The Keith Tippett Group Dedicated To You, But You Weren’t Listening

Description

The Keith Tippett Group’s Dedicated to You, But You Weren’t Listening is a landmark in cutting edge fusion/avant-jazz. A vital and profoundly adventurous Jazz-Rock record that still swings very hard, it was first released on Vertigo in 1971.

Original copies are now very tricky to score and, as most of you really should know, its aged ridiculously well.

A legendary work, this Be With re-issue has been newly remastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, demonstrating just why this deserves to be back in press. The stunning gatefold jacket fully restores Roger and Martyn Dean’s original, arresting album artwork to complete this must-have reissue.

Alive and bursting with a joyful energy that has to be heard to be believed, Dedicated to You, But You Weren’t Listening flirts with perfection. It’s truly magical and forever essential.

A brilliant jazz pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader “who could make the outlands of modern music feel like the most hospitable of places” (The Guardian), Keith Tippett’s second album is oft-regarded as his Canterbury album.

Indeed, not only does he draw heavily on Soft Machine members past, present and future but the album title itself archly references a Soft Machine composition. Ray Babbington handles bass alongside Neville Whitehead and the drums are shared between Brian Spring (Nucleus), Robert Wyatt(!) and Phil Howard (who would go on to replace Wyatt in Soft Machine). Gary Boyle (Isotope) is on guitar whilst the great percussionist Tony Uter is enlisted for his conga and cow bell expertise. Elton Dean on Alto Saxello, cornetist Marc Charig and Nick Evans on trombone round out this quite stunning ensemble.

Dedicated to You, But You Weren’t Listening presents a collective of superhuman musicians really, *really* enjoying themselves in the studio. The sheer exuberance of the performance is totally infectious. It’s wild, energetic, atmospheric and, bluntly, bordering on chaotic at points. In a word, it’s beautiful.

Robert Wyatt’s drumming opens the record with a bang on the majestic Be With favourite “This Is What Happens”. Some have described his work here as “easily the most inspired of his career on record.” It’s an ultra-funky conga-driven groove that truly sparks via the duelling interplay between the three horn players. In the background, Keith’s insistent piano, in conversation with those unignorable drums, is the anchor that keeps this piece rollicking away. Breathtaking.

The epic, energetic “Thoughts to Geoff” is a 10-minute jammer that tends towards the dissonant and improvisational but becomes more fluid, laconic and melodic as it unravels. The interplay between soloists and ensembles is particularly dazzling here – blazing solos by Evans, Charig and Tippett himself in a flourish of angular arpeggios interspersed with chordal elocution. Phew.

Up next, the no less-urgent Mingus-referencing “Green and Orange Night Park” is a soaring example of ambitious jazz mixed with rock aggression, with Dean strutting his stuff by launching into a scorching solo. An absolutely jaw-dropping piece. Arguably the highlight of this album of huge highlights!

Though much of the album tends to fall on the raucous side (“Gridal Suite” approaches free-jazz at its most chaotic and, dare we say it, “difficult”), there are a few more sedate, at times spacey numbers, such as the deeply impressionistic “Five After Dawn”. The rhythmically complex “Black Horse” is the most accessible track here, a sort of swinging Big Band number with tight grooves, soaring horn & reed melodies, a sizzling Boyle guitar solo and tasty electric piano riffs from Tippett. An hypnotic climax to a staggering record.

This Be With edition of Dedicated to You, But You Weren’t Listening has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis mastering working together with Cicely Balston’s cut at Abbey Road Studios to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. The stunning gatefold sleeve has been restored in all its brainchild glory so you know you’re dealing with the definitive reissue, here. Now, are you listening? (via Label)

Pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader Keith Tippett’s first album, You Are Here…I Am There, was issued in 1969, and received some notice as the work of an ambitious composer looking for a voice. Apparently, by the time he recorded Dedicated to You, But You Weren’t Listening, which was released in 1971, he’d found it in spades. Tippett has become one of the great lights of the British free jazz movement, and for more than 30 years he has led groups of improvising musicians, from two to 40 in number, on some of the most exploratory and revelatory harmonic adventures in musical history – whether those in America know it or not.

The band here is comprised of 11 pieces, including Elton Dean, Robert Wyatt, Nick Evans, Roy Babbington, Gary Boyle, Neville Whitehead, and others. The commitment to jazz here is total, as Tippett grafts the dynamic sensibilities of George Russell, the textural and chromatic palettes of Gil Evans, and the sheer force of Oliver Nelson onto his own palette. The interplay between soloists and ensembles is dazzling – check “Thoughts for Geoff,” with blazing solos by Nick Evans, cornetist Marc Charig, and Tippett himself in a series of angular arpeggios interspersed with chordal elocution. Wyatt’s drumming, which opens the record with a bang on “This Is What Happens,” is easily the most inspired of his career on record. The nod to Mingus on “Green and Orange Night Park” is more than formal; it’s an engagement with some of the same melodic constructs Mingus was working out in New Tijuana Moods. In sum, this is an adventurous kind of jazz that still swings very hard despite its dissonance and regards a written chart as something more than a constraint to creative expression. Brilliant. (via AllMusic)

Vinyl tracklist:
A1 This Is What Happens // Composed By Nick Evans
A2 Thoughts To Geoff // Composed By Keith Tippett
A3 Green And Orange Night Park // Composed By Keith Tippett
B1 Gridal Suite // Composed By Elton Dean
B2 Five After Dawn // Composed By Keith Tippett
B3 Dedicated To You, But You Weren’t Listening // Composed By Elton Dean, Hugh Hopper, Mark Charig
B4 Black Horse // Composed By Nick Evans

Label: Be With Records
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Repress, Stereo, Gatefold
Reissued: 2025 / Original: 1971
Genre: Jazz
Style: Free Jazz, Jazz-Rock

File under: Jazz // Jazz Groups