Source of info on British modern jazz

[Rcartes]

Looking for details of the Tubby Hayes big band Jazz 625 broadcast from 1964 (see separate Tubby Hayes thread), I came across David Taylor's site British modern jazz - from the 1940s onwards.

It's a terrific source of information on a period of jazz that's become sadly rather neglected.

[Quarky]

Googling around, I located a book by Simon Spillett: The Long Shadow of the Little Giant: The Life, Work and Legacy of Tubby Hayes

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Shadow-Little-Giant-Popular/dp/1781791732

I'm sure Alyn has had something to say about him, somewhere.

[Alyn_Shipton]

New paperback edition of Simon's book (fully revised) just out, is the last word on Tubby! According to him the big band gig was recorded at the Shepherd's Bush Empire on 31 Jan 1965. And transmitted (according to Nic Pillai's new book on jazz on film and TV) on 7 April 1965 at 22.30. Tubby made 2 appearances on Jazz 625 in 1964 with his quintet.

[Serial_Apologist]

A link to a forum for afficionados of British modern jazz between the 1940s and 1970s has just popped up on my Facebook page. It has just over 1000 members, and 3 of my jazz muso FB contacts are in it. I don't know if it's OK to publicise it, or if I will be criticised for drawing attention - which is why I'm not starting a separate thread - but assuming there are no objections from the Management, who can of course delete this post, below is a link. If it doesn't work, that might be because you need to be a FB member to access the site - I don't know about these things. Joining seems to present no problem - it took 20 seconds to go through.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/601741003282726/about/

[Serial_Apologist]

Duncan Heining's review of the recently released Mike Westbrook Concert band recording "The Last Night at the Old Place" is on the link attached below. Mr Heining raises some interesting points re comparing a musician's past work with their work today.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-last-night-at-the-old-place-by-duncan-heining.php

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"I think artists such as Westbrook, Graham Collier, Mike Gibbs, Michael Garrick and many others suffer from our tendency to be always harking back to this, admittedly, first golden age of British jazz. That tendency stops us appreciating the later, more mature work of such individuals. "

Yes well, nostalgia is never what it was, but it was the energy, inventiveness and iconoclastic work within and stretching a tradition that marked out their earlier works. Melly's "Revolt into Style" comes into it as the years and decades grind relentlessly on and there is also their own move(s) to new (sometimes literature based) concerns, particularly with Westbrook, whose later "theatrical" ensembles etc leave me very cold. So, heretically, the "Old Place" and "Places" was a golden era, Surman stalking around that basement at 4am while Westbrook channelled Fats Domino, and "breakfast was served", was to put it mildly, "memorable".

But I do agree with him about the social, political and artistic conjuncture, that particular era's perhaps romanticised but nonetheless real dialectic. That ain't coming back on anybody's white horse.

[Ian Thumwood]

Duncan Heining's review of the recently released Mike Westbrook Concert band recording "The Last Night at the Old Place" is on the link attached below. Mr Heining raises some interesting points re comparing a musician's past work with their work today.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-las...an-heining.php

SA

Oddly enough I thought of you when I read that review. It is good in parts as a general but isn't exactly a review of the particular record. It does offer some interesting comments which are probably sufficient for several threads of their own. The issue with contrasting younger players with the older counterparts on the British scene is a good one although I think that the main difference now is really centred around the media and how musicians and their records are perceived. Westbrook is a true original and I suppose that I must be a contemporary of DH because many of the musicians he mentions are ones I grew up listening to.
Where the problem is in 2018 is that I think many musicians get promoted at the expense of others so that certain players become more fashionable than others. Empirical are a group I would concur as being worthy of being singled out but to mention someone like Yazz Ahmed in the same breath as Westbrook is ridiculous. I feel that there is a lot of good British stuff out there just as there is good stuff from most European countries. I would not say that the British scene was particularly remarkable although there is also a tendency to over-praise and hype stuff in the continent too. Maybe when YA has a significant body of work behind her , then it will be possible to make a more balanced judgement but two albums is not really sufficient. I have heard her perform twice in live circumstances and she is ok but not remarkable in the way someone like Ambrose Akinmusire is.

The weird thing for me about British Jazz is that the best stuff always seems to get over-looked. I cannot recall anyone lauding John Escreet for example and Alexander Hawkins seems under the radar for me. Ditto Tony Koif. From time to time, British players crop up in the bands of the likes of Pharoah Sanders and it does offer a chance to see these musicians test their mettle. I would have to say that the best thing I have heard by a British jazz group in the last ten years has been Peter Hurt's recent big band album. It received a lot of praise although younger players seem to get the front cover of jazz magazines these days and I feel the girls tend to get given far more slack by journalists in some publications. I think All About Jazz was pretty unusual in giving the recent Dinosaur and Go-Go Penguin releases indifferent reviews (quite harsh in the case of the latter.)


Some early British jazz is actually far better than it often given credit for and these artists were unfortunate in not getting their music brought to the attention of a wider public through the internet which did not exist in their time. The better stuff from 50's / 60's does not really need to by hyped or have a publicity machine behind it. It will be interesting to see where a plyer like Laura Jurd will be in 20 years time and whether she will be the kind of player DH identifies as being able to transcend eras. I would suggest that she will probably get better as she matures as a player but ultimately be replaced by next year's bright young thing. There was a sense that the older generation of players were in for the long haul whereas the younger players seem too modish to last beyond 5 years.

[Alyn_Shipton]

The issue not addressed in Heining's review - which has plenty of pretentious tosh worth disagreeing with - is that it's a live recording of a gig never intended for release so can't be easily compared to those albums like Marching Song or the others where Mike put a lot of effort into what was released. There are some great later albums - Citadel being one - but Mike once sent me the Scandinavian radio broadcast of the first performance of that which tops it for visceral excitement but isn't the considered album that was released. The last night at the old place is a good historical document with - as JRR listeners will have heard - some great Mike Osborn (not really mentioned in the 'review') but it's not an album in the sense it was conceived as such.