A Lady In Waiting
Michael
Garrick
Jazz Academy, 1994
CD £11.99 [original pressing now deleted : copy
CDs made by Michael Garrick now in stock : with sleeve cover and booklet]
Michael Garrick (piano) with
Dave Green (b); Alan Jackson (d).
TRACKS:
[1] Oleo
[2] Pete Kelly's Dance
[3] Dolphin Dance
[4] All Is Forgiven
[5] The Gentleman's Gentleman
[6] A Lady In Waiting
[7] Laughed Out of Court
[8] The Old Pretender
[9] Princess Blue
[10] 20E, 30W
[11] Round Midnight
[12] Swallows On the Water
[13] Dizzymetrics
[14] Tea for Two
Recorded in 1993. TOTAL PLAYING TIME 76:11
Tracks 5 to 10 are six movements from Garrick's suite The Royal Box.
He writes of them:
"I was deeply impressed by the 'nineties media treatment of the Royal
Family. It struck me what an astonishing thing it all was. I did'nt begin
thinking directly of music related to that subject, but I was improvising
a piece one day that seemed to have an assertive, declamatory atmosphere
to it - a sort of convuluted Rule Britannia. So I jotted down The
Royal Prerogative as a working title. Then came another, which sounded
rather undulating, equivocating, moving through a lot of ambivalent harmonies
and called it The Old Pretender. Then I wondered if I could do
it the other way round, taking phrases from common parlance that have
to do with the royal life or its results (I'd Crown Resign, for
example, a quote from Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill, put me in mind
of the abdication) and seeing what music - if any - came out. I ended
up with eight in all, recorded some with the Trio, then realised there
was potential for expansion, for more colour. I then arranged them for
big band - of which more anon."
