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Neil Ardley (1937) was probably the British composer/arranger who was closer to the tradition of Duke Ellington and Gil Evans. His New Jazz Orchestra, that had debuted in 1965, recorded his first compositions on Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe (september 1968), boasting four trumpets (including Ian Carr), four trombones (including Michael Gibbs), four reeds (including Dick Heckstall-Smith), tuba, vibraphone, bass (Jack Bruce) and drums (Jon Hiseman).
Ardley's main legacy was the great "chromatic" trilogy of
The Greek Variations (october 1969) for a nine-piece jazz ensemble plus string quintet (including Carr, Gibbs, Bruce, drummer John Marshall, oboe and English horn player Karl Jenkins),
the four movement A Symphony of Amaranths for a large orchestra and jazz quartet
(Dick Heckstall-Smith on woodwinds, Karl Jenkins on electric piano, Ardley himself on prepared piano, plus piano, harp, celeste, viola, cellos, violins, vibraphone, harpsichord, oboe, bassoon, glockenspiel, trumpets, trombones, saxes, tuba, bass, drums),
his most spectacular experiment with mixing composition and improvisation,
contained in A Symphony of Amaranths (june 1971, and not 1967 as often
erroneously mentioned),
Ian Carr introduced Ardley to the jazz critic Denis Preston after "Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe", i.e. after 1968. Prescott encouraged Ardley to compose longer compositions for larger ensembles.
and
Kaleidoscope of Rainbows (march 1976), based on Balinese scales and scored for a smaller ensemble (including Ian Carr on trumpet, Tony Coe on sax, Paul Buckmaster on cello, Dave McRae on electric piano).
Ardley mixed acoustic and electronic instruments (besides voices) on
Harmony of the Spheres (september 1978), featuring John Martyn on guitar, Ardley on
synthesizer and a jazz septet (including Tony Coe and Ian Carr).
This experiment led to the "live electronic jazz orchestra" of Virtual Realities (july 1991), actually a quartet with Ardley and John Walters on electronic keyboards, Carr on trumpet and a guitarist.
Ardley died in 2004.
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