John McCarthy
Clarinet and baritone saxophone in John Sangster's epic jazz Middle Earth, where trad swing, skating post-bop, blues and film-like tableaux share one warm, rambunctious bandstand full of humour and layered colour.
McCarthy is among the reeds that help Sangster paint Tolkien's characters and scenes without soundtrack literalism: jaunty combos for hobbits and elves, darker colours for orcs and battle, soulful ballad lines and experimental edges sitting beside pure bonhomie. The same ensemble spirit carries into Sangster's Lear nonsense suite and the later Jazz Music series for small orchestra, music that prizes play, detail and the joy of the making.
John McCarthy appears on
Jazz Music Series, Vol. 5: Ripper
The fifth and final volume in John Sangster’s jazz series of suites, written for a lively little orchestra that gathers some of Australia’s finest jazz musicians around his vibraphone writing.
Jazz Music Series, Vol. 4: Take That
Volume four of John Sangster’s Jazz Music Series finds his “lively little orchestra” of leading Australian jazz players in a ten-movement suite of wit, swing and colour.
Jazz Music Series, Vol. 3: Steady Lads
Third in John Sangster’s series of suites for a lively little orchestra of some of Australia’s finest jazz musicians: ten pieces of small big-band writing with Sangster on vibraphone.
Jazz Music Series, Vol. 2: Requiem (for a loved one)
Volume 2 of five suites by John Sangster, played by his fine small orchestra of leading Australian jazz musicians. A 1980 requiem for Janice Patricia Byrnes, nicknamed Bo Diddley.
Jazz Music Series, Vol. 1: Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Doo-wup
As John Sangster put it, "Here is the first in a series of Suites written for this lively little orchestra, a gathering that includes some of Australia's finest jazz musicians."
Uttered Nonsense (The Owl and the Pussycat)
Uttered Nonsense (The Owl and the Pussycat) sets eight Edward Lear poems, spoken with grave poise by Ivan Smith, among fourteen instrumental jazz pieces drawn from the Nonsense Books. Sangster’s large Australian ensemble answers the verse with playful colour.
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3
The third volume of John Sangster's classic jazz epic after J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. First issued by EMI as a double LP more than twenty-five years earlier, this ambitious Australian trilogy reaches CD for the first time here.
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 2
The second volume of John Sangster's classic jazz epic on The Lord of the Rings. First issued by EMI as a double LP more than twenty-five years earlier, this music reaches CD for the first time in this Move reissue.
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1
Not Howard Shore's film score, but Australian jazz and film composer John Sangster's ambitious 1970s musical portrait of Tolkien's characters and events, restored here on a double CD more than twenty-five years after the original EMI LPs.