Nucleus at the BBC on the way

[David Ayers]

Promising? I’ve never got into Nucleus but…

 

https://www.repertoirerecords.com/artists/nucleus/nucleus-live-at-the-bbc/

[felser]

Price dependent for me.  About 4+ prime CD's for me, the rest is increasingly marginal.  $150?  No way.  $80?  Maybe.

[sidewinder]

Fantastic - I’ll be in for this one. Big fan of the Barbara Thompson box that Repertoire have put out.

[jlhoots]

I like Nucleus - BUT not 12 CDs worth.

[Rabshakeh]

I also struggle with the megasets.

[sidewinder]

I thought 12 CDs of the Barbara Thompson material would be too much but the box has been on very regular repeat play on my player, all of it. Musical quality and sonics very impressive so if the Nucleus is comparable it will be a no-brainier. If, like the Thompson the sources are good reel to reel from BBC stereo FM then it should be great.

Not to mention that Roger F. Is doing the notes !

Edited October 14, 2021 by sidewinder

[GA Russell]

We see the OACs and the like going for $3 to $7 per cd for five.

If these huge boxes are going in that range, I could splurge for Christmas.

But like the Mosaic sets, I don't need $120 worth of music of anybody!

[T.D.]

Something I'd really like to hear, but can't imagine paying $150 for 12 discs worth. Would immediately purchase a subset of 4 to 6 CDs.

[felser]

$118 on amazon, $73 on importcds.  Still only tempted, not that hot on their albums later than the original group (many of the originals then went off and joined Soft Machine).  Probably more tempted by the Barbara Thompson, just because I don't have anything by her, as I have the run of 70's and early 80's Nucleus albums

[sidewinder]

£70 on Amazon UK, which is roughly the same as the Barbara Thompson set.

Having missed most of these broadcasts the first time round, it will be great to finally get to hear them.

[clifford_thornton]

definitely prefer the earlier stuff but this certainly could be interesting.

[T.D.]

21 hours ago, felser said:

$118 on amazon, $73 on importcds.  Still only tempted, not that hot on their albums later than the original group (many of the originals then went off and joined Soft Machine).  Probably more tempted by the Barbara Thompson, just because I don't have anything by her, as I have the run of 70's and early 80's Nucleus albums

Thanks for the info. Agreed that the earlier Nucleus recordings appeal more and the Barbara Thompson set looks more attractive (at roughly similar price).

[Added] I found a box set of the 1970-75 Nucleus releases (9 LP on 6 CD) at a reasonable price and went for that...the material is new to me because I've only become interested in British jazz-rock of that vintage over the past couple of years (thanks to Jazz in Britain on bandcamp and Scott's sales on this site).

Edited October 16, 2021 by T.D.

[RogerF]

On 10/14/2021 at 9:39 PM, sidewinder said:

I thought 12 CDs of the Barbara Thompson material would be too much but the box has been on very regular repeat play on my player, all of it. Musical quality and sonics very impressive so if the Nucleus is comparable it will be a no-brainier. If, like the Thompson the sources are good reel to reel from BBC stereo FM then it should be great.

Not to mention that Roger F. Is doing the notes !

Guilty as charged! However, the 12CD box is now actually 13CDs and will retail for £70. Having listened to all the CDs I can attest that this material, which has been painstakingly remastered by Eroc is really quite stunning. In addition to the "usual" Nucleus fare - and frankly there was nothing usual about Nucleus - there are some extremely rare, never before heard programmes such as Gordon Beck's suite The Dream with Norma Winstone and Nucleus. Then there's the hour long Radio 3 Music In Our Time broadcast in which varying permutations of Nucleus members play entirely improvised pieces. There's more of course, but another nice feature (also heard on the Barbara Thompson box) is the inclusion of announcements by some of the best comperes of the day, not least the late, great Peter Clayton whose witty intros added piquancy to the sets. The same can also be said for John Peel whose voice opens CD1 with some very amusing banter. Voices also heard include Brian Priestley, Digby Fairweather and Ian Carr himself (coincidentally all co-authors of the Rough Guide To Jazz). Whilst the intros aren't as crucial as the music they do add some perspective and sense of place and sometimes explain the pieces in detail which is a useful adjunct. By the way, the 13th CD is comprised of two sets, the tapes of which were produced at the very last minute and contain some truly fabulous stuff. If I could rate this box obectively (which I can't) I would wager, quite seriously, that it's going to be British jazz archival release of the year. 

