Chichester label revives classic jazz album for full live performance

SussexWorld

One of the UK’s most iconic jazz albums, Neil Ardley’s Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows, is about to get the renewed attention it deserves.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely

00:06this afternoon to speak to Craig Crane, who runs Analog October Records in Chichester,

00:11and you have a project, don't you? And it's an important one, very personal to you. You are

00:16reissuing Neil Ardley's Kaleidoscope of Rainbows, first time available for many, many years,

00:22and you are basing a live performance on that at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester on Saturday,

00:28November 22nd, followed by the London Jazz Festival at the Barbican the next day.

00:34What is so special about this album then? When did you first hear it?

00:39Oh, I've been aware of the album for many, many years. But the reason why it's such a special album

00:47is because it challenges people's conceptions of jazz. It's not jazz, but it is jazz. It's British

00:55jazz. And it comes from a time in the UK, 1976, which wasn't exactly a wonderful time to be living

01:04in. It was quite depressing and dark. And then suddenly just this album arrived that was just so

01:11kaleidoscopic in its in its energy. And it's...

01:14You remember it when it came out?

01:16No, because I was six. Sorry. I discovered it a few years later. But it's just such a very

01:27difficult album to pigeonhole. It could be cinematic. It could be jazzy. There's some rock,

01:35and there's some funk, and there's some drive. And it's like Neil's other album that we brought out

01:41earlier on in the year, Harmony of the Spheres. So many people who have bought it blind,

01:49not knowing about it. And then the first thing that they say is, how have I managed to get 50

01:54years, 55 years old, and only hearing this for the first time? And it's because obviously there

02:01is so much music, and there's so much legacy catalogue like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.

02:07And this is one of those titles that just kind of came out, sort of slid under the radar,

02:13and then has found its audience, you know, many years later. And that's why it's still

02:19You have to know it's there. Well, it's not being repressed constantly, as you say.

02:24No, like I said, it's not being repressed, repressed constantly. And whereas, you know,

02:30things like the Rolling Stones, Miles Davis is kind of blue. They're constantly getting,

02:34you know, reissues upon reissues. So it's, it's a very special album that

02:41I would defy anybody to not enjoy. There's just, it's just, it's just beautiful.

02:47It just comes from incredibly chuffed that you've made this happen.

02:52Well, yes, I mean, to be honest with you, it 10 years ago, owning a record label wasn't on my bingo

02:59card. In fact, 10 years ago, even owning a record shop wasn't on that bingo card. Soon after opening

03:06up the shop, I started to have this notion that I wanted to actually have a label.

03:13And I started that process. And unfortunately, we had bigger fish to fry in 2020. And the shop got

03:22closed down, everyone stayed at home, and the shop went into survival mode. But when we came out of

03:28lockdown, like the series of lockdowns that we were under, and then confidence started to be regained.

03:34That's when I sort of revisited the, the record label idea, and we embarked on getting our first

03:42release out. And then I started to make a list of what titles would I like to release and in what order.

03:51And obviously, Neil's stuff was was on the list. And here we are now getting ready to getting ready

04:00to release this in December gratuitous plug. Yeah. And but also to to to put on a live performance

04:08at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester, which is going to be an astounding evening because the first set is

04:17going to be the entire colored scope of rainbows suite. And then the second set after the interval,

04:23we're going to take a sort of deeper dive into other British jazz classics that will challenge

04:30the audience's perception of what is British jazz. An amazing guest musician is joining us, a young

04:38chap called Binka Golding, who rose to prominence through his partnership with Moses Boyd in a band

04:48called Binka and Moses and, and their solo projects have been absolutely fantastic. And then on the

04:56Sunday, we're taking the same show to the London Jazz Festival at the Milton Concert Hall, which is

05:03just around the corner from the Barbican. And we'll be doing the same again on the Sunday. And it's just,

05:09it's just wonderful. It's, it's just congratulations. It sounds a fantastic project to have brought off

05:15the key dates then December the 17th for the release and November the 22nd, Saturday, November the 22nd,

05:22the concert in the Minerva Theatre. Great. Congratulations on the project. It sounds brilliant.

05:28Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

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