Under Milk Wood

BReissued on vinyl for the first time in nearly 40 years, The Stan Tracey Quartet’s Under Milk Wood is considered one of the finest British jazz albums ever made, an effortlessly iconic masterpiece that encapsulates the heady ’60s jazz boom.

It features compositions by the great Stan Tracey – The Godfather of British Jazz -inspired by Dylan Thomas’ drama ‘Under Milk Wood’, including the timeless “Starless and Bible Black” with its acclaimed solo by tenor saxophonist Bobby Wellins.

Like Thomas’s characters, the themes vary greatly in tempo, in mood, in dramatic depth. The title song is a triumph, not only because it stands by itself as a beautifully conceived jazz ballad, but because it sets the scene for the rest of the writing and playing. Some of the other themes are impressionistic and highly subjective sketches of Thomas seen through the prism of jazz.