The Michael Garrick Sextet with Norma Winstone – The Heart is a Lotus (Argo/Vocalion, 1970)

Michael Garrick (p, hpsd); Norma Winstone (vo); Art Themen (ts, ss, fl, cl); Jim Philip (ts, fl, cl); Don Rendell (ts, ss, fl); Ian Carr (tr, flgn); Dave Green (b); Coleridge Goode (b); Trevor Tomkins (d)

Recorded on January 20 - 22, 1970

Of all the musicians I discovered while assembling this survey, Michael Garrick is one of the most compelling.  His name was completely new to me until just a few years ago, and now I regard him as one of my favorites.  What’s special about Garrick’s music?  First, his music is distinctively English—as English as Shakespeare, J.M.W. Turner, or Ralph Vaughan Williams.  Next, as much as his playing, Garrick’s compositions are an integral aspect of his music.  (As we’ll see, Garrick shares this trait with several other British jazz musicians who made their mark on jazz in the 1970s as composers as much as instrumentalists.)  For this reason, his advocates sometime compare Garrick to Duke Ellington.  I think that comparison is unfair to Garrick—but it does hint at the extraordinary scope of his music.  Finally, Garrick was more than an outstanding, distinctively English composer; he was also a superb pianist.

Along with music, Michael Garrick loved words.  While in college, he studied English literature instead of music.  Shakespeare and Keats were touchstones.  After finishing University College London, Garrick became the musical director of "Poetry & Jazz in Concert,” a program that combined music with the spoken word.  Garrick’s fascination with the possibilities of fusing language with jazz continued with his jazz-choral works, most notably Jazz Praises, an extended religious work from 1967 for sextet and a large choir, which was performed at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

After rising to prominence in English jazz circles as the pianist in Don Rendell-Ian Carr Quintet (1965-69), Garrick formed his own band in the late-1960s and invited vocalist Norma Winstone to join.  Winstone is a marvelous singer, one of the most innovative and distinctive vocalists to rise to prominence in the 1970s.  One indicator of her influence on the U.K. jazz scene: A year after the release of The Heart is a Lotus, Winstone was voted the top vocalist in the Melody Maker jazz poll.

In interviews, Winstone has remarked that Garrick’s original compositions had a far-reaching effect on her singing.  Rather than singing with an American, “jazz accent”—which would have been expected if she were singing standards—Garrick’s compositions freed Winstone to sing in her natural voice.  Furthermore, Garrick encouraged Winstone to regard her voice as if it were a horn, so “soloing” through wordless vocalizing became an important aspect of her art.

Garrick recorded for the U.K.-based Argo label from the middle-60s until the middle 70s.  In many regards, Argo is a quintessentially British label.  Initially, Argo’s motto was "British music played by British artists"—with a focus on classical (and especially choral) music.  Eventually, they branched into poetry/spoken and other non-commercial material (like locomotive recordings).  Jazz was not an area of focus, and Garrick was the only jazz musician that they recorded extensively.  However, his association with the label facilitated a connection with the world of classical music.  He often performed in “classical venues” before “classical audiences,” instead performing in more traditional jazz venues.

On The Heart is a Lotus, the music is often dark, focusing on loss, sadness, and other melancholy themes.  Even so, the music swings so hard and sparkles with such vitality that one can’t help but be carried along by it.  Like all great art, the overt meaning may remain elusive and mysterious; it achieves more by suggestion than by exposition.

By 1970, jazz had become a part of world culture.  After years of looking to the U.S. for inspiration and guidance, jazz musicians outside of the United States were embracing their own cultures for inspiration, integrating their unique inheritances and creating jazz with a new accent.  Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see that ideas that had germinated and taken root outside the U.S. during the preceding decades came to full flower during the 1970s.  It’s a coincidence that this survey begins with The Heart is a Lotus.  But it’s a fortunate coincidence because Garrick’s music embodies this recurring theme.

More Michael Garrick

If you enjoy The Heart Is a Lotus, check out Cold Mountain (Argo/Vocalion, 1972) next.  It’s a powerful trio date that gives Garrick more opportunities to shine as a soloist.  Also, don’t overlook Home Stretch Blues (Argo/Vocalion, 1973) and Troppo (Argo/Vocalion, 1974).  Both of these wonderful records are comparable to The Heart is a Lotus, featuring six- or seven-piece ensembles and Norma Winstone’s captivating voice.