#britjazz

Huge jazz collection just in - look out killer rare British jazz vinyl, Blue Note originals and much more....

…..we’ve just bought a killer collection of rare jazz – obtained from the private collection of an ex-employee of the legendary London jazz record shop ‘Dobells’. We are currently working through the collection but eagle-eyed jazzers in the office have spied a whole run of rare British jazz from John Surman, Chris Mcgregor, Tubby Hayes, Michael Gibbs, New Jazz Orchestra, Mike Westbrook Concert…

Dick’s Picks: ‘Brew’ Legendary British ’60s Jazz Vinyl LP From the Collin Bates Trio

Dick’s Picks: Tasty limited edition Japanese 180g vinyl reissue of the cult Brit ’60s jazz banger that is ‘Brew’ by the Collin Bates Trio

The Collin Bates Trio brewing up a jazz flavoured storm with this 2009, 180g vinyl reissue of their landmark slice of ’60s Brit Jazz – N-I-C-E! full sales info here

Collin Bates Trio – who?

Details about the Collin Bates Trio are, like the record itself,…

Tubby Hayes: British jazz’s forgotten genius is being rediscovered

‘Every time this guy put a saxophone in his mouth something worthwhile came out’

English jazz multi-instrumentalist, Edward Brian “Tubby” Hayes (1935 – 1973) playing the saxophone, circa 1964 Photo by David Redfern/Redferns/Getty Images

The sultry chanteuse at the microphone stand, the horn player shrouded in wispy smoke in a darkened room: these are the visuals that speak of jazz. And the…

Dick’s Picks: Dizzy Reece Quartet/The Jazz Couriers Monster Rare 1958 BBC Jazz Club Acetate

Dick’s Picks: After last week’s disco shenanigans our resident ‘vinyl guru’ has reached back further into the past and uncovered this rarer-than-rare Dizzy Reece/Jazz Couriers/Tubby Hayes BBC Jazz club acetate, needless to say, you don’t see many of these….

What’s an acetate?

Acetates are a type of phonograph/gramophone record, in common use from the late 1930’s thorough to the late 1950’s,…

Billy Hart (drums) - 1940 :: Born-day greetings to BIlly Hart a jazz drummer and educator who has performed with some of the most important jazz musicians in history.

Early on Hart performed in Washington, D.C. with soul artists such as Otis Redding and Sam and Dave, and then later with Buck Hill and Shirley Horn, and was a sideman with the Montgomery Brothers (1961), Jimmy Smith (1964–1966), and Wes Montgomery (1966–1968). Following Montgomery’s death in 1968, Hart moved to New York, where he recorded with McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, and Joe Zawinul, and played with Eddie Harris, Pharoah Sanders, and Marian McPartland.

Hart was a member of Herbie Hancock's sextet (1969–1973), and played with McCoy Tyner (1973–1974), Stan Getz (1974–1977), and Quest (1980s), in addition to extensive freelance playing (including recording with Miles Davis on 1972's On the Corner).

Since the early 1990s Hart spends considerable time at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and is adjunct faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music and Western Michigan University. He also conducts private lessons through The New School and New York University. Hart often contributes to the Stokes Forest Music Camp and the Dworp Summer Jazz Clinic in Belgium.

He leads a group with Mark Turner, Ethan Iverson, and Ben Street. He also is featured in a trio led by pianist Jean-Michel Pilc and one led by guitarist Assaf Kehati.

Billy Strayhorn (piano) - 1915-1967 :: was an American composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take the 'A' Train," "Chelsea Bridge," and "Lush Life."

In Pittsburgh, he began his musical career, studying classical music for a time at the Pittsburgh Music Institute, writing a high school musical, forming a musical trio that played daily on a local radio station, and, while still in his teens, composing (with lyrics) the songs "Life Is Lonely" (later renamed "Lush Life"), "My Little Brown Book", and "Something to Live For". While still in grade school, he worked odd jobs to earn enough money to buy his first piano.

Though classical music was Strayhorn’s first love, his ambition to become a classical composer was shot down by the harsh reality of a black man trying to make it in the then almost completely white classical world. Strayhorn was then introduced to the music of pianists like Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson at age 19. These musicians guided him into the realm of jazz where he remained for the rest of his life.

