About

Decca Records are making The John Cameron Quartet's Off Centre album available on vinyl again for the first time since it was released in July 1969. Long sought after by collectors and connoisseurs, original copies now sell for eye-watering sums.

Joining pianist John Cameron in the "good and the great of British Jazz" line-up is bass player Danny Thompson, percussionist Tony Carr, and flute and saxophone player Harold McNair.

This new edition was mastered at Abbey Road using high definition 24bit/192kHz audio files, copied directly from the original stereo analogue master tapes. Images of those tapes are included in the package alongside new sleeve notes written by noted author, compiler and documentary maker Tony Higgins, who interviewed John Cameron especially for this release.

Off Centre was originally released on Decca's 'alternative' Deram imprint, a home for psychedelia, folk, and prog rock sounds, that still found time for chart hits by Cat Stevens, The Move, and The Moody Blues. The variety displayed on the seven original tracks on Off Centre sits comfortably with Deram's eclectic style, ranging from passages of improvisational 'Free Jazz' on the title track, to the danceable 'Mod Jazz' grooves of album closer 'Troublemaker'.  — (via Label)

—

When the usual roll-call of jazz musicians who were a part of what is now regarded as ‘The Golden Era of British Jazz’, roughly from the early 1960s to the early 70s, chances are that John Cameron will not be among the first names mentioned.

It is fair to say he had an elliptical relationship with jazz. Although he adored the music, and he was from jazz-loving parents, when he came down from Cambridge, his day job was working with folk crossover artists such as Donovan and Julie Felix, and on television, which was finally coming into its own at the end of 1960s.

Despite this musically excellent album, Cameron does not remember if the quartet played live, which makes the whole group cohesion and interaction thing all the more remarkable.

There are no shortcomings in his pianistic ability on the original compositions prepared for this album, flautist Harold McNair is excellent and Danny Thompson, the rock on which Pentangle was built, was a fine bassist and Carr’s drumming fitted perfectly.

The music covers a lot of approaches well, from the bright tempo of the title track and the Off Centre theme, the piece settles into some serious creativity. The ballad ‘Go Away…’ deserves to be resurrected and the medium tempo Latin of ‘Dafina Querida’ hits a perfectly judged groove for improvisation.

The piece ‘Omah Cheyenne’ presents a 12-tone musical obstacle course which is negotiated with aplomb, while other highlights include ‘Wenceslas Square,’ based on a tonal centre; ‘Splat,’ a 32-bar AABA over a well-known chord sequence, perhaps the least interesting track; while ‘Troublemaker’ acknowledges the massive impact of rock and pop on the London music scene of the 1960s, with a nod to Ramsey Lewis on this “beat’ version of a 12-bar blues.

One of the occasional productions under the British Jazz Explosion imprint of Decca, this excellent re-release briefly surfaced a few years back on Vocalion/Dutton, but this facsimile album in 140 gram (yes, not 180gram) vinyl is a chance to discover an excellent representation of British jazz of the period.

Why did Cameron not pursue this direction that promised as much as it delivered? Well, he had just done the soundtrack for the film Kes, decamped briefly to work with Kirk Douglas on his film Scallywag in Hollywood, and back in London was behind the formation of the group CCS. But he did leave us this postcard from the Land of Whatmighthavebeen. — (via JazzWise)

↓
Label: Decca / Deram
Series: British Jazz Explosion
Format:    Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo
Reissued: 2025 / Original: 1969
Genre: Jazz
Style: Post Bop, Hard Bop, Modal, British Jazz

File under: Jazz
⦿