This book is a fascinating
read and well worth the cover price of £16.95,
because it includes a CD of 7 previously unreleased
examples of Dick’s playing, with bands that
cover a large spectrum of jazz and blues.
The book shows Dick to be a well educated
and highly intelligent individual, equally
at home in Blues, Jazz and Contemporary Music
bands.
In the semi-pro world where
I played during the same period, it was the
guys who could not hack the Jazz or Dance
Band scene that formed the blues bands. The
London scene must have been very different
however, Dick and his contemporaries would
have been capable of holding their own in
any scene.
The life and times of musicians
in any touring band are always interesting
and Dick’s tales of his adventures, musical
and otherwise, with The Graham Bond Organisation,
Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, John Mayall’s
Bluesbrakers and Jon Hiseman’s Colosseum make
for a most interesting read.
Dick’s commentaries on his
life and times are frank and detailed, but
interestingly although he opens up to his
readers on some matters, there is a reserve
that somehow prevents the reader from getting
a real measure of Dick until the whole of
the book has been read. Whether this is intentional
or it just happened that way I don’t know.
I have known other very highly
talented musicians who have difficulty in
coping with those things that us mere mortals
find easy, one who springs directly to mind
and may have been known to Dick was Brian
Gray Brian was an enormously talented saxophone
player but he struggled to make a living and
eventually gave the business up. Dick on the
other hand has ploughed on but always had
to live from hand to mouth.
Pete Grant’s part of the
book attempts to analyse why this should have
happened to someone as talented as Dick. His
conclusion that the public are never sure
whether he is in the blues world or the contemporary
music world is probably correct. Before the
UK public hand over their money, they want
to be more certain of what they are going
to get. The fact that a very large sector
of the public prefer the Tenor playing of
Stan Getz and Zoot Sims to that of John Coltrane,
may also be a contributing factor.
The clearest insight into
Dick that we get is where he writes about
racism and proves quite rightly in my opinion
that there can be no alternative but to classify
people as those we like and those we don’t,
colour race and creed have nothing to do with
it. Having said that however people like people
like themselves!
The CD contains the following;
- Heatwave - The Deluxe Blues Band
- Aquamarine - DHS$
- Try - Jon T-Bone Taylor’s Bop Brothers
- Il Collingdale - DHS$
- Woza Nasu - The Hamburg Blues Band
- Looking Back - The Wentus Blues Band
- Only Sixteen- The Graham Bond ORGANisation
Don Mather
CD Reviews
