The Bebop Shop : A Swingin' Affair: Blue Notes & Hard Bop Classics : The Jazz Couriers: Tubby Hayes & Ronnie Scott
It includes the recordings with the original ground-breaking Tubby Hayes Orchestra, and, of course, the startling performances of the Jazz Couriers, maybe the best British modern jazz combo of the all, along with Ronnie Scott. In addition, there are the experimental solo recordings, as he overdubbed all the instruments, and the London Jazz Quartet material, originally conceived as film and TV background music.
Its a fascinating medium, also, through which to follow the development of the mercurial technique of an artist who was young enough to approach bebop free of the background that most of his fellow musicians had been obliged to live through during the dance band era. Already a huge talent when this set begins, his style and ability were constantly evolving through the Tempo era. It includes a 6000-word booklet by noted jazz writer and musician Simon Spillett, who also compiled the anthology. It is a must for every Tubby Hayes fan and indeed all aficionados of British modern jazz. (Discovery Records) Price: £22.99
Only a few years before, the very notion of British jazzmen holding their own at an international level would have been all but risible; yet by the close of the 1960s the news that guitarist John McLaughlin and bassist Dave Holland were being headhunted by Miles Davis was greeted not by surprise, but with a certain amount of jingoistic pride. No one musician had done more to raise the game of the local performers in the preceding decade than Tubby Hayes; his story was as much about the personal cost of his dedication to musical excellence as it was his overcoming the inertia of his surroundings; his story remains one of lasting impact. (Proper Records) Price: £16.99
This massive 4CD set showcases his quartet, quintet and big band, together with two US-recorded albums made with Clark Terry, James Moody and Roland Kirk. Over 44 tracks, Hayes is heard both live and in the studio, playing a repertoire comprising his own compositions and those of his idols including Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. (Proper Music) Price: £16.99
Hailed as "Englands greatest jazz combo", Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes formed the Couriers to bring their message to the world that British jazz was alive and kicking! Joined by Terry Shannon on piano, Phil Bates on bass and Bill Eyden on drums we find them on a double bill with Dave Brubeck live at the Dominion Theatre in early February 1958. Wearing their influences on their sleeves, Brubeck was heard to declare "They sound more like an American band than we do". Moving ahead to November 1958 and the Couriers had been joined by Jeff Clyne on bass for a recording in London which clearly shows how British jazz was beginning to take it to their American cousins! For "Tubbys Groove", Tubs steps out from the Couriers for the first time but is in familiar company with Shannon and Clyne and joining them on drums, the legendary and phenomenal Phil Seamen! Completed by four classic sides featuring the hard hitting, searing sound of Tubbys tenor alongside trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar from "Pub Crawling" where the band pay tribute to the fine art of beer drinking! All three albums plus, have been digitally re-mastered for probably the finest sound quality ever! (AVID Entertainment) Price: £8.99
Hayes mastery of vibes, flute and alto sax are showcased on the rare London Jazz Quartet LP (1959) - here in its entirety - plus An Evening With Tony Kinsey (1961) teaming four of the UKs greatest jazz musicians Hayes, Kinsey, Bill Le Sage and Jimmy Deuchar. The compilation also dips into the Jazz At The Flamingo album for the two tracks on which Hayes sits in with the Tony Crombie Quintet, and rounds up a couple of studio sides, again with Crombie.
With comprehensive and informative sleeve notes, this is an essential purchase for the many devotees of the exciting late-50s / early-60s era when the UK modern jazz scene (with Hayes at the helm) became world-renowned via Sohos jazz hotspots, The Flamingo and Ronnie Scotts. (Discovery Records) Price: £12.99
Complete with detailed booklet, rare photographs, press clippings etc this is an un-missable treat for enthusiasts of British modern jazz. (Discovery Records) Special Offer Price £10.99
The thirteen tracks on offer here were composed by and feature British jazz and rock and roll legend Tony Crombie and includes an extra track that was not included on the original album.
Wonderfully remastered and with extensive notes by Simon Spillett this is a great and entertaining sidebar to the main development of Britain's Legendary modern jazz icon. (Jasmine Records) Price: £11.99
When he returned to even greater acclaim in June 1962, to play a further season at New Yorks Half Note club, Mercury Records producer Quincy Jones took the opportunity to record Hayes in the company of the Walter Bishop Jr. trio and guest saxophonists Roland Kirk and James Moody, resulting in the Smash album Tubbys Back In Town. The record received a 4 and a half star review in DownBeat, with journalist Harvey Pekar declaring Hayes performance proof that he was capable of giving many well-regarded US tenor players a run for their money.
