You can buy the recording here on Amazon:  Whole Lotta Tony

Recorded in 1961, this is essential listening from a seminal period in British Jazz, and features the rarely recorded Harold McNair, fellow Scot Tommy Whittle and Gordon Beck on piano.

You’ll find more info on the recording in the Discography page.

“Tim Lapthorn is one of the most emotional piano players in Europe. His album ‘Natural Language’ is a thing of great beauty”. Ian Shaw

“Lapthorn can really execute some tough and virtuosic shapes and ideas. I’ve watched him run through solos on a tune in a studio situation and they’ve all been different and ambitious, even electrifying at times. In short, the guy can play”. Richard Cook, Jazz Review

Jazz at The Bakehouse, Great Northern Hotel

Doors  7.30pm
Concert  8pm

£13

Phone: 07761 726343

http://www.peterboroughjazzclub.co.uk/

The interview is a very warm one, recorded last week at the Oxford Jazz Festival2011, and opens with Alyn introducing Bobby as “one of my favourite saxophonists in all of jazz – and I mean not just in the UK, not just Europe but everywhere in the world”.

You can listed to the programme until 7th May 2011, here.

You can read about the tracks played here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010nqql#segments and if you’d like to buy any of then you you can read about how to do so here: http://bobbywellins.co.uk/2011/03/12/where-to-buy-bobbys-cds/

Ian

Peter King, Aberdeen 2005 (c) Ian Watt

Peter King has written an excellent autobiography:  frank and honest, with considerable self-awareness and insight into what drives him. It describes with great candour the life of a man who left school with few qualifications, yet obvious intelligence, and who rose to the top of his field in only a few short years.

When still an early  teenager, Peter found that his parents wouldn’t buy him a clarinet (having seen him abandon his piano and violin lessons).  So, being keen modeller, he decided to make himself one, such was his obsession with the instrument. Both that obsessiveness, and rejection of barriers that would see others quit,  emerge as strong themes throughout the book, as does his nervousness which he found a debilitating condition in many situations – not least when travelling by air, sea or road.

Once turned on to the recordings of Charlie Parker, King switched to alto and learned it obsessively. In only a few short years he had become such a mature player that he was asked to play at the opening of Ronnie Scott’s new club while still aged only 19! While we see today some great young players one should remember that he was essentially self-taught, with no access to play-along CDs or modern jazz theory books.

From then on Pete became immersed in the British modern jazz world, not only playing with the top UK names of the day but also meeting or playing with the cream of the US musicians. These include Bud Powell, Ben Webster, Phily Joe Jones, Paul Gonsalvez, Stan Getz, Jimmy Witherspoon, Red Rodney  many more big names. Pete provides many amusing and original anecdotes about several of them, often from first-hand experience.

While not immediately a drug user he slowly developed a drugs habit which lasted several decades and took a considerable effort to end. His account of this, the debilitating and destructive effect it had on both relationships and work pulls no punches but isn’t used to shock – merely to place events in context and to explain his mental state and motivation which drove him to certain actions.

As the sixties gave way to the seventies the jazz scene really contracted and the ability for a musician to support himself financially through playing the music he loved became much more difficult, resulting in his having to play in pit orchestras, on soundtrack recordings and backing pop musicians. Having considered Peter a star of British jazz, and assumed that such stardom would bring financial rewards, I quite amazed and saddened to learn just how poorly paid he and his colleagues were throughout their careers. On several occasions he draws attention to how poorly the arts are supported in the UK.

The eighties saw something of a resurgence but it appears that only the young black guys were able to get the contracts from the big labels. Peter did get some recognition in wider circles, was able to travel more and ultimately became friends with not only Bird’s widow Chan and her daughter Kim Parker, but also got blow to two of Bird’s horns. The first was the famous Grafton plastic alto that Bird played at Massey Hall concert but also the King Super 20 which Chan kept by her bedside. I knew that Peter played the Grafton when it sold at Christies auction house for £95,000 in 1994 but didn’t know that he was invited to play it again in Kansas City when it was put in the museum there by the mayor who’d bid for it.

Beyond jazz, Peter’s two other passions come through strongly: aero-modelling and classical music. It is clear that his ability to study by himself, rather than through formal education and apply that knowledge has helped him to great achievements in both fields.

There are so many interesting facts and recollections in this book that it really is a ‘must-read’ for anyone interested in learning at first-hand what it meant to be a professional jazz musician in the latter half of the 20th century.

There are few great jazz autobiographies that I can think of.  Certainly Charles Mingus’ Beneath The Underdog. Art Pepper’s Straight Life  and Anita O’Day’s High Times – Hard Times spring to mind.

This new book stands up there with the best of them!

(c) Ian Watt 2011

According to WSJ:

“Working in New York between 1957 and 1964, the photographer Herb Snitzer witnessed a transition in jazz. The big bands had already given way to smaller groups, but now the music was growing more experimental. Once everyone went to big halls and danced; now aficionados sat through sets in small clubs. In 1960, Snitzer took a picture of Dizzy Gillespie backstage at a Louis Armstrong show. Stylish in a houndstooth suit, the bebop trumpeter laughs with Trummy Young and Billy Kyle, resplendent in tuxedos: the new fella having a smoke with two mainstays of Armstrong’s swinging All-Stars. But bop was giving way, too. An image, taken at the moodyVillage Gate in 1961, epitomizes the new age as John Coltrane (launched in a Gillespie band) and Eric Dolphy perform over the backing of two bassists. Jazz was looking inward. 

