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Album reviews Music

Ready Or Not

Rating: NNNN


You get the feel of listening in on something private when Ready Or Not, Do Right’s new collection, is on. The featured songs, amazingly improvised independent jazz sessions broadcast nationally but scarcely distributed in the 60s and 70s, were excavated straight from CBC Radio’s archival pressings by Movement DJ John Kong in conjunction with NOW’s Tim Perlich. If not for their reissue, these gems would still be collecting dust – but here they are, remastered and sounding eerily like contemporary sessions by forward-thinking musicians. I’m loving flugelhorn player Fred Stone’s perverse take on the theme from Lawrence Of Arabia, and Yoshiharu Yamamoto’s (of Electric Ninja Group) subdued yet determined trumpets on The Star Of India, just two precious tracks from an album consistent in quality but highly varied in style. Ideal for those interested in eavesdropping on a once hidden phase of jazz history.

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