kenneth graham: the small world of sammy lee

This is the beautiful unreleased British jazz score to the classic Anthony Newley '60s Soho underworld thriller. Recorded in 1963 and never issued, the master tape was discovered in the loft of Kenny Graham's daughter's home by Jonny Trunk. Don't ask what he was doing up there, but he found the tape. Little is known about this jazz score, apart from the fact that it comes from one of the great early '60s London movies, and was written and performed by one of the more important jazz mavericks of modern times. Kenny Graham was a jazz musician like no other. He'd formed an Afro Cuban band in the early 1950s, made an album of Moondog covers in 1957 (Moondog and Suncat Suites), been commissioned for advertising music, library music, jazz compositions and film scores, too. But he got little in return, so he'd turned his back on music by the late '60s, never to write or perform again. A true maverick and simply too far ahead of the jazz crowd to get noticed, this charming little score demonstrates just what a great composer he really was. The opening theme alone is one of the more sublime, early morning jazz numbers you could ever wish to hear. Available here for the first time ever on vinyl. The vinyl will probably sell out really fast and get stuck back on the market by those horrid record flippers for about four times the price.