Lately, a few members of CAMEL opened their archives to expose various aspects of the English ensemble’s creativity. The latest to join the very commendable trend is bassist Colin Bass who, on his Bandcamp page has issued what is titled “Pious” and subtitled “Jams From The Vaults Vol. 1”: three pieces, credited to HARRY’S JAM BAND, that capture the collective in free flight, rehearsing and and improvising on the spot. A great idea to be putting it all out.
Pious
“I took some old recordings of jam sessions from various CAMEL rehearsals over the years,” explains Colin, “and mixed and mastered them as best as possible and put it on Bandcamp to see if anyone is interested in hearing some spontaneous undirected music making from us. I have a lot of such recordings – we always enjoy our jam sessions – and may put more out digitally if anyone is interested!”
The first of these tracks was recorded in California in 2001 and features – alongside Bass, Andy Latimer and drummer Denis Clement – the sadly departed Guy LeBlanc on keyboards, while the other two, preserved for posterity in Wiltshire in 2018, have Pete Jones handling ivories and sax.
1. We Are Ever So Pious
2. The Occidental Corroboration Manouevre
3. You Know What This Means