This release includes both the Epic and Smash albums and adds a previously unreleased recording of Hayes made with pianist Ray Santisis trio in Boston in 1964. It also comes complete with an overview essay by Hayes biographer and fellow saxophonist Simon Spillett. (Fresh Sound Records) Price: £25.99
Limited edition 180g audiophile vinyl, with 2 bonus tracks. (Proper Music) Price: £22.99
On live performances, however, it was a different story, Hayes galvanising his already formidable mastery of Hard Bop with a new found appetite for the work of John Coltrane as well as further sharpening his natural command of composition and arrangement. Fortunately, radio broadcasts documented these obsessions in full; BBC recordings from this year capturing both his informal quartet and his star-packed Commonwealth Big Band. This release includes three previously unreleased programmes in full, containing versions of classic Hayes themes Change of Setting and Dont Fall Off The Bridge together with the first-ever UK performance of his big band showcase 100% Proof. Hayes then partner, US vocalist Joy Marshall, makes a cameo appearance here. An unmissable treat for all fans of vintage British modern jazz! Features an extensive booklet essay by Hayes biographer Simon Spillett. (Rhythm & Blues Records) Price: £16.99
Drawing equal inspiration from both the recent innovations of Miles Davis and John Coltrane and the energy of his new, young and adventurous sidemen, Hayes was to turn these to-all-intents-and-purposes typical provincial club nights into definitive manifesto statements of his contemporary musical ambitions.
Luckily, excerpts from both these performances were captured on tape. Occasionally bootlegged, the recordings made on these two gigs half a century ago illustrate everything the saxophonist had learned, experienced and pioneered up to that moment; from the blistering paint-off-the-walls bebop of Walkin, a solo to rank alongside any of John Coltrane or Sonny Rollins extended forays from the Sixties, through to the astonishing emotional denouement of a seventeen-minute deconstruction of Dear Johnny B. - this isn't Hayes merely on form; this is him on fire!
This new Acrobat CD is the first ever release of these recordings and comes packaged with rare, hitherto unpublished photographs and a fascinating booklet note by award-winning saxophonist Simon Spillett author of The Long Shadow of The Little Giant: The Life, Work and Legacy of Tubby Hayes. (Discovery Records) Price: £11.99
At the time the 'Grits, Beans and Greens' sessions were recorded, Hayes was also working on a more commercial project, 'The Orchestra', which found him aiming for the pop and easy-listening markets by covering The Beatles, Burt Bacharach and Nancy Sinatra. Ironically, sales of 'The Orchestra' were poor by the standards of his previous albums and as Hayes' health began to falter in the early 1970s, no further recordings took place, leaving the 'Grits, Beans and Greens' reels forgotten and unreleased. After his tragic death following open-heart surgery, aged just 38, in 1973, the tapes were simply filed away, eventually becoming mislaid as the label's archives went through a series of corporate buy-outs.
The tapes were discovered when the late jazz writer and Polygram Catalogue Manager Richard Cook came across Hayes' diary and noticed entries detailing a number of recording sessions. He subsequently trawled through the Polygram archives and made what was to be one of the most significant discoveries in jazz history when he came across the never-before-heard 1969 tapes. Cook left the company before the tapes were released and it wasn't until last year that knowledge of their existence resurfaced.
