Neil Ardley

The British composer Neil Ardley did a great deal of work with his country's best modern jazz musicians. His arrangements and compositions involve aspects of classical music's ambitious compositional outlook somewhat differently than the better-known Third Stream efforts of American jazzmen such as John Lewis or George Russell.

Ardley graduated from Bristol University in the late '50s and went on to study arranging and composition with Raymond Premru and Bill Russo. By 1964, the one-on-one sessions with these theorists were several years behind him and he was directing an ensemble called the New Jazz Orchestra. The idea in this band was to assemble a group of good players and improvisers who would also want to contribute their own compositions to the repertoire.

The line-up of names in this group could pass for someone's collection of British jazz: Harry Beckett, Jack Bruce, Ian Carr,...

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Neil Ardley Albums

1 record