Greek Variations Neil Ardley, Ian Carr, Don Rendell

• 1 Greek Variations: Santorin, Omonoia, Delphi, Kerkyra, Meteora, Kriti 23:47
• 2 Wine Dark Lullaby 05:05
• 3 Orpheus 01:54
• 4 Persephones Jive 03:29
• 5 Farewell Penelope 02:40
• 6 Odysseus, King Of Ithaca 04:17
• 7 Siren's Song 03:58
• 8 Veil Of Ino 02:23
• Total Runtime 47:33

Info for Greek Variations

Mastered for the first time from the original stereo analog tapes!

Originally released in 1970, and now much sought after by collectors and connoisseurs, original copies sell for upwards of £600. Considered one of Neil Ardley's best compositions, 'Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises' ranks as not only one of the finest expressions of British progressive modern jazz but also one of the very best recordings to emerge from Denis Preston's celebrated Lansdowne Studios, home to some of the most highly-regarded British modern jazz of the era. It's also an important junction point in the careers of the Ardley, Carr and Rendell, showing three distinct pathways that British jazz would follow in the subsequent years: Ardley's orchestrated and expanded explorations; Carr's jazz rock, and Rendell's more orthodox acoustic approach.

Neil Ardley, composer, director
Ian Carr, trumpet, flugelhorn
Don Rendell, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, alto flute, clarinet
Barbara Thompson, flute, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone
Karl Jenkins, oboe, soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone
Mike Gibbs, trombone
Brian Smith, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
Stan Robinson, tenor saxophone, flute
Frank Ricotti, marimba, vibraphone
Chris Spedding, guitar
Jeff Clyne, bass
Jack Bruce, bass
Neville Whitehead, bass
John Marshall, drums
Trevor Tomkins, drums

Digitally remastered

Neil Ardley(1937–2004)
was born in 1937 in Wallington, Surrey, England. He was educated at Wallington County Grammar School and Bristol University, where he took a degree in chemistry in 1959. He began to take a practical interest in music at the age of 13, when he started to learn the piano, and later took up the saxophone, playing both instruments in jazz groups at the university.

On leaving university, he went to live in London and joined the John Williams Big Band on piano, writimg his first arrangements and compositions for the band. In 1964, he was invited to become the director of the New Jazz Orchestra, a newly-formed orchestra made up of many of the best young jazz musicians in London. He developed his arranging and composing skills with the NJO, an association that continued until the NJO's last recording in 1973 (apart from a reunion in 1993). Here he met many musicians with whom he was to form lasting friendships, notably Ian Carr, Jon Hiseman, Barbara Thompson, Dave Gelly, Michael Gibbs, Don Rendell and Trevor Tomkins. All played on the subsequent recordings that Neil made under his own name.

At the same time, Neil was building a professional career in publishing. In 1962, he joined the editorial staff of the World Book Encyclopedia, an American publisher that set up in London to produce an international edition of the encyclopedia. Over the next four years that the project took, he learnt the craft of writing for young people literally from A to Z. A spell at Hamlyn, then pioneering low-price information books, followed and in 1968 he became a freelance book editor in order to have more time to devote to music. Editing evolved into writing over the 1970s, and he became an author of information books, mainly for children, on natural history (especially birds), science and technology, and music. 


As Neil Ardley developed from an editor to an author in his publishing career, so he developed from an arranger to a composer in his musical career. In the late 1960s, Ian Carr introduced him to Denis Preston, who had a stable of composers and performers - many in the jazz field - that he commissioned and recorded. With Denis' encouragement, Neil composed his first full-length works, developing a style of music that combined classical methods of composition, with their deep emotional return of developing themes and harmonic structures, with the spirit and spontaneity of jazz. His music is very tuneful and often richly orchestrated, as Denis made available a wide range of instruments, including strings, woodwinds and harp, to extend the conventional jazz line-up. Neil continued to explore this vein by adding electronics as synthesizers developed during the 1970s.

In 1980, as Neil began an all-electronic album, his recording contract was abruptly terminated and it was obvious that no viable future lay in music. Fortunately, at this time book design began to progress astonishingly as computers made their way into publishing, and Neil found himself at the forefront of this development when he began to write principally for the innovative British publisher Dorling Kindersley in 1984. There was little energy or time for music as a whole series of DK books evolved, notably the best-selling and award-winning The Way Things Work, which Neil wrote with the brilliant American illustrator David Macaulay and which sold over 3 million copies worldwide. Overall, by the time he retired in 2000, Neil had written 101 books that sold a total of about 10 million copies. 