Edited October 23, 2021 by RogerF

[sidewinder]

Sold to me !   Thanks for the clarifications - a no-brainier when it hits the street. I’m sure it will be brilliant.

I love those old ‘Jazz Today’, ‘Sounds of Jazz’ and ‘Jazz in Britain’ shows and it is always good to hear Peter Clayton, Charles Fox et al, guys who really knew their stuff when it came to jazz of that era and who weren’t BS-ing with trendy pontifications.

Never got to hear enough of these shows back in the day. If I remember right, ‘Jazz Today’ interfered with school hours and ‘Jazz In Britain’ went out at some god-forsaken hour when everyone was fast asleep !

 Additional plus -  the BBC FM stereo transmissions when recorded reel to reel sound pretty damn good. That was the case with the BT box so no doubt will apply too here.

Edited October 23, 2021 by sidewinder

[sidewinder]

Nucleus BBC 13CD set on its way for some intensive Xmas listening. Great timing !

[GA Russell]

Bob, please let us know if it isn't too much of a good thing!

[sidewinder]

10 hours ago, GA Russell said:

Bob, please let us know if it isn't too much of a good thing!

Will do. I respect Roger’s word on this and suspect that it will be 10x a good thing. The approach seems to be in line with the Barbara Thompson set i.e. full FM broadcasts remastered to the very best standard. I heard only a couple of these broadcasts at the time and this is a great chance to ‘catch up’.

[T.D.]

I'm not in on this one, but no reason to think it wouldn't be good, by analogy with the Barbara Thompson release.

I sprung for the B T set and enjoy it. None of the individual discs in that box are weak.

[sidewinder]

First reactions on this set after listening to the first 2 CDs - very nice. Maybe not for the Carr/Nucleus ‘newbie’ but fans will be pleased with this set. About 3 hours of the music were supplied from BBC sources, with much of the rest collector FM airchecks which have been expertly remastered. A couple of the early sessions e.g. from John Peel’s ‘Top Gear’ in 1970 sound to be from lowish fi but quite acceptable AM recordings with the occasional dropout but any sonic issues are outweighed by the music. There’s a noticeable stretching out of solos (more so than on the LP releases from the band) and sense of adventure which makes these radio sessions an important listen.

Even 2CDs in it is thumbs up from me on this one - like the Barbara Thompson set, an important release.

Interesting that some of the audio was also supplied from the collectors archive of the guys at ‘Jazz In Britain’. Best available sources seems to have been tapped.

Fun to hear Spedding and Carr doing their ‘vocal bit’ on the CD1 ‘Sounds of the 70s’ Radio 1 session from 1970. Maybe after a mainstream singles hit to get them on TOTP? (‘1916’ with b-side ‘Ballad of Joe Pimp’ perhaps?)

Edited December 26, 2021 by sidewinder

[sidewinder]

So far the major ‘find’ for me has been the broadcast of Gordon Beck’s ‘The Dream’ suite on CD4 for the ‘Jazz In Britain’ programme, with Norma Winstone and John Taylor. Really good adventurous stuff - and a shame it wasn’t worked into a studio LP release at that time. Not standard Nucleus fare, I guess.

[mjazzg]

2 hours ago, sidewinder said:

So far the major ‘find’ for me has been the broadcast of Gordon Beck’s ‘The Dream’ suite on CD4 for the ‘Jazz In Britain’ programme, with Norma Winstone and John Taylor. Really good adventurous stuff - and a shame it wasn’t worked into a studio LP release at that time. Not standard Nucleus fare, I guess.

Sounds very interesting. I'm lukewarm about Nucleus generally but in that company I could be drawn in

[sidewinder]

46 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Sounds very interesting. I'm lukewarm about Nucleus generally but in that company I could be drawn in

It’s a half-hour suite. Not typical of much of the rest of the set, which concentrates on Nucleus, but an unexpected bonus.

Too many versions of ‘Snakehip’s Dream’ for my liking though. One or two would be enough !

Edited December 27, 2021 by sidewinder

[greggery peccary]

Hello- I received a copy of this from importcds and it was missing disc #9. Anyone else has a problem or did I just manage to get lucky for a change?  ;(

[sidewinder]

CD9 seems to be present and correct.