The audio have also gone through MQA [Master Quality Authenticated] technology, MQA-CD plays back on all CD players. When a conventional CD player is connected to an MQA-enabled device, the CD will reveal the original master quality. (Universal Music) Price: £13.99
After hitting a career low point in 1968 as a result of his heroin addiction, he was rebuilding his health and career and had thrown himself into a punishing round of live work and recording, and was looking for new musical challenges, as the music landscape was evolving rapidly around him, and contemporary musicians were pushing boundaries of their own with psychedelia and progressive rock. He was still in vibrant form and still a master of the kind of hard bop tear-up exhibited in parts of these performances, and still able top find a new way of approaching a standard like What Is This Thing Called Love?, as well as introduce his own compositions like For Members Only. However, this was one of the final performances of this kind by the quartet, as it was only a month later that he collapsed was hospitalised the beginning of the health issues which would bring about his demise in 1973. As such it is an important musical landmark, as he saw out the 60s in typical style. (Acrobat Music) Price: £19.99
Released to mark this special anniversary, this new Acrobat album presents a PREVIOUSLY UNISSUED session recorded in early 1972, which has only recently been rediscovered. On what was one of his first post-surgery gigs, Hayes is heard alongside the Tony Lee Trio, then one of the busiest accompanying units on the London jazz scene, playing with the drive, taste and maturity that came from a lifetimes dedication to the art of jazz improvisation. Indeed, those who remember the impact of hearing Hayes in-person will find more than a hint of nostalgia in this performance. The recording also calls into question some of the critical wisdom that has surrounded the music Hayes made during his final years. Far from being a spent force, ravaged by ill-health and forced to make debilitating compromises, as some jazz histories would have him during this comeback period, he sounds in imperious form throughout, whether barrelling through a blues or caressing a ballad.
This atmospheric release has been newly remastered from the original tape source to gain the best possible sound and comes complete with rare photographs, press cuttings and a detailed booklet essay by award-winning saxophonist and Hayes biographer Simon Spillett. (Acrobat Music) Price: £11.99
To Hayes and his band, who'd been together as a unit for over three years, it was hardly a gig to raise eyebrows; a typical, jazz club blow in a suburban pub backroom, the very thing that the saxophonist had begun his career doing twenty-three years earlier. But now, Hayes was no longer a star ascendant, or operating like the jazz dynamo he'd been in his mid-1960s heyday. He was, quite literally, running out of time. Three months after the Top Alex appearance, he was dead, aged just 38, finally halted by the heart problems that had plagued his final years.
While the press obituaries rightly accorded Hayes his deserved position as one of Britain's greatest ever jazz talents, they also noted the cruel irony that he and his band hadn't entered a recording studio since 1969. Indeed, how the Tubby Hayes Quartet - a group which one obituarist compared to the identical line-up led by John Coltrane sounded in its final years became something of a mystery.
The discovery of privately recorded tapes of the Top Alex performance, issued for the first time on this Acrobat release, provides not only a valedictory souvenir of the quartet in its final phase, but also a lesson in its leaders still deepening musical maturity; close to the end, Hayes draws on everything he'd learned, experienced and pioneered to date, as well as revealing clues as to where his music might have headed next.
Packaged with rare photographs and memorabilia from the night itself, featuring reminiscences by band member Spike Wells, and others who witnessed the gig, and including an in-depth booklet note by Hayes' biographer, saxophonist Simon Spillett, this album is a final, melancholy reminder of a truly gigantic musical legend. (Discovery Records) Price: £11.99
These previously unreleased sessions from 1964-66 find him helming his own quartet a band praised by critics of the time as a powerful combo creating full-blooded, exciting jazz in three distinct t settings; live in Manchester (supporting jazz superstars the Dave Brubeck Quartet); in the studio; and accompanying a very special guest, the iconic American jazz vocalist Mark Murphy. Rarely has Scott been heard to better advantage, his playing throughout these sets bringing his legend back to vivid, hard-swinging and passionately communicative life. (Rhythm & Blues Records) Price: £12.99
At 47, the saxophonist was no longer chasing the musics cutting edge; instead he had forged a style very much his own, one which tipped its hat to many of the good and the great who'd graced his own Soho club, but which now boasted even greater authority, maturity and individuality than ever before. And, despite his off-stage tribulations, he was happy with his band, a rare instance of a Scott-led line-up lasting more than a few years.
Supported by organist Mike Carr and drummer Bobby Gein, he tore the roof off the White Hart, whose 'Jazz at The Icebox' presentations were a magnet for West Country jazz fans. Issued here for the first time, this recording captures Scott doing what he did best: playing no holds-barred jazz, minus the pressures that came from being a frontman for his own club, or acting as 'support act' to his many American guests. As such, it reveals a Ronnie Scott rarely heard on record, an instrumentalist in full-flow, sounding relaxed yet forthright, and making a mockery of the notion that art must mirror life. Scott may have been sailing stormy waters elsewhere but On A Clear Day finds him at the eye of a creative hurricane. Ronnie is one of our finest jazz musicians and saxophonists period, wrote one Melody Maker reviewer that same year, a declaration fully born out on this album. (DIscovery Records) Price: £11.99