The Keith Tippett Group - How Long This Time? Live 1970 (2022)

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The Keith Tippett Group - How Long This Time? Live 1970 (2022)

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These six previously unreleased live studio tracks were recorded for broadcast purposes in January and August of 1970, between the group’s two now seminal British jazz/rock releases for the Polydor and Vertigo labels respectively, 1969’s ‘You Are Here… I Am There’ and 1971’s ‘Dedicated to You but You Weren't Listening’.

Three of the compositions presented here (Thoughts To Geoff, Five After Dawn, Green & Orange Night Park) would be recorded again for ‘Dedicated To You…’ The remaining two numbers have never been issued in any form, and show the group in a fascinating developmental period between albums. ‘Thoughts To Geoff’ from the January 1970 session in particular is significantly different to its later album counterpart. It’s an amazing achievement that such harmonically and emotionally mature, rich and progressive pieces were conceived by someone so young and relatively new to the scene. The second session contained in this release was allegedly recorded on Keith’s 23rd birthday.

During conversations with Julie Tippetts for the making of this album, she revealed that she had originally written vocal parts for the title track ‘How Long This Time?’ However, sadly the complete version was apparently only aired live once, in 1970, and there are currently no known recordings of the performance.

Tracks 1-3 represent the only known recordings of the band with drummer Trevor Tomkins, who had been a long-standing member of the Don Rendell Ian Carr Quintet until their breakup only months before the January 1970 KTG session.

The original audio sources for this release were unfortunately in poor shape and required significant restoration to bring them up to a listenable standard. We hope though that the results justify the efforts and that whilst they will never be perfect, these previously lost historic performances can now be properly appreciated, and provide a new insight into the group during a year when they were otherwise frustratingly under-recorded.