Strayhorn's relationship with Ellington was always difficult to pin down: Strayhorn was a gifted composer and arranger who seemed to flourish in Duke's shadow. Ellington was somewhat of a father figure and the band, by and large, was affectionately protective of the diminutive, mild-mannered, unselfish Strayhorn, nicknamed by the band "Strays", "Weely", and "Swee' Pea". Ellington may have taken advantage of him, but not in the mercenary way that others had taken advantage of Ellington; instead, he used Strayhorn to complete his thoughts, while giving Strayhorn the freedom to write on his own and enjoy at least some of the credit he deserved.

Strayhorn composed the band's best known theme, "Take the "A" Train", and a number of other pieces that became part of the band’s repertoire. In some cases Strayhorn received attribution for his work such as "Lotus Blossom", "Chelsea Bridge", and "Rain Check", while others, such as "Day Dream" and "Something to Live For", were listed as collaborations with Ellington or, in the case of "Satin Doll" and "Sugar Hill Penthouse", were credited to Ellington alone. Strayhorn also arranged many of Ellington's band-within-band recordings and provided harmonic clarity, taste, and polish to Duke's compositions. On the other hand, Ellington gave Strayhorn full credit as his collaborator on later, larger works such as Such Sweet Thunder, A Drum Is a Woman, The Perfume Suite and The Far East Suite, where Strayhorn and Ellington worked closely together

Strayhorn was openly gay.He participated in many civil rights causes. As a committed friend to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he arranged and conducted "King Fit the Battle of Alabam'" for the Ellington Orchestra in 1963 for the historical revue (and album) My People, dedicated to Dr. King.

Strayhorn's strong character left an impression on many people who met him. He had a major influence on the career of Lena Horne, who wanted to marry Strayhorn and considers him to have been the love of her life.

Strayhorn was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 1964, which eventually caused his death in 1967. Strayhorn finally succumbed in the early morning on May 31, 1967, in the company of his partner, Bill Grove. (It has often been falsely reported that Strayhorn died in Lena Horne's arms. By her own account, Horne was touring in Europe when she received the news of Strayhorn's death.)[ His ashes were scattered in the Hudson River by a gathering of his closest friends.

While in the hospital, he had submitted his final composition to Ellington. "Blood Count", which was used as the first track to Ellington's memorial album for Strayhorn, …And His Mother Called Him Bill, was recorded several months after Strayhorn's death. The last track of the album is a spontaneous solo version of "Lotus Blossom" performed by Ellington, who sat at the piano and played for his friend while the band (who can be heard in the background) packed up after the formal end of the recording session.

Chuck Mangione (flugelhorn) - 1940 :: Birthday greetings to flugelhorn player and composer Chuck Mangione. Chuck achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-pop single, "Feels So Good." Mangione has released more than thirty albums since 1960.

Mangione and his pianist brother Gap led the Jazz Brothers group which recorded three albums for Riverside Records. He attended the Eastman School of Music from 1958 to 1963, and afterwards joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, for which he filled the trumpet seat, previously held by greats such as Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Dorham, Bill Hardman, and Lee Morgan.

Mangione's quartet with saxophonist Gerry Niewood was a popular concert and recording act throughout the 1970s. "Bellavia," recorded during this collaboration, won Mangione his first Grammy Award in 1977 in the category Best Instrumental Composition.

Mangione's composition "Chase the Clouds Away" was used at the 1976 Summer Olympics, held in Montreal, Quebec, with a later composition, "Give It All You Got," being used as the theme to the 1980 Winter Olympic Games, held in Lake Placid, New York. He performed it live at the closing ceremonies, which were televised globally. In 1978 Mangione composed the soundtrack for the film "The Children of Sanchez" starring Anthony Quinn. This album won him his second Grammy, in the category Best Pop Instrumental performance in 1979 and the title song, almost 15 minutes long in full version and featuring one of the most recognizable wind section themes, has not lost its popularity to this day.

In addition to his quartet with Niewood, Mangione also had much success with his later-‘70s ensemble, including Mangione on flugelhorn and keyboard, Chris Vadala on saxophones and flutes, Grant Geissman on guitars, Charles Meeks on bass and James Bradley, Jr. on drums. This version of Mangione’s band recorded and toured behind the hit studio albums “Feels So Good” and “Fun and Games,” as well as the “Children of Sanchez” film soundtrack recordings, and were some of the musicians that played on various songs as part of Mangione's 1980 “Tarantella" benefit concert.

