Originally released on Pye’s 4D quadraphonic imprint, these 1973 albums from The Harry Roche Constellation would have long sunk without trace, were they not considerably more than thinlydisguised demonstration vehicles for the glories of all things quadraphonic. Fronted by trombonist and musical director Harry Roche, with a little help from a posse of arrangers, including Pete Moore (the man responsible for the memorable Pearl & Dean jingle), Don Lusher and even Stan Tracey, the Constellation were never actually a working band, rather a collection of leading session men.
“Too jazzy, funky and freaky to be easy listening, but too tightly arranged and laidback to be taken for serious jazz”: the sleevenotes hit the nail on the head. Instrumental reworkings of Stevie Wonder, The Who and Bob Dylan stand shoulder-to-shoulder with explorations of standards from Johnny Mercer, George Gerswhin, Henry Mancini and Michel Legrand. However, nothing can prepare the unsuspecting listener for the for the extraordinary 10- minute odyssey that is Pete Moore’s Spiral, with its manifest debt to Isaac Hayes and Norman Whitfield. It might feel like you’re knee deep in a pseudo blaxploitation score, but this was actually laid down in Wembley in 1973.
