Trevor Watts

For the last couple of years Jazz In Britain’s output has largely consisted of CDs around the 75 minute mark, either single, 2 or even 3 disc releases. However, we have quite a lot of items in our archives which come up well short of the magic 75 minutes but, in our opinion, are well worthy of release.  With this in mind, we have decided to launch a ‘budget’ series of releases which will come in gatefold digisleeves with simple artwork and no booklet. CDs and downloads will both be at the same price and downloads will come with a single sheet pdf containing all the information on the CD cover, but no downloadable artwork.

Our first release will be by our old friend Trevor Watts, who is internationally renowned for his improvised and experimental work (rightly so in our opinion). For some reason Trevor is less celebrated for his talents as a composer, and this release is Jazz In Britain’s attempt to try and right that wrong. The Lantern Tree was commissioned by the Brighton based Community Theatre group Same Sky and premiered in 1999. It proved so popular that more performances took place in 2000 and the recording we are releasing was made at St. Mary’s-in-the-Castle, Hastings in January of that year. 

The piece clocks in at just under an hour and consists of a suite of 11 composed pieces which display Watts’s compositional skills superbly. The work is performed by a very tight 9-piece band which produces a very ‘big’ sound. Led by Watts the ensemble features 4 horn players, guitar, piano, bass guitar and drums/percussion.  The Lantern Tree is an important addition to the Trevor Watts canon and is such a significant work that we felt it should stand alone, rather than be augmented by ‘additional’ material.