Review of Joy and Landscape at Ronnie Scott’s by Miles Kington in The Times. However a subbing error omits the first mention of John’s name, somewhat undermining the (rave) review.

The Times, Tuesday 24 February 1976
Joy / Landscape
Ronnie Scott’s
Miles Kington

With some trepidation the Greater London Arts Association mounted a concert by the two winning groups in their Young Jazz Musicians ’76 scheme on Sunday, so they must have felt relieved to see a good crowd and hear some equally good music. And almost as if by design the two groups set off each other neatly, one being very much a gathering of soloists and the other predominantly a writer's band.

Joy, led by trumpeter Jim Dvorak, span long numbers out of sketchy material, often depending on little more than a couple of chords and alternations of 3/4 and 4/4, which leaves a heavy load for the soloist to bear. In the opening number it didn't work and the band seemed to drag along like a car threatening to run out of fuel any moment, but things got better and better as they warmed up until by their penultimate number – ‘Sanctuary’ by drummer Keith Bailey – they made their name seem a logical choice. It floated along over Bailey’s rustling, choked-back cymbal work, with altoist Chris Francis, pianist Frank Roberts and Dvorak all pulling off that hardest of tricks, making a fast tune sound soft yet still very fast. Full marks, too, to bassist Ernest Mothle for resisting the temptation to solo and remaining a rock of strength in the rhythm section.

Landscape depends very much on the writing of leader / saxophonist / flautist [John Walters] and ‘electric trombonist’ Peter Thoms, who between them get a sound out of the group much fatter than most quintets produce. Their soloing is, against all fashion, unrhetorical and almost sketchy – refreshingly understated, I would call it – but the main asset of the group is the writing: each number, short and beautifully structured, conjures up an atmosphere or creates an effect which few other musicians have thought possible to find in the apparently one-crop soil of jazz-rock. Joy may have provided the high spots of the evening but Landscape had a better batting average. I fancy that Walters, like Mike Gibbs, may end up a much-sought-after writer. He deserves to.