Clarke-Boland Big Band - Volcano/Rue Chaptal - Live at Ronnie's 1969 (Polydor, 1969)

The big band formed by Kenny Clarke and Francy Boland was the United Nations of jazz. Some hold to the view that if they'd been allowed to replace the conventional UN Security Council, the world would be a more harmonious place. Whether the world would have been more peaceful or not is debatable, as when this band was going all-out, it made a mighty fine racket. This racket was rarely captured as well as on the two LPs recorded during the band's fortnight at Ronnie Scott's club in February/March 1969. Unaccountably, these records appear not to be available in any shape or form right now, so I've taken the liberty of digitising my well-played vinyl. I've also taken the liberty of cleaning up the pops and clicks, but nothing too obtrusive. I find on a lot of reissues, I can hear the noise reduction at work, which defeats the object slightly. The download is multi-part RAR - just download them all into the same directory, open part 1 and Robert should then be your father's brother-in-law. In the RAR, you'll find lossless FLAC files and PDFs of the album artwork, sized to fit a CD jewel case. Let's be having the line-up and tracklisting, then. Note the presence of Ron Mathewson on bass, deputising for an indisposed Jimmy Woode. That Mathewson nails such a high-pressure gig at short notice shows how good he was at his peak. He wasn't too well last time I saw him, but I hope he's OK now.

Personnel: Kenny Clarke (drums, co-leader), Francy Boland (piano, co-leader); Benny Bailey, Idrees Sulieman, Dusko Gojkovic, Tony Fisher (trumpets); Ake Persson, Nat Peck, Eric van Lier (trombones); Derek Humble, Johnny Griffin, Tony Coe, Ronnie Scott, Sahib Shihab (saxophones); Ron Mathewson (bass); Kenny Clare (drums) - recorded 28 February 1969.

1. Box 703
2. Griff's Groove
3. Volcano
4. Love Which To No Loved One Permits Excuse For Loving
5. Now Hear My Meanin'
6. And Thence We Issued Out Again To See The Stars
7. Rue Chaptal
8. I Don't Want Nothin'
9. Sax No End
10. You Stepped Out Of A Dream
11. Fellini 712
12. The Girl & The Turk
13. Kenny & Kenny

Links to multi-part RAR - total file size - 480MB:
RAR part 1: http://www.sendspace.com/file/qa9cyq
RAR part 2: http://www.sendspace.com/file/xh7lbr
RAR part 3: http://www.sendspace.com/file/cbhns7
RAR part 4: http://www.sendspace.com/file/tmaibd
RAR part 5: http://www.sendspace.com/file/qnevnl
RAR part 6: http://www.sendspace.com/file/5o2zbh