“BC was conceived by Tony Edwards, Tony Desborough, Adrian Paton and John Fry in 1976 and in no time at all they added Dick Heckstall-Smith and singer, Janice Ponsford to the line up. At that time, jazz was popularly held to have stalled down a blind alley. Thirty years after the bebop revolution, Archie Shepp and Ornette Coleman’s free-form experiments had lost jazz its popular base, it was argued, and as rock n’ roll was superseded by the altogether more demanding and intellectual pretensions of rock, the death of jazz was announced.

“Its death was greatly exaggerated but its popularity declined and, undeniably, some of its practitioners lost confidence in its form. One consequence was the birth of jazzrock. The theory was that by combining jazz with elements of rock, a musical form which appealed to both camps would evolve. To invent a band like BC at this time was, to use the language of politics, either progressive or reactionary, depending on your stance. Actually, BC was in the vanguard of something which later became the so-called “jazz revival” of the eighties. Perhaps jazzrock did contribute to that revival – my life has been peppered with jazz revivals – but BC came from other directions altogether. These directions are evident on this CD and reveal that, from the off, BC was concerned not with the fusions of jazzrock, but with repertoire and a particular feel.

“This open approach to the music was further enriched in 1979 with the arrival of bassist Tony Reeves, formerly with Curved Air and Colosseum, the addition of Mike Jacques, also ex-Curved Air and at that time playing ska/reggae guitar with Rico Rodriguez, and the band’s long term association with Dave Chambers of the O.K. Band and from the Mike Westbrook stable. What they and all the other distinguished musicians who’ve played with BC have is a fundamental commitment to good feel and a belief that the jazz repertoire should acknowledge no limits.

“Jazzrock fusion failed because it managed to combine the worst characteristics of jazz with those of the worst of rock Perhaps BC has failed to make the mark it feels it ought to have, because there is still some resistance to a band that is difficult to categorise by repertoire. John Fry’s seventeen-year-old son Christopher plays trombone in the band now, yet when John was his age he was playing a limited repertoire in just one style. By the time Chris is John’s age, jazz will have died many deaths and undergone many revivals. But jazz, like BC, will survive. It will falter when it is hide-bound and narrow-minded and flourish when it is open to change and broad-minded. But it won’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.”

Jeff Cloves 1997