Neil Ardley’s impressive and groundbreaking jazz rock masterpiece is available in a remastered CD version.

MULTI-TALENTED

The late Neil Ardley was multi-talented, with a career in publishing, as well as being a published author, alongside his talents as a visionary composer, arranger and muscian in the jazz world. His music had an expansive scope and excitingly reached into other musical forms.

Esoteric Recordings and Cherry Red Records are to be congratulated for releasing this 50th anniversary remastered edition of Neil Ardley’s groundbreaking 1976 masterpiece, Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows. It is suite of music that flows through seven sections (Rainbows) and is influenced by Balinese gamelan music. It also integrates seamlessly the jazz and rock idioms, such that the music naturally flows and sings, creating a beautifully unified musical narrative.

Interestingly Sid Smith’s comprehensive liner notes reveal that Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows, only felt to have came to full fruition for Neil Ardley, when he brought in the dynamic rhythms of rock, and electronic instruments including the synthesiser. This included bringing in trumpeter Ian Carr and the core of his jazz rock band Nucleus, alongside several outstanding additional soloists to complete the ensemble.

A THRILLING BEGINNING  

Turning our attention to the album itself. An atmospheric synthesiser wash commences the opening sequence of Prologue, leading into the main thematic of Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows. The funk driven opening rhythms played by Roger Sellers on drums and Roger Sutton, on electric bass, supported by Trevor Tomkins meandering vibraphone, provide an irresistible point of entry to the music. Rainbow One elegantly disrupts the flow with a driven uptempo sequence of variations leading into the first solo. Ian Carr literally throws his trumpet around the sound stage creating a joyous bopping sound, that the ensemble are fully in tune with, as they lay down a tumultuous latin groove. Brian Smith brings everything back to earth with a lovely understated series of sinuous saxophone phrases. A thrilling beginning to this lovingly remastered album recording. 

A listening note, if you have a subwoofer speaker in your home set up, make sure it is powered on to get the full propulsive attack of this opening sequence. 

Rainbow Two has a classical chamber mood, with some wonderfully wistful woodwinds and a choral like lilt. The electric piano solos by Dave Macrae and Geoff Castle chime appealingly with the soulful disposition of the piece. Roger Sellers cymbal work adds a dramatic edge to the ensemble crescendos.

Rainbow Three features the cello work of Paul Buckmaster, who also has production duties on the album. It sounds like he is using an electric cello, as his phrases fly through the music with an urgency and edginess. The ensemble get behind his soloing with a jagged and earthy rhythm that sounds just amazing in the way it darts out of the speakers. A short breathy coda brings the piece to a close, and yes this is Paul Buckmaster, the arranger responsible for the sublime orchestral arrangements on albums by Elton John, David Bowie’s Space Oddity, and many others.

SCALING MUSICAL HEIGHTS WITH A RHAPSODIC TONE 

Rainbow Four, is simply outstanding, as Barbara Thompson takes the reins. Barbara Thompson was a very significant figure in the development of jazz rock in the UK, leading her own band Paraphernalia, and appearing on albums by Colosseum. She also had a wide musical range and worked with Andrew Lloyd Webber on several musicals, and composed music for television, including with her husband Jon Hiseman, music for the TV series A Touch Of Frost. On Rainbow Four her saxophone solo is charged with emotion and power. It scales the musical heights with a rhapsodic tone, and rippling liquified notes. The quixotic phrases unleashed are able to both fly high and incline to a captivating gentleness. It is a master class in what a great saxophone solo should communicate. 

Rainbow Five features as soloist Tony Coe, who in an illustrious career, played the poignant saxophone phrases on John Martyn’s Solid Air. On Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows he plays the clarinet and bass clarinet alongside tenor saxophone. Propelled by an intoxicating rush of pacy samba rhythms, on Rainbow Five, Tony Coe lets his clarinet fly in and out and around the contours of the enveloping rhythm. It is a sound that dances and soars and stays in your head long after the solo has finished.

Rainbow Six leads the composition into a gentler, statelier vibe, where the ambiance is pastoral, and there is a floating, hypnotic quality to the arrangement. Instruments drift in an out of the mix underpinned by a delicate rhythmic pulse. Ken Shaw on guitar and Bob Bertles on saxophone are the soloists and are impressively understated, where it is all about expertly accenting the mood of the piece, even as the latter section of the piece intensifies. 

A MUTI FACETED APPROACH TO COMPOSITION AND ARRANGEMENT 

Rainbow Seven has no named soloists and puts the emphasis on the ensemble’s collective feel and precision in delivering Neil Ardley’s finely layered arrangement. Tempos, tonality, and harmonics shift gear radically throughout the piece, testament to Neil Ardley’s multi-faceted approach to composition and arrangement. It must have required a herculean level of concentration by the muscians to pull it off. It is an evocative and compelling listen, where an intriguing resonance of film noir is inescapably created. 

Epilogue restates the main thematic in an upbeat and joyous conclusion to the music. The precise separation of the instruments in the mix, has the listener turning in all directions, as the instruments literally cascade the sound around the room. 

A MASTERPIECE OF COMPOSITION, ARRANGEMENT AND PLAYING

Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows is a never forgotten musical work once you have heard it. There is so much to enjoy, whether your stating point is the jazz or the rock world. It is perhaps one of the richest bringing together of these genres in a finished work of music. In its composition and arrangements, it is a visionary masterpiece and a testament to the talents of Neil Ardley. What you also notice is Neil Ardley’s gift in bringing out the very best from his muscians, as evidenced by both the ensemble pieces and the individual solos. 

It is one of those albums that you really do need to hear. You might also want to seek out the live rendition of Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows, recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on the 20th of October 1975, and featuring the same group of musicians under the direction of Neil Ardley, excepting the length is over twice that of the recorded version. It is similarly excellent and can be sourced from Jazz In Britain.

Neil Ardley: Website

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