CD1
Tubby Hayes and his Orchestra - March 1st 1955
1. Jordu
2. Orient Line
3. May Ray
4. Monsoon
Tubby Hayes and his Orchestra - April 29th 1955
5. I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart
6. Sophisticated Lady
7. Deuces Wild
Tubby Hayes and his Orchestra - July 14th 1955
8. Fidelius
9. Tootsie Roll
Tubby Hayes Quartet - July 29th 1955
10. Dance of The Aerophragytes
11. There's No You
12. Imagination
13. Peace Pipe
14. Evil Eyes
15. There'll Never Be Another You
16. Opus De Funk
17. Straight Life
Tubby Hayes and his Orchestra - February 18th 1956
18. Medley: The Little Giant, Orient Line
19. Plymouth Rock
20. Room 608
21. Doggin' Around
CD2
Tubby Hayes and his Orchestra - February 18th 1956
1. Sophisticated Lady
2. Mambo Tittoro
3. I'll Remember April
Tubby Hayes Quintet - July 17th 1956
4. Ode To Ernie
5. Foolin' Myself
6. No, I Woodyn't
7. Message To The Messengers
8. Hall Hears The Blues
9. Nicole
Jazz at The Flamingo - July 31st 1956
10. Introduction byTony Hall/Night In Tunisia
11. Laker's Day
CD3
Tubby Hayes and The Jazz Couriers featuring Ronnie Scott - August
8th 1957
1. The Theme/Through The Night Roared the Overland Express
2. Royal Ascot
3. On A Misty Night
4. On A Misty Night - alternate take
5. Cheek To Cheek/ The Theme
Tubby Hayes and The Jazz Couriers featuring Ronnie Scott - August
15th 1957
6. Oh, My!
7. Plebus
8. Reunion
9. A Foggy Day
The Jazz Couriers, February 16th 1958, Dominion Theatre
10. Introduction by Tony Hall/What Is This Thing Called Love?
CD4
The Jazz Couriers, February 16th 1958, Dominion Theatre
1. The Serpent
2. Guys and Dolls
3. Time Was
4. Speak Low
5. Cheek To Cheek
Tubby Hayes plays alto, tenor, baritone, vibes and piano, March 1958
6. Time Was
7. Blues For Those Who Thus Desire
8. The Eighth Wonder
The Couriers of Jazz, November 1958
9. Mirage
10. After Tea
11. Stop The World, I Want To Get Off!
12. In Salah
13. Star Eyes
14. The Monk
CD5
The Couriers of Jazz, November 1958
1. My Funny Valentine
2. Day In, Day Out
London Jazz Quartet - May 14th 1959
3. Wait and See
4. The Toff
5. Lakeland
6. Sadie's Song
7. Copper on The Beat
8. Let Nature Take Its Course
9. Slick Riff
10. Big Ben Bounce
11. Mirage
12. Autumn In Cuba
13. Fishin' The Blues
14. Cheekie Chappie
15. London Lament
16. The Baron's Blues
The Jazz Couriers - June 26th or July 3rd 1959
17. If This Isn't Love
18. Easy To Love
19. Whisper Not
20. Autumn Leaves
CD6
The Jazz Couriers - June 26th or July 3rd 1959
1. Too Close For Comfort
2. Yesterdays
3. Love Walked In
Tubby Hayes Quartet - December 1959
4. Tin Tin Deo
5. Embers
6. Like Someone In Love
7. The Surrey With The Fringe On Top
8. Sunny Monday
9. Blue Hayes
6 CD Set [77:13][71:43][61:02][71:06][70:02][57:29]
The great British saxophonist and jazz club owner Ronnie Scott was
playing a gig in Kingston, London when he was asked if a local lad
could sit in on a number and "This little boy came up, not much
bigger than his tenor sax. Rather patronisingly I suggested a number
and off he went. He scared me to death." It is one of those stories
to which can be added the words "and the rest is history" because
it is for at the age of 15 Edward Brian "Tubby" Hayes left school
and began playing professionally, having taken up the saxophone at
the tender age of eleven. I always say that I can tell black players
from white as my general impression is that black players play with
more soul and that white players' sound tends to be more `clinical',
and that when I am wrong the player often turns out to be Tubby Hayes;
he plays with as much soul as one could wish for and then some. I
acknowledge that this is a controversial and arguable generalisation
but the fact that Hayes was later frequently compared to players such
as Sonny Stitt, Sonny Rollins and Frank Foster proves it to me. Simon
Spillett's fantastically well researched and written 16 page booklet
explains the background to jazz in Britain at the time Tubby first
appeared on the scene saying "British jazzmen were continually reminded
that theirs was a second-hand idiom, learned by rote and to which
they had no cultural birthright." The fact that Tubby Hayes was such
a glaring exception is what makes him stand out from almost every
other British jazz musician, especially when it comes to the saxophone.
Though of course he matured and his style was further honed with the
passing of the years it did seem, as witnessed in Kingston by Ronnie
Scott that he had emerged fully formed and the 86 tracks on this 6
cd set were all recorded before his 25th birthday. Listen
to his solos on Peace Pipe and Straight Life, recorded
on July 29th 1955 when he was just 20 and I think you'll
agree. Simon Spillett also explains how the previous generation of
sax players such as Don Rendell (still playing at 87!), Tommy Whittle
and Ronnie Scott had come through playing in dance bands having to
add the rules of bebop to what they already knew which was a transition
that Tubby Hayes did not need to go through so he really hit the ground
running. He was a consummate artist who was equally at home playing
soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxes as well as piano, clarinet,
bass clarinet, tympani and flute and was a brilliant and thoughtful
vibes player. I wish I'd seen him live and regret the fact that I
didn't, especially as I note that tracks 10 & 11 on cd3 and 1-5
on cd4 were recorded at London's Dominion Theatre in February 1958
at which time I worked for the Rank Organisation which owned it and
had my lunch every day in the theatre canteen! However, I only got
into jazz the year after and it took some time before I progressed
to the jazz of people such as Hayes having first come through listening