Pianist Geoff Castle died in 2020 aged 70. What’s here dates back to the 1980s. He was in Nucleus at the time. And Ian Carr who led that influential band is included in these recordings within the tremendous trumpet section. The Arts Council of Great Britain funded work was inspired by a trip to New York and played by a 10 piece group called Geoff Castle’s Impressions Orchestra. Impressions of New York collects concerts given by the group during 1980-3 at venues like Chalk Farm’s Roundhouse and in Ealing at the Questors Theatre. Future trumpet star Guy Barker is also among the personnel as are saxist Tim Whitehead, bass legend Ron Mathewson and vibist Frank Ricottti who is prominent particularly on ‘Riding High’ and “thrashes” his instrument wonderfully on ‘Village Vanguard.’
There’s plenty of soloing. Castle’s writing makes me think of the approach of the later Colin Towns Mask Orchestra a bit. The key tracks are: ‘Manhattan Dawn,’ ‘Village Vanguard,’ ‘Waltz For Bill’ (inspired by Bill Evans who died when Castle was visiting New York), ‘7th Avenue South’ and ‘Streets At Night.’ The sound quality is a bit muddy but unless you are a hardcore audiophile that doesn’t really matter and there’s sufficient clarity where it counts and certainly a period feel is generated by the charm of those distant nights when Castle speaks to the audiences he and the band encountered.
I only managed to ever hear Castle play once. That was back in 2006 at the Pizza on the Park in central London near Hyde Park Corner when he, in contrast to what’s here, cast his spell of Celtic silvery calm playing with a band called Carmina. I enjoyed that occasion and especially Castle’s playing and reviewed it in Jazzwise. But I like this hard blowing set of recordings even more especially the “steaming” Mel Lewis inspired ‘Village Vanguard’ segment of the suite.
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