I’d seen that Light In The Attic offshoot, Future Days, were about to reissue Pete Jolly’s 1970 LP Seasons – in pretty amber and green editions – but it was only when Brother Lee Skelly played it on his Soho Radio show that I coughed up the cash and ordered one. Lee says that he found his first copy over 30 years ago, and paid 60p for it. The OG goes for a heck of a lot more than that now – probably because folks such as Cypress Hill, De La Soul, Nightmares On Wax, and J Dilla, have plundered it for samples.

Jolly was a highly respected jazz pianist, based in L.A., with credits that included stints with Art Pepper and Chet Baker. He released a few solo albums on Herb Alpert’s A&M, but Seasons was a little bit different. With a team of five very fine players – whose own CVs boasted sessions with Captain Beefheart, John Coltrane, Marvin Gaye, Lee Hazelwood, Joni Mitchell, Lalo Schifrin, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones – the whole LP was totally improvised in the space of four hours. According to Brother Lee, this was to free Jolly from his A&M contract, and this could possibly be due to the disappointing sales of his previous records. Herb had hoped to rocket Pete to stardom. Nonetheless, Seasons, is much more than a cult curio, and every discerning digger’s home should have one. The whole album sorta segues together, and was undoubtedly intended to be listened to just as it was recorded, in a single hit. Highlights for me, however, are Plummer Park, Springs, and The Indian’s Summer. Each a sublime slice of groovy jazz-funk. Cool finger-clicking jive, somewhere between Dick Hyman doing James Brown and Deodato’s take on Also Sprach Zarathustra / 2001. All are jam-packed with jazzy breaks and solos. The overall tone is totally chilled – and the perfect soundtrack for a cocktail at sunset. Trippy sections rival Roy Budd’s Hallucinations. Whirlpools of Wurlitzer, Hammond B3, Fender Rhodes, and accordion. When drama comes it echoes the aforementioned Schifrin’s Hollywood blockbuster scores, such as Dirty Harry, and his dancefloor makeover of Jaws.

Pete Jolly’s Seasons has been reissued by Future Days Recordings.