The Keith Tippett Group - You Are Here... I Am There (1970) [2013, Esoteric, ECLEC2366]

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The Keith Tippett Group - You Are Here... I Am There (1970) [2013, Esoteric, ECLEC2366]

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Keith Tippett's debut album as a bandleader was and remains a rather remarkable affair in that it was the first engagement of British young people who came up in rock, pop, and blues bands to play jazz. Tippett himself is a classically trained musician who came to jazz via Mingus, George Russell, Coltrane, and Pharoah Sanders, but his compositional element also owes to composers such as Darius Milhaud, Vaughan Williams, and Frederick Delius. His front-line group contains the Soft Machine's Elton Dean, plus Nick Evans and Marc Charig, while his rhythm section contains drummer Alan Jackson and bassist Jeff Clyne – whose bowing sensibilities are not only highly developed but provocative as well. All eight tracks were composed and arranged by Tippett, but his penchant for writing for a particular group of musicians is very keen here: check the Charig solo in "I Wish There Was Nowhere," Tippett's own solo in "Violence," and the saxophonistry of Dean in "Stately Dance for Miss Primm" and both versions of "This Evening Was Like Last Year." Evans' trombone work so thoroughly saturates most charts that it's impossible to single anything out as a specific vehicle for him. Tippett's engaging harmonic sensibilities wrap around tonal investigation, a deeply committed sense of the blues and swing, and a color palette that owes plenty to Gil Evans without sounding the least bit derivative. This is brave jazz that makes use of space, harmonic organization, and free improv, much more so than some of his contemporaries who would just as soon do away with jazz as deepen or widen it. Very fine indeed.

by Thom Jurek, allmusic

To be honest, this album was my very first taste of the jazz fusion era. Not Miles Davis, not Mahavishnu Orchestra, but this gem. YAH…IAT is heavily overshadowed by Tippett's other work (King Crimson, Centipede, and his other album), and I could never understand why. Looking at the negative ratings, I can assume people expected another "Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening" or "Septober Energy". Let me tell you, it's definitely not. To me, this is the British response to Bitches Brew, albeit without the sidelong pieces.

This Evening Was Like Last Year (8.5/10) - Sort of an overture to this album. Quiet and deep strings, rapid-fire drumming, and lots of free jazz near the middle and end.

I Wish There Was A Nowhere (10/10) - A true jazz masterpiece, and the best song of the album. Lots of piano jamming and saxophone solos, with clear divisions. Also the longest song, clocking in at a grand 14 minutes.

Thank You For the Smile (8/10) - A kind of filler, if you ask me. But it's still valid in the album, and sets a different tone for the next side of the record. This track is actually a sadder reworking of the Beatles's famous track "Hey Jude", using the outro as a base.

Three Minutes from an Afternoon in July (6/10) - A single sax note. Seriously. This song does create the feeling of a hot July afternoon, but it kind of stops the flow of the album. The band kind of joins in at the very end, but is too late to save the track.

View From Battery Point (8/10) - Fanfare material. Quiet electric piano, kind of like looking out from Battery Point onto the landscape. Ominous, and really sort of preparation for the next track.

Violence (7.5/10) - A memorable opening melody, and contained throughout. Really does kind of represent a little fight, or as the title says… Violence. Not the best.

Stately Dance for Miss Primm (10/10) - A great closer! Truly grooving, with solos scattered throughout from the whole band. This is the first track I heard from this album, and I fell in love quickly.

This Evening Was Like Last Year [Short Version] (8/10) - The shortened version of the first track. Cuts the crap, but also removes some of the charm.

by RedNightmareKing, progarchives

DEBUT UK REMASTERED EDITION OF THE CLASSIC 1970 ALBUM BY THE LEGENDARY PIANIST KEITH TIPPETT’s GROUP
FEATURING ELTON DEAN, MARC CHARIG & NICK EVANS
Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce a newly remastered edition of the debut album by THE KEITH TIPPETT GROUP. Famed Jazz pianist Keith Tippett is one of the greatest and innovative figures in modern jazz. His work has also seen him cross into the world of Progressive rock, working with King Crimson and his own outfit Centipede.
The Keith Tippett Group’s debut album was recorded in 1969 and featured a line-up of Keith Tippett on Piano, Elton Dean on Alto Saxophone, Marc Charig on Cornet (also in Soft Machine), Jeff Clyne on bass (later in Nucleus), Nick Evans on Trombone and Alan Jackson on drums. "You Are Here… I Am There” is rightly hailed as a classic of the genre.
A superb and highly sought after modern jazz – rock work, "You Are Here… I Am There” has been newly remastered and the booklet fully restores the original album artwork and includes a new essay.

~ cherryred

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The Keith Tippett Group - You Are Here... I Am There (1970) [2013, Esoteric, ECLEC2366]

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Keith Tippett Group biography:

The first time progheads (and the rock world in general heard) the name of Keith Tippett and his unique piano was on the KING CRIMSON single of Cat Food in very early 1970, and it created a shock. Obviously most observers could see that the then-unknown (to most anyway) Keith Tippett was obviously an excellent pianist, but his style left many astounded, but also turning away many. But those intrigued enough, probably sought who this weird guy was. A Bristol-born cornet and pianist, who met in 67 in the BS Music School, Elton Dean, Nick Evans and Mark Charig, forming the Keith Tippett Sextet, that played to some success in London's 100 Jazz Club. . Keith Tippett would also be signalled that year on BLOSSOM TOES' two albums as well as being determinant in the SOFT MACHINE's change of musical direction towards jazz-rock, since the group became a septet, using three of Tippett's collaborators.

Indeed, the names of Mark Charig, Lyn Dobson, Harry Miller, Roy Babbington, Elton Dean and Nick Evans should be familiar to many progheads, yet most of them had their "rock world" start with Keith Tippett and his first group. When his first solo album came out, "You Are here… I Am There" on the Phillips label, it was yet another shock as their awesome jazz-rock was at least on par with MILES DAVIS, HERBIE HANCOCK or IAN CARR's NUCLEUS, and further ahead than was Soft Machine. Funnily enough the KTG inversed their Phillips trajectory to Gracious and XXXX by having their second album on the legendary Vertigo Swirl label, while the debut was on the generic label. Titled "Dedicated To You, But You Were Not Listening" (a Soft Machine tribute), the album was certainly not easier on the ears either.

A good part of Keith Tippett's group would find themselves playing the horns on Crimson's Lizard and even on Islands, despite the presence of Mel Collins, who was alone during the tours to fill the horn dept. This wouldn't be the only collab between Fripp and Tippett as the former also produced the only album of the latter's huge group concept of CENTIPEDE. "Septober Energy" is probably one of the most controversial albums ever, with the group consisting of up to 50 musicians including all of Blossom toes, part of Soft Machine and many jazz-rockers present on the British Isles, even including the amazing JULIE DRISCOLL, whom he would soon marry and her taking the name of her husband, but adding an "s": she'd become known as Julie Tippetts since.

~ progarchives

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The Keith Tippett Group - You Are Here... I Am There (1970) [2013, Esoteric, ECLEC2366]

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The Keith Tippett Group - You Are Here... I Am There (1970) [2013, Esoteric, ECLEC2366]

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