John Mayall(composer/conductor/leader) - 1933 ;; Many happy returns to a genuine UK blues legend John Mayall! John is a blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years. In the 1960s, he was the founder of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band which has included Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Peter Green, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Mick Taylor, Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Harvey Mandel, Larry Taylor, Aynsley Dunbar, Hughie Flint, Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Andy Fraser, Dave Navarro, Johnny Almond, Walter Trout, Coco Montoya and Buddy Whittington.

As the elder statesman of British blues, it is John Mayall's lot to be more renowned as a bandleader and mentor than as a performer in his own right. Throughout the '60s, his band, the Bluesbreakers, acted as a finishing school for the leading British blues-rock musicians of the era. Guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor joined his band in a remarkable succession in the mid-'60s, honing their chops with Mayall before going on to join Cream, Fleetwood Mac, and the Rolling Stones, respectively. John McVie and Mick Fleetwood, Jack Bruce, Aynsley Dunbar, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Andy Fraser (of Free), John Almond, and Jon Mark also played and recorded with Mayall for varying lengths of times in the '60s.

Mayall's personnel has tended to overshadow his own considerable abilities. Only an adequate singer, the multi-instrumentalist was adept in bringing out the best in his younger charges (Mayall himself was in his thirties by the time the Bluesbreakers began to make a name for themselves). Doing his best to provide a context in which they could play Chicago-style electric blues, Mayall was never complacent, writing most of his own material (which ranged from good to humdrum), revamping his lineup with unnerving regularity, and constantly experimenting within his basic blues format. Some of these experiments (with jazz-rock and an album on which he played all the instruments except drums) were forgettable; others, like his foray into acoustic music in the late '60s, were quite successful. Mayall's output has caught some flak from critics for paling next to the real African-American deal, but much of his vintage work -- if weeded out selectively -- is quite strong; especially his legendary 1966 LP with Eric Clapton, which both launched Clapton into stardom and kick-started the blues boom into full gear in England.

When Clapton joined the Bluesbreakers in 1965, Mayall had already been recording for a year, and been performing professionally long before that. Originally based in Manchester, Mayall moved to London in 1963 on the advice of British blues godfather Alexis Korner, who thought a living could be made playing the blues in the bigger city. Tracing a path through his various lineups of the '60s is a daunting task. At least 15 different editions of the Bluesbreakers were in existence from January 1963 through mid-1970. Some notable musicians (like guitarist Davy Graham, Mick Fleetwood, and Jack Bruce) passed through for little more than a cup of coffee; Mayall's longest-running employee, bassist John McVie, lasted about four years.

Clapton had left the Yardbirds in order to play straight blues, and the Bluesbreakers allowed him that freedom (or stuck to well-defined restrictions, depending upon your viewpoint). Clapton began to inspire reverent acclaim as one of Britain's top virtuosos, as reflected in the famous "Clapton is God" graffiti that appeared in London in the mid-'60s.

In professional terms, though, 1965 wasn't the best of times for the group, which had been dropped by Decca. Clapton even left the group for a few months for an odd trip to Greece, leaving Mayall to straggle on with various fill-ins, including Peter Green. Clapton did return in late 1965, around the time an excellent blues-rock single, "I'm Your Witchdoctor" (with searing sustain-laden guitar riffs), was issued on Immediate. By early 1966, the band was back on Decca, and recorded its landmark Bluesbreakers LP. This was the album that, with its clean, loud, authoritative licks, firmly established Clapton as a guitar hero, on both reverent covers of tunes by the likes of Otis Rush and Freddie King and decent originals by Mayall himself. The record was also an unexpected commercial success, making the Top Ten in Britain. From that point on, in fact, Mayall became one of the first rock musicians to depend primarily upon the LP market; he recorded plenty of singles throughout the '60s, but none of them came close to becoming a hit.

