Jazz At The Flamingo

First released in May 1961 as a (slightly premature) 10th Anniversary celebration of the famous Soho jazz venue, 'Jazz At The Flamingo' now serves as an ideal introduction to Fantastic Voyage's new series of competitively-priced Ember Jazz Originals.

Founded in 1952, the Flamingo in Wardour Street played host to both the cream of visiting US jazz musicians and also the emerging British talent. During the Fifties, Flamingo founder Jeffrey Kruger built up his interests in music publishing and also facilitated recordings of some of his favourite artists, initially placing them with established outlets including the Tempo label. Then in 1960, the first British jazz releases appeared on his own Ember label, both reissues of material previously placed elsewhere, and releases of entirely new repertoire.

'Jazz At The Flamingo' was a collection of personal favourites, some previously released on Tempo, Decca, Parlophone and the nascent Ember itself, others new to vinyl. As such, it is a perfect primer for the Ember Jazz Originals series, which will reissue entire albums by many of the feature artists and others besides.

To maximise the nostalgia of this reissue, Fantastic Voyage has faithfully retained the original album's artwork, and the CD booklet reproduces the album's original labels and sleeve notes (penned by Kruger himself). To increase the desirability of this release, Fantastic Voyage has added all four tracks from The British Jazz Trio EP of September 1962 (again reproducing all original artwork) and two previously unissued, longer outtakes from sessions for the Tommy Whittle Quintet album of 1959.