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/

Bobby:  “Kate is a wonderful improviser; inspiring, inventive with an infectious enthusiasm”

Dean Clough is a nationally renowned landmark transformed into a successful arts and business complex in the 1980′s. Bobby’s good friend Jeremy Hall, who owns Dean Clough, is involved in the making of the CD.

Book tickets here 

Glasgow born, Bobby Wellins finds inspiration in great Scottish historical events and literature.  His Culloden Moor Suite is a sleeping giant of jazz and chamber music. An eloquent lament for the fallen in battle, it is a beautiful, soulful celebration of one of Scotland’s most haunting historical locations while his Caledonian Suite was inspired by the books by James Barke about Robert Burns, which richly evoke the sounds of Scotland’s landscape and life.

You are invited to enjoy the free pre-concert talk with Bobby Wellins from 6.45pm to 7.15pm each night.

To book tickets please visit the venue box offices

Thursday Oct 27: Music Hall, Aberdeen
Friday Oct 28: Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
Saturday Oct 29: Royal Conservatoire, Glasgow
Sunday Oct 30: Eden Court, Inverness

Music Hall, Aberdeen www.boxofficeaberdeen.com  Box Office 01224 642122
Queens Hall, Edinburgh  www.thequeenshall.net  Box Office 0131 668 2019
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow  www.rcs.ac.uk  Box Office 0141 332 5057
Eden Court, Inverness  www.eden-court.co.uk   Box Office 01463 234234

9pm (doors 8.30pm)
£5 entry

Bearwood Corks Club
558 Bearwood Road
Smethwick
West Midlands
B66 4BT

See website for full details www.bearwoodjazz.co.uk

Monday 17th October
8pm
£12

Rosteague Manor,
Rosteague, Gerrans,
Truro
Cornwall
TR2 5EQ

Rosalind Festival

Ticket information

Saturday 15th October
9.30pm (doors/dining 8pm)

606 Club
90 Lotts Road
SW10 0QD
Tel. 020 7352 5953

www.606club.co.uk

Wednesday 12th October
8pm (doors 7.30pm)
£15

www.pizzaexpresslive.co.uk

The Pizza Express Jazz Club
10 Dean Street, London W1D 3RW
08456 027 017

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