There was a little new music during this period, notably with the electronic jazz group Zyklus that combined improvisation with electronic methods of composition, but Neil did not find a new composing voice until 2000. He then began to compose choral music, having gained useful experience by singing in local choirs during the late 1990s, and was fully engaged in vocal music until his death in 2004.

Ian Carr(1933-2005)
Trumpeter, composer, author, educator and broadcaster, Ian Carr is a major force in British Jazz and has been since 1970 one of Europe's leading musicians.

He was born in Dumfries, but raised in the North East of England. His younger brother, Mike Carr (1937-) would go onto become an important British jazz musician himself. Ian Carr started on piano at the age of 12, switching to trumpet in his late teens. He was already performing modern jazz in the mid-1950s in bands with his brother Mike on piano. The pair played together in the EmCee Five in 1960 after Carr had graduated from Newcastle University and completed National Service. In 1962 he moved to London, and soon began collaborating with saxophonist Don Rendell in the hugely influential Rendell-Carr Quintet which also featured pianist Michael Garrick, Dave Green (bass) and Trevor Tomkins (drums). Among the five albums they recorded for EMI were Shades Of Blue (1964) and Dusk Fire (1966), which are remembered today as some of the finest UK jazz recordings. The group also collaborated with Indian guitarist, Amancio D’Silva on his 1969 album Integration.

In September 1969 Ian formed his group "Nucleus" which was one of the earliest pioneers of electronic jazz-rock fusion. The early Nucleus albums had a wide seminal influence in Europe, introducing musicians, critics and lay persons to the new music.

Nucleus won first prize at the 1970 Montreaux International Jazz Festival and appeared that summer at the USA Newport Festival and the Village Gate, New York. The Band's new music caused something of a sensation on both US occasions. Between the years 1969-89 Nucleus has done radio and TV shows, toured all over the Western and Eastern Europe, Northern India, South America and Mexico, and played at most major International Festivals.

Since 1975 Ian has been a member of the distinguished and immensely successful international band. "The United Jazz Rock Ensemble" which has recorded several of his compositions.

In 1982, Ian received the Calabria (Southern Italy) award for outstanding contribution in the field of jazz. In 1987 he was given Wire Magazine's special award for services to British Jazz. That year Ian played with Michael Gibb's Band at the Bracknell Festival and was feature soloist with the Hamburg Radio Orchestra under Gibb's Direction.

In August 1989 he toured in Britain and Europe as a soloist on electronic trumpet with an Anglo-American orchestra led by the legendary American composer, George Russell. In recent year Ian has become almost as well known as an author. He was a co-author of Jazz: "The Essential Companion" a Jazz Encyclopedia. "Music Outside", published in 1973 was an acclaimed account of the contemporary British scene. His 1982 book on Miles Davis remains the standard biography. He is currently finishing a biography of Keith Jarrett. Ian is an associate Professor at the Guidhall School of Music and Drama where he gives weekly lectures on jazz history. He also conducts weekly workshops at Interchange in North London.

Ian's latest album "Old Heartland" received universal acclaim and even the great Miles Davis asked for a copy.

Don Rendell (1926-2015)
born 4 March 1926, Plymouth, Devon, England. Rendell began playing alto saxophone as a child but later switched to tenor. He played in a number of dance bands during the late 40s, and in 1950 became a member of John Dankworth’s septet. After leaving Dankworth in 1953 he formed his own small group but also worked with bands led by Tony Crombie, Ted Heath and others. In 1956 he joined Stan Kenton for a European tour, appearing on Live At The Albert Hall. In the late 50s he played with Woody Herman. During the 60s Rendell was again leading his own bands, featuring musicians such as Graham Bond, Michael Garrick and Ian Carr, with whom he was co-leader of a successful band. The four albums he recorded with Carr are highly recommended. Rendell has also recorded with Stan Tracey (The Latin American Caper), and Neil Ardley (Greek Variations).

A fluent improviser, with hints of post-bop styling overlaying a deep admiration for the earlier work of Lester Young, Rendell has long been one of the most admired of British jazz artists. For many years he has been tireless in the promotion of jazz through his activities as a sought-after teacher.

This album contains no booklet.