This album was a project by Johnny Scott
John Scott (born Patrick John O’Hara Scott, 1 November 1930), also known as Johnny Scott and Patrick John Scott, is an English film composer and music conductor. Scott has collaborated with well-known directors and producers, including Mark Damon, Richard Donner, Charlton Heston, Mike Hodges, Hugh Hudson, Norman Jewison, Irvin Kershner, Ilaiyaraaja, Daniel Petrie, Roger Spottiswoode, and Norman J. Warren.
Scott was born in Bishopston, Bristol, England. His father, a musician in the Bristol Police Band, gave him his first music lessons. At the age of 14, he enrolled in the British Army (in the Royal Artillery Band, Woolwich) as a Boy Musician in order to continue his musical studies of the clarinet, harp and saxophone.
Later, Scott toured with some of the best-known British bands of the era. He was hired by EMI to arrange and conduct some of its most popular artists and, during this time, worked with Beatles producer George Martin (playing flute in the band’s 1965 recording “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”). Scott also recorded such artists as Tom Jones, Cilla Black, and The Hollies. As a musician, he played with The Julian Bream Consort, John Dankworth, Cleo Laine, Yehudi Menuhin, Nelson Riddle and Ravi Shankar.
Credited as Johnny Scott, and playing flute, he led a jazz quintet, quartet and trio during the 1960s: his three part Study for Jazz Quintet was included on the 1962 compilation album Jazz Tête-à-Tête recorded by Denis Preston. He played for Henry Mancini and was principal saxophonist in John Barry’s soundtrack to the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964).
Since the 1960s, Scott has composed for more than 100 film and television productions. Some of Scott’s most praised and recognized scores are Antony and Cleopatra (1972), England Made Me (1973), North Dallas Forty (1979), The Final Countdown (1980), Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) and The Shooting Party (1985).
His TV work includes the themes to the BBC current affairs programmes Nationwide and Midweek, incidental music for the ITV series Rosemary and Thyme, and documentaries by French explorer Jacques Cousteau. He also composed the instrumental piece “Gathering Crowds” for a stock music library. While the opening bars of the piece were used briefly in 1976 by ABC for its nightly national news program, the piece would later become iconic in the US for its use as the closing theme for the long-running syndicated Major League Baseball highlights show This Week in Baseball.
Scott is also active as a classical composer (having written a symphony, a ballet, four string quartets and a guitar concerto) and as a conductor. Orchestras that he has conducted include the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Opera Orchestra, the Lubliana Radio Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic.
In 2006–2008, Scott served as the artistic director of the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra.
On 16 October 2013 Scott was presented with a BASCA Gold Badge Award in recognition of his contribution to music. (wikipedia)
Underrated jazz prog from 1971. “Big Hammer” is an all instrumental exploitation psych album features fuzz and wah-wah guitar, organ, flute and sitar. Musically, they sound more like a late 60s group than a pioneering cutting edge post-Swimming London progressive band from 1971. Big Hammer has been much in demand by progressive rock collectors and one listen to it will tell why – pretty much every track is a killer ! (by Doug Larson)
Peer International Library Limited was a London based production music library company that was established in the late 1960s by Dennis Berry (aka Peter Dennis). It was closely affiliated with the other library company Southern, – which was also run by Dennis Berry. They often shared releases and that’s why certain titles appear on both Peer and Southern catalogue. This album here, called Big hammer, was credited to a band called The Bigroup, but without a doubt it was some studio musicians group with a made up name for the album. And it was also released on Southern.
The Spain edition:
The opening track “Big hammer” starts the album strongly. It’s a banging midtempo psych funk track with a hint of oriental vibe every now and then. A stronger oriental vibe comes with the next one, a downtempo sitar and flute driven mellow groover “Anna purna”. I’m not exactly sure if it actually is a sitar but sounds a lot of it. After the dramatic “Devil’s stronghold”, comes “Rolling”. It starts promisingly with a nice break, but then turns into a melancholic midtempo groover. Next up are two quite heavy downtempo psych funk tracks called “Beat norm” and “Heavy lift”. After them comes one of the best tracks on the album, “What’s coming”. It’s a strong upbeat track with heavy breakbeat drums and some wailing melodies on top. Then there’s again two mellow but psych heavy tracks called “Blow-suck blues” and “Gentle swell” before we get to the last track, “Bombilation”. “Bombilation” is a great midtempo organ driven psych funk groover with some electric guitar work (I’m still not a fan of those) and banging beats. All the songs are relatively long for a library record, all the tracks except one are over three minutes what makes it a more pleasant one to listen. (by Mista Tibbz)
In today’s culture, one might presume the Bigroup to be some sort of avant garde transsexual troupe. But most likely in 1971, it stood for nothing more than “The Big Group”. Then again, they do have a composition entitled ‘Blow-Suck Blues’, so perhaps they were ahead of their time after all? Musically, however, they sound more like a late 60s group than a pioneering cutting edge post-Swinging London progressive band from 1971. “Big Hammer” is, in effect – if not actually the case – an all instrumental film library psychedelic album with copious flute, sitar, surf guitar, and roller rink organ. There’s not much in the way of compositional development, which would be typical of the incidental film music genre. Somewhat similar to the groups like Blue Phantom, Hungry Wolf, The Underground Set, Psycheground Group, or Fourth Sensation. Great stuff! (by Ashratom (RYM).
And … a real strong bass !
Personnel:
Anthony King (keyboards, synthesizer)
Johnny Scott (saxophone, flute, clarinet)’
+
a bunch of unknown studio musicians
Alternate front+ backcover:
Tracklist:
01. Big Hammer 4.11
02. Annapurna 3.39
03. Devil’s Stronghold 3.24
04. Rolling 3.15
05. Beat Norm 3.15
06. Heavy Lift 4.15
07. What’s Coming? 3.46
08. Blow-Suck Blues 2.37
09. Gentle Swell 3.21
10. Bombilation 3.41
Music composed by Johnny Scott
except 08. composed by Anthony King
Another edition from Spain:
Anthony King (real name Anthony Frederick Lilly)
British songwriter and arranger, active since ca. 1960s. Often collaborated with John Schroeder. In the late 1960s, Status Quo recorded some of his songs. He was a library music composer and a prolific arranger of strings for reggae records intended for pop market (often spelled Tony King). Not to be confused with reggae singer Tony King who was only a performing act.
ManyFantasticColors 