Apart from Michael Garrick taking over the piano stool in 1965, the Don Rendell / Ian Carr Quintet remained unchanged for several years and produced a series of remarkable albums.  Following on from Blue Beginnings there is Shades of Blue (1965), Dusk Fire (1966), Phase 3 (1967), Live (1968)  and Change Is (1969).  To this list can be added a recording that only came to light relatively recently when drummer Trevor Tomkins donated his personal archive for posterity and which has been released as Warm Up : The Complete Live at the Highwayman 1965 (2022).  During the 1960s Ian Carr often played with bands led by Michael Garrick and Joe Harriott.  He can also be heard on big band recordings playing with the New Jazz Orchestra, the Harry South Big Band and the Stan Tracey Big Brass. In 1969 Ian Carr and Don Rendell went their separate ways and Carr, along with Karl Jenkins, founded the group 'Nucleus'.

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The late 1960s and early 1970s were exciting times in popular music. As so often happens, American super-stars such as Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock received much of the acclaim for the new genre which came to be known as 'Fusion', but in the UK a whole host of outstanding musicians developed a parallel scene on their own terms with little reference to America. The so-called 'Canterbury Scene' included bands such as Soft Machine and Caravan while other bands like Colosseum (led by drummer Jon Hiseman) combined jazz and rock music to become commercially successful. Soft Machine, having toured America and supported Jimi Hendrix, had to re-form back in the UK before releasing Volume Two (1969) and Third (1970), the latter widely considered to be their best album which set the tone for British jazz-rock fusion.

Here is a video of Nucleus playing in 1972. For about the first five minutes the video features Dave McCrea on Fender Rhodes and Roy Babbington bass before Ian Carr comes in to take over on trumpet followed by Karl Jenkins on oboe..

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In 1970, Nucleus released Elastic Rock featuring Ian Carr (trumpet, flugelhorn), Karl Jenkins (baritone saxophone,  oboe, piano, electric piano), Brian Smith (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute), Chris Spedding (guitar), Jeff Clyne (bass) and John Marshall (drums). In those heady days, contemporary jazz and emerging talent were frequently featured on BBC radio,  Ian Carr was a regular presenter, and the Rendell-Carr Quintet and then Nucleus were often featured on mainstream programming.  The BBC, as the national broadcaster in the UK, entered Nucleus into the European Broadcasting Union competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival and Ian Carr's band took the first prize, part of which included representing Montreux at the Newport Jazz Festival in the USA.  Elastic Rock (listen here) is considered a milestone in Fusion that demonstrates a refusal to recognise rigid boundaries between musical genres and delivers a “total musical experience”.  Along with Soft Machine, Colosseum and others Nucleus ensured that British Fusion music was among the world leaders.

In the years that followed Nucleus frequently changed personnel but under Ian Carr's leadership maintained a consistently high standard. Following Elastic Rock releases included We'll Talk About It Later (1971), Solar Plexus (1971), Belladonna (1972), Labyrinth (1973), Roots (1973), Under The Sun (1974), Snakehips Etcetera (1975), Alleycat (1975), In Flagrante Delicto (1977), Out Of The Long Dark (1979) and Awakening (1980).  In the late 1970s, Ian Carr joined the United Jazz Rock Ensemble which was based in Germany.  The band included a significant British contingent with Kenny Wheeler on trumpet alongside Ian, Barbara Thompson on saxophones and Jon Hiseman on drums. Ian Carr remained with this remarkable band until 2002 when there was a farewell tour. In the 1980s there was less to hear from Nucleus but Old Heartland (1988) with its string quartet among the musicians harks back nostalgically to Carr's upbringing in Northumberland.  This album, with its pastoral feel,  also marks a departure from that jazz-rock fusion of the 1970s.