“You see it in photo after photo: the joyous performing of Armstrong and Velma Middleton and Ray Nance is replaced by the intense stares of Ornette Coleman and Sonny Payne and the inner storms evident in Thelonious Monk’s face. Some era. Some photos.”

Amazon describe it in this way.

“This is a stunning collection of iconic images and anecdotes from renowned jazz photographer Herb Snitzer. Glorious Days and Nights is a personal account of the 50 year career of renowned jazz photographer Herb Snitzer. A photojournalist for Life, Look, and Fortune, and associate editor of the influential jazz magazine Metronome, Snitzer plied his trade during a period of political, racial, and social strife. But throughout the demonstrations, civil and racial unrest, what remained constant for him was jazz. In Glorious Days and Nights, Snitzer recalls what it was like to go on the road with these musicians. His reflections run the gamut from serious meditations on his development as a photographer working with musicians already of great stature to more conversational recollections of casual moments spent having fun with the jazz artists many of whom became close friends – all accompanied some of the most iconic jazz images ever seen.” 

Now you can buy the book in the UK from Amazon Herb Snitzer – Glorious Days and Nights: A Jazz Memoir.

In addition to Trio Record’ Website (where Bobby’s most recent releases are available) you can also buy an extensive selection of CDs (and some classic second-hand albums) from Amazon.

You can use the rotating carousel below – or click on the individual links beneath that.

The following albums are available on Amazon’s UK site. Hover over each link for more information or click on them to be taken to the correct page on Amazon.

• Time Gentlemen, Please
• Snapshot
• When the Sun Comes Out
• Tracey / Wellins Play Monk
• The Satin Album
• Don’t Worry ’bout Me
• Nomad – featuring Claire Martin
• The Best IS Yet To Come
• Joy Spring with Gary Kavangh
• Fun
• Special Relationship
• Making Light Work
• Amoroso… Only More So
• Nine Songs

And two long-deleted classic vinyl albums now only available second-hand.

• Live… Jubliation
• Dreams Are Free

He has remained one of the great British saxophonists for the last 50+ years, and is someone that Bobby has played with in many settings including the orchestras of Tubby Hayes, John Dankworth and Charlie Watts.

Now Peter has just published his autobiography: Flying High: A Jazz Life and Beyond.

According to Amazon’s description: “Peter King’s book ranks among the great jazz autobiographies. One of the world’s leading alto saxophonists, he tells his story with searing honesty, revealing the obsessions and motivations that have driven him and the dilemmas of surviving as a top creative musician in an often inhospitable world. With cool, unsparing self-analysis, he describes the difficulties that accompanied his brilliant career for many years. Internationally recognised as a jazz star, he has performed and recorded with a galaxy of musical legends, many of them his close friends. Among those vividly recalled in this book are Bud Powell, Ray Charles, Anita O’Day, Elvin Jones, Max Roach, Hampton Hawes, Al Haig, Philly Joe Jones, Zoot Sims, Jimmy Witherspoon, Dakota Staton, Red Rodney, Jon Hendricks, Tony Bennett and Marlene Dietrich. But while the story here centres on Peter King’s life in jazz it shows other important sides of him too: his ambitions and achievements in classical composing, his interests outside music (he is a leading figure and writer in the aero-modelling world) and, above all, the treasured personal relationships that have sustained him through a turbulent life. “Flying High” tells of an exhilarating high altitude journey, in the jazz world and beyond.”

It sounds like a must-read book!

PS I’ve just discovered that the album Bebop Live – Part 1 which I used to own on vinyl is now available on CD. Not only did it have it has a stellar cast of British musicians including Ken Baldock, Bobby’s former sideman, on bass and Peter King on alto but it also had the great US bebop giant  Al Haig on piano. The full line-up is:

Al Haig (piano), Peter King (alto saxophone), Art Themen (soprano & tenor saxes), Kenny Baldock (bass), Allan Ganley  (drums).

A few years ago Safford Chamberlain wrote a marvellous book about Warne: An Unsung Cat: The Life and Music of Warne Marsh (Publication of the American Association of School Administrators). Other than that, however, while his music is widely available, Warne’s life really is unsung.

Now KC Marsh, Warne’s son is planning a film about his father’s life.

Facebook users can find more information – and contribute – by going to the Facebook Page. On that page you’ll find information about the film production, and lots of interesting links about Warne and his music, including comments by Ted Brown, another great tenor saxophonist from the same school who has produced work such as  Free Spirit.

Most interestingly among the content of the  Facebook page is a link to “A Jazz Life: Memoirs and Studies Drawn From Experiences As A Student of Warne Marsh 1982 – 1987” by John Klopotski. While you can’t download it you can read the full book online. Dipping into suggests that this is well worth reading in full.

Ian

To view the video in either high resolution or standard resolution, click on the appropriate link.

The quality of the HD one is superb – both for sound and video, but it is quite a hefty download (250MB) . Broadband recommended!

This concert was recorded last year at London’s Barbican to celebrate the British Big Band in all its styles and guises. Julian Joseph and Geoffrey Smith take us though this evocative journey that features an all-star cast that sadly included the last broadcast by British veteran trumpeter Harry Beckett.”

It lasts for 90 minutes and you should be able to find it at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00yy94q/Jazz_LineUp_Big_Band_Britannia_Inspirations_and_Collaborations/