Clapton left the Bluesbreakers in mid-1966 to form Cream with Jack Bruce, who had played with Mayall briefly in late 1965. Mayall turned quickly to Peter Green, who managed the difficult feat of stepping into Clapton's shoes and gaining respect as a player of roughly equal imagination and virtuosity, although his style was quite distinctly his own. Green recorded one LP with Mayall, A Hard Road, and several singles, sometimes writing material and taking some respectable lead vocals. Green's talents, like those of Clapton, were too large to be confined by sideman status, and in mid-1967 he left to form a successful band of his own, Fleetwood Mac.

Mayall then enlisted 19-year-old Mick Taylor; remarkably, despite the consecutive departures of two star guitarists, Mayall maintained a high level of popularity. The late '60s were also a time of considerable experimentation for the Bluesbreakers, which moved into a form of blues-jazz-rock fusion with the addition of a horn section, and then a retreat into mellower, acoustic-oriented music. Mick Taylor, the last of the famous triumvirate of Mayall-bred guitar heroes, left in mid-1969 to join the Rolling Stones. Yet in a way Mayall was thriving more than ever, as the U.S. market, which had been barely aware of him in the Clapton era, was beginning to open up for his music. In fact, at the end of the 1960s, Mayall moved to Los Angeles. Released in 1969, The Turning Point, a live, all-acoustic affair, was a commercial and artistic high point.

Nat Birchall(sax, tenor) - 1957 :: Happy birthday to saxophonist Nat Birchall.

Over the last few years British saxophonist and composer Nat Birchall has carved out a singular niche for himself. A deeply soulful, spiritual saxophonist whose beautiful recordings for the Gondwana label have moved people to suggest that the spirit of Coltrane was alive and well in Northern England. But Birchall is much more than a slavish imitator of Coltrane's sound, there is a sense of tranquility and depth of feeling in Birchall's music that recalls more than just Coltrane's notes and a desire for honest, soulful communication which is also apparent in label mate Matthew Halsall's albums. Attributes that are far removed from much of contemporary jazz's preoccupation with punky attitudes or tricksy, technique challenging compositions. Originally inspired by the legendary Jamaican jazz-influenced saxophonists, Cedric Brooks, Tommy McCook, that inspired him take up the saxophone, it was through them that he discovered the music of John Coltrane.

Lessons with an enigmatic local player, Harold Salisbury, followed as well as playing with various bands including Akay Temiz's Turkish jazz group, Zaman. Nat led a hip-hop influenced jazz band Corner Crew in the early '90s and started to make a name for himself on the local scene. His debut album Sixth Sense (1998) first announced him to the jazz world as an urgent tenor saxophonist with a feel for pulsing modal hard-bop.

'But it was his cult hit and now highly sought after soulful slice of spiritual jazz Akhenaten (released on trumpeter Matthew Halsall's label, Gondwana Records, in 2009) that introduced Nat to a much wider audience, with the album being enthusiastically received worldwide.'

Since then Nat has continued to record new music, 2010's 'Guiding Spirit' album and last year's 'Sacred Dimension' have continued the development of his music. Again both albums ( both on Halsall's Gondwana imprint ) have had a fantastic reception worldwide.

Nat has also been featured on Matthew Halsall's own 3 albums on Gondwana, 'Sending My Love', 'Colour Yes' and last year's 'On The Go' which was Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards 'Best Jazz Album' 2012.

Coleridge Goode (bass) - 1914 ::Many happy returns to another legendary british jazz musician Coleridge George Emerson Goode is a former British Jamaican-born jazz bassist most noteworthy for his long collaboration with alto saxophonist Joe Harriott. Goode was a key figure in Harriott's innovatory jazz quintet throughout its eight-year existence as a regular unit (1958–65). Goode was also an important contributor to Harriott's later pioneer fusions of jazz and Indian music.

Goode was born in Kingston, Jamaica. His father was a choirmaster and organist who promoted classical choral music in Jamaica and his mother sang in the choir. As Goode recalls: "My name comes from my father putting on a performance of Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast as a tribute to him.... I was born a year after." Goode came to Britain in 1934 as a 19-year-old student at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow (later the University of Strathclyde), and then went on to read for a degree in engineering at Glasgow University. He was already proficient as an amateur classical violinist but turned to jazz and took up the bass after hearing the music of such stars as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Louis Jordan. Abandoning his plans to return to Jamaica to work as an engineer, Goode decided to embark upon a musical career.

His primary early influences as a bassist have been Walter Page, Slam Stewart and Jimmy Blanton. Moving to London in 1942, Goode subsequently worked with Johnny Claes, Eric Winstone, Lauderic Caton and Dick Katz, became a founder member of the Ray Ellington Quartet and recorded with Django Reinhardt in 1946. Later Goode played in Tito Burns' sextet and led his own group. before being invited to join Harriott's new band in 1958. During the 1960s and 1970s Goode worked extensively with pianist/composer Michael Garrick. Goode was still performing in the house band at Laurie Morgan's Sunday jam sessions at the King's Head in Crouch End into his nineties.

One of the finest jazz bassists who has worked in Europe, Goode is an important link to a proud heritage of Caribbean contributions to the music. His achievements through a long career have been an important inspiration for some leading contemporary black British jazz musicians.

In 2002, his autobiography Bass Lines: A Life in Jazz, co-authored with his friend, the academic and jazz writer Roger Cotterrell, not only told his own story but provided poignant and vivid memories of the brilliant and tragic Harriott and of the birth of free form jazz in Britain.

On 18 May 2011 Coleridge Goode was honoured with the Services to Jazz Award at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, held at the House of Commons.

Ronny Jordan (guitar) - 1962 :: Birthday greetings to guitarist Ronny Jordan. Ronny is a guitarist who was at the forefront of the acid jazz movement at the end of the twentieth century. Jordan has described his music as "urban jazz," a blend of jazz, hip-hop, and R&B. He came to prominence after being featured on Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1, which saw release in 1993. He was also one of the artists whose recordings are featured on Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool — a compilation album released in 1994 to benefit the Red Hot Organization.

Following the release of 1992's The Antidote, recordings from Jordan have been a mainstay on a variety of Billboard charts. He has also been the recipient of many awards, including The MOBO Best Jazz Act Award as well as Gibson Guitar Best Jazz Guitarist Award. His 2000 release, A Brighter Day, was nominated for a Grammy award in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category.

Tony Coe (saxophone)- 1934 :: Many happy returns to saxophonist Tony Coe.

Tony is an English composerand jazz musician who plays clarinet, bass clarinet, and tenor saxophone.

Coe began his performing career playing with Humphrey Lyttelton's band from 1957 to 1962. In 1965 he was invited to join Count Basie's band ('I'm glad it didn't come off – I would have lasted about a fortnight')[2] and has since played with the John Dankworth Orchestra, The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, Derek Bailey's Company, Stan Tracey, Michael Gibbs, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Bob Brookmeyer and performed under Pierre Boulez, as well as leading a series of groups of his own, including Coe Oxley & Co, together with drummer Tony Oxley. He played on John Martyn's 1973 album Solid Air.

He has also worked with Matrix, a small ensemble formed by clarinettist Alan Hacker, with a wide-ranging repertoire of early, classical and contemporary music, the Danish Radio Big Band, Metropole Orchestra and Skymasters in Holland.

Tony Coe has recorded on soundtracks for several films, including Superman II, Victor/Victoria, Nous irons tous au paradis, Leaving Las Vegas, Le Plus beau métier du monde, The Loss of Sexual Innocence and he is the featured tenor sax soloist in Henry Mancini's music for the Pink Panther films.He also composed the film score for Camomille.

In 1975 a grant from the Arts Council enabled him to write Zeitgeist, an extended, large scale orchestral work fusing jazz and rock elements with techniques from European Art Music.

Among the awards he has received are an honorary D Mus, the prestigious Danish Jazzpar Prize 1995 (the first non-American to receive this prize).

Wow, Jazzlings a brit heavy day today! Still when the stateside offering is of the quality of Mr Strayhorn.....

If you are celebrating your born day today then have an amazing day. You are in the company of some exceptional musicians so you owe it to yourself to make the day as exceptional as you can for yourselves! And remember that its the blueprint for the year ahead, so live it like you mean it!

Thanks as ever to the folks at AAJ & JBC for the guidance

Special thanks for a great bio of John Mayall to Richie Unterberger of theAll Music website! 

Respect to the YouTube Massive for the uploads,

Hugs cuddles and shoulder bumps with the Inspiration crew, thanks for the follows and doing what you do,

And thanks to YOU for jus' passin' thru'

Be water, My friends,

Walk tall,

Speak low,

Go placidly,