Under Milk Wood, Stan Tracey, LP

Reissued on vinyl for the first time in nearly 40 years, The Stan Tracey Quartet's "Under Milk Wood" is considered one of the finest British jazz albums ever made, an effortlessly iconic masterpiece that encapsulates the heady '60s jazz boom. It features compositions by the great Stan Tracey - The Godfather of British Jazz - inspired by Dylan Thomas' drama 'Under Milk Wood', including the timeless "Starless and Bible Black" with it's acclaimed solo by tenor saxophonist Bobby Wellins. Like Thomas's characters, the themes vary greatly in tempo, in mood, in dramatic depth. The title song is a triumph, not only because it stands by itself as a beautifully conceived jazz ballad, but because it sets the scene for the rest of the writing and playing. Some of the other themes are impressionistic and highly subjective sketches of Thomas seen through the prism of jazz. It was awarded 69th place in Jazzwise magazine's The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World: "Tracey is indispensable, a one-man mission statement. Here he showed how much could be achieved within the basic jazz quartet format. Reaction at the time seems to have been along the lines of where on earth did this come from? Coherent, vital and mind-stretching." "The haunting Starless and Bible Black remains probably the finest single recorded performance by a British jazz group." - The Observer