Artist: Michael Garrick
Title: Lady of the Aurian Wood: A Magic Life of Duke
Cat Number: JAZA17
Label, Year Released: Jazz Academy Records, 2009
Format: CD & all digital platforms
Barcode: 801082042120
Michael Garrick was one of the UK’s leading jazz pianists and composers. Championed by DJ Gilles Peterson, Garrick’s career underwent a revival when Peterson included his classic recordings from the 1960s in his acclaimed ‘Impressed’ compilations of British jazz.
On ‘Lady of the Aurian Wood’ Garrick pays tribute to one of the greatest composers of all-time, Duke Ellington with a set of 12 original compositions. Roger Cotterell writes in his liner notes: “Michael Garrick has become one of the great carriers and extenders of the jazz tradition. By focussing on key events of Ellington’s career, he here conjures up in his own imaginative terms a life that was pretty much a paradigm of the miraculous. It’s not just a tribute: more like a beatification.”
Garrick’s Jazz Orchestra features a stellar lineup of British jazz musicians including vocalist Norma Winstone, trumpeters Martin Shaw and Steve Waterman, drummer Alan Jackson and Garrick himself on piano.
“Dazzling arrangements…a heartfelt tribute to a US giant becomes a sweet and swinging exemplar of Jazz Brittanica. Magic indeed.” – ★★★★ Al Brownlee, Manchester Evening News
“Garrick’s judicious orchestration allows every theme and mood to develop naturally…there’s no shortage of energetic fizz from his soloists.” – ★★★★ Roger Thomas, BBC Music Magazine
“The writing is packed with incident, superbly voiced, with deft counterpoint and thematic development, yet never cluttered.” – ★★★★ Ray Comiskey, The Irish Times
“Glides and swings with perfect grace…another excellent Michael Garrick record to add to a book that is already packed with delights.” – Duncan Heining, Jazzwise
Michael Garrick: piano
Norma Winstone: vocal
Martin Hathaway, Bob McKay, Dave Shulman, Sam Walker, Sam Bullard, Ian East, Carlos Lopez Real, Mick Foster: reeds
Martin Shaw, Steve Waterman, Gabriel Garrick, Rory Simmons, Steve Fishwick: trumpet
Mark d’Silva, Andy Flaxman, Dave Eaglestone: trombone
Dominic Ashworth, Pete Callard: guitar
Paul Moylan: bass
Alan Jackson: drums
All compositions by Michael Garrick, except track 12 by Gabriel Garrick
Recorded by Dick Hammett
Mixed by Matthias Garrick, Gabriel Garrick and Michael Garrick