Alan Wakeman

Alan Wakeman – The Octet Broadcasts 1969 and 1979 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:00:06 minutes | 1,32 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Gearbox Records

The Octet Broadcasts is made up of two BBC sessions from 1969 and 1979 respectively. Taken and mastered from the original analogue tapes by Gearbox, the album offers a snapshot of a time when British jazz was at another high, featuring such names as John Taylor, Alan Skidmore, Paul Lytton, and Art Themen, who themselves were contemporaries of and collaborated with the likes of Evan Parker, Michael Garrick, Ian Carr, and Roscoe Mitchell.

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Alan Wakeman – Manhattan Variation (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 12:37 minutes | 284 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Gearbox Records

Whilst “the next young generation of British jazz” has been applied many times to London’s current jazz scene, this headline from Melody Maker was in fact used to describe Alan Wakeman and his band back in 1970. The young alto saxophonist, influenced by Charles Mingus and mentored by Mike Westbrook, was composing singular, large ensemble pieces at a time when jazz had long left the limelight and rock was in the foreground.

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