This is the first album of the new Don Rendell group, and, indeed, the new Don Rendell. The tenorist has changed a good deal over the past year. Instead of the soft-toned Lester Young-Stan Getz approach, there is now a hard layer of Coltrane and Griffin. Don has surrounded himself with young players. Apart from Burch (29), none of his colleagues is more than 23. Youth is responsible for both the group's strength and its weaknesses. Bond's alto is the dominating sound. His is a brash, raucous talent combinating Adderley and Dolphy with his own strong sense of the dramatic. When his playing fails to make sense it is no doubt due to immiaturity and the rash impetuosity of youth. On the other hand, he parts a deal of excitement to the proceedings and spurs Rendell on to play better than I have heard him on record. Burch is developing into an interesting pianist on "Manumission" and "Jeannine". Archer, though at times a little under-recorded, shows great promise. Kinorra is an intelligent drummer. All-in-all, a worthy first effort.

The recently formed quintet heralds not only the first release on Jazzland, a label backed by the Interdisc organisation, but also the welcome but overdue return to jazz of one of Britain's most interesting tenor players, Don Rendell. His style has changed considerably since I last heard him. Now he seems to have joined the 'soul' convention, with a definite inclination towards the works of John Coltrane. The group turns in some impressive performances, especially on two tracks recorded later than the remainder, when they had had more time to settle down. The front line duo is enchanced by the presence of Graham Bond, a young alto player of strength, conviction, and by no means devoid of ideas. On this showing his seems to be the ideal complementary voice to Don's, as proved by some of the complex ensemble passages they blow together. John Burch's piano suffers in places from being under-recorded, but his solo work is pleasing, and he provides strength to the rhythm section, both of whom worked with McLean and Redd in London production of "The Connection". The highspot of this excellent album is "So What", a Miles Davis piece which provides everyone with a chance to shout, which they do to considerable effect. This is modern jazz as it should be played, and I look forward to hearing more of the same quality.

The last time I heard Don Rendell in a club, some eighteen months before he formed this group, he sounded like a tired man, for whom music no longer held any interest or any challenge. This, happily, is no more the case. Though his style has altered in several respects, the most obvious changes lie in compelling urgency of his playing, the way he drives hard over the beat, and in its more powerful emotional content. For all the talk in the notes of Coltrane, his phrasing still puts him in a kind of Zoot Sims - Wardell Gray school, his sour tone nothwithstanding. I doubt if his conception is fully integrated one as yet - he recalls, at different times, Lucky Thompson, Sims, Gray, Coltrane and Tina Brooks - but he is more than half-way there. The solos on "So What", "You Loomed" and "Bring Back The Burch" are exceptional, and none of the others could be termed derivative. Graham Bond plays with more enthusiasm than effectiveness on most tracks. When I first heard him, he was adapting Sonny Rollin's blues style to the alto with some success, but here he is too involved with the mannerisms of Cannonball Adderley, Eric Dolphy, and others. He is perhaps best on "Jeannine", where he is relatively free from clichés. At the moment, his position in the group is similar to Tommy Young's in Armstrong's band - he certainly makes Rendell work. I would have preferred numbers that were less obviously in current fashion, but the quintet blends extremely well, with some clever interplay between the saxes. Of the originals, the Silver-ish "Manumission" is the most attractive. The rhythm section rushes noticeably on several tracks, and some of the drumming is very jerky. A rather unpolished album, then, but distinguished by an overall vitality and by Rendell's own playing. The titles on side two incidentally, are in right order on the sleeve but not on the label.

Though not so far out as Joe Harriott and company, these Britishers are part of the so-called new wave in jazz that has been evolving in England. Rendell is in his early 30s; Bond is 23; Burch, 29; Archer, 22; and Kinorra, 20. The basic ailment of this set is that of floating time: drummer Kinorra wavers repeatedly, particulary in "The Haunt", decidedly speeding the tempo and generally wavering, as though unsure of himself. On the album's credit side is the patent honesty of rendell and Bond, who blow with conviction and a straight-ahead purposefulness of telling effect. "Bring Back" is a stiff waltz. Jazz waltzes can swing, ofcourse, but this one doesn't. Moreove, the saxeseffect a strained, reedy sound that fad or fancy cannot execuse. "Manumission" is a theme of conventional funkery with a pseudo-Gospel garnish. Rendell stands exposed in line with conventional U.S. tenorists in his approach; Bond belongs to the wilder, few-holds-barred school of playing. Toward the closeof this track is demonstrated a penchant of the Rendell-Bond alliance: contrapuntal interplay between tenor and alto a la Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh of some years' vintage. The braying sound of the two horns introduces Thelonious Monk's "Blue". As in the previous track, a definite stiffness in the drums is event. In the out chorus, the saxes don't even try to come in together; so icredibly sloppy is the passage, it must be concluded that the seeming carelessness is deliberate. Side 2 opens with the up "Jeannine", the time walking and the horns blending well. The line has a staccato feeling reminiscent of "Milestones". Again, the tempo picks up considerably. Once more there is the alto-tenor interplay sans rhythm section before the coda. "Loch Ness" (which will stir a chuckle in anyone familiar with the monster legend) is up and is one of the better tracks, despite the rather clumsy fade at the end. Miles Davis' "So What?" is preceded by a puzzling a-tempo piano introduction without apparent link to the main line. This is very Milesish in feeling at firs but then it veers toward the Coltrane-Dolphy persuasion as the solos unfold. The closing "The Hunt" is settled in a good, swinging groove at first. Then the thrill is gone. There is a final flurry of alto-tenor colloquy before the coda. "Roarin'" gives us an interesting glimse into the changes and developments occurring today in jazz in Britain.

Top side is penned by those Beatle Boys Lennon & McCartney, but though Duffy and his friends perform it well, I don't think the song is suited to an R&B outing: still it's worth a buzz from the Graham Bond organ grooves, and Duffy's vocal escapades could make the lower deck of the charts.