Steve Baron Quartet - The Mother Of Us All (1969 uk, awesome psychedelic jazzy folk)

“I remember watching television – educational television – in mid-1967, to see a program called ‘Eavesdropping On The New Rock’ and a group called The Steve Baron Quartet. It was really strange: the jazz group name, a person with a deep, friendly voice singing very melodic folk songs accompanied by three jazz musicians. Jazz folk? Whatever it might be called, it was incredibly good. It’s 1969 now. The Steve Baron Quartet have made their first album. Of course, it’s good.

Steve came to live in New York during the folk revival of the early 60s, and has been writing ever since. His material is among the strongest I have ever heard. Of all the contemporary folk singers, he is one of the very few who knows how to write melodies. Poets they may be, but they usually cannot write songs that keep you awake. The songs on this album have some of the finest melodies and most sensitive thoughts written in the past few years. My picks are Goodbye Road and Don't You Hate The Feeling?, but all the others are exceptional. The group’s playing leaps in and out of the songs like tiny silver sparks. It all works so well. You may find Steve Baron sneaking up on Paul Simon one day, some day soon” 

by Mike Jahn, music critic, the New York Times 

“After a long wait, this album finally appears. A few of us have been lucky enough to have heard the music of the Steve Baron Quartet before, but living with it ourselves has only made us more anxious to let others hear. I’m afraid, despite my usual abundance of categories, I fail to operate here. My favourite category is Rock and Roll. The Quartet is definitely that, but also jazz, also folk. Mainly, I think the Quartet is a sound that can be recognised and loved. All the musicians are in perfect harmony, all the songs are full of life, all the sounds spontaneously and simultaneously imploding and exploding. Just like nature! The Steve Baron Quartet make (here’s the category!) Natural Music. Jai Baba!” 

by Pete Townshend, The Who

Despite boasting enthusiastic sleevenotes from Pete Townshend of the Who, this superb fusion of jazz, folk and psychedelic rock failed to connect when it first appeared in 1969. Featuring superb musical interplay and stunning guitar leads, as well as a handful of haunting acoustic tracks, it’s a lost classic.