather than Eden himself, and is particularly notable not only as Turtle's final release but as a launching pad for Taylor's sextet (with Wheeler, Sulzmann, Pyne, Laurence and Levin) with whom he would play for many years to come.

Turtle Records proved a financial folly, and Eden moved on to other labels, largely winding down his production work by the end of the 1970s. A key attraction of this box set is the splendid booklet, The Turtle Records Story by Colin Harper. At 17,000 words, it's a definitive history of not just Turtle Records but of Peter Eden and the three artists. A discography of Peter Eden's varied productions is also included in the squarebound booklet. Simon Murphy at Another Planet Music has remastered all three albums for this set. The Turtle Records box, with its vivid snapshot of a remarkably innovative period in jazz history, is available now from RPM Records, and can be ordered at the links below!

Various Artists, Turtle Records: Pioneering British Jazz 1970-1971 (RPM Records RPMBX528, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

CD 1: Mike Osborne, Outback (Turtle TUR 300, 1970)