Humber College Jazz Ensemble On the Way to Montreux, also from 1977

On this record they are thankfully far more adventurous compared to the previous grab bag of old and stale standards.  In fact if you compare the opening track Basin Street Blues here and formerly you'll see they venture into some pretty funky territory this time out or second take.  The best track occurs in the middle of the second side with a composition by one Jaxon Stock called Jacob's Tailor, & here it is:

Check out the clear classical European education here from the composer, who doesn't appear anywhere elsewhere,  with an initial woodwinds Debussy influence, progressing with the polytonal chord patterns into a Stravinsky score.  And listen to the phenomenal ending that modulates into D, with the bass tuba playing the bottom note.  Really, really, stunning, coming from something so unknown...

More college band music to come soon.

The Humber College Jazz Ensemble in 1977's First Take

From wiki:

Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning is a polytechnic college in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

This record is squarely in the big band tradition, unfortunately, with very little of the progressive spirit that was such a part of the seventies.  Given that we are dealing with students here, not so surprising, though Northern Illinois University was pretty fusionary as we saw earlier.

I'll go with Are You Ready (a Ted Pease composition) as the most listenable track here:





Their next album, however, was really good, coming Wednesday.