Highly collectable, and a significant addition to the Michael Garrick discography, Prelude to Heart is a Lotus , just released commercially for the first time ever on any format, and in this instance pristine 180g vinyl the product of London jazz label Gearbox Records, is a recording from October 1968 made when Garrick was 35 and in his prime, his earlier pioneering poetry and jazz concerts and reputation as a nuanced interpreter of the Great American Songbook already firmly established. Recorded at the BBC Maida Vale studio in London just eight days before the famous Jazz Praises concert took place in St Paul’s cathedral, the Garrick sextet, the leader providing all the original music for the Jazz in Britain session playing a harpsichord on the title track and celeste on Side B number 'Song By The Sea (Garrick plays piano on the other tracks) is joined by Don Rendell, here on soprano and alto saxes as well as flute on 'Song by the Sea', trumpeter Ian Carr, flautist Jim Philip, bassist Coleridge Goode, and drummer Trevor Tomkins. The album is a precursor to the Argo album The Heart is a Lotus recorded at Decca’s West Hampstead studios in 1970 an album that featured a slightly different line-up and also the significant addition of singer Norma Winstone. Of the six tracks on Prelude the Dankworthian ‘Sweet and Sugary Candy’, a composition that also appeared on 1965 album October Woman, is a clear highlight; while the album also includes a new version of ‘Webster’s Mood’, a composition that appeared, crucially, on the classic Garrick album, Black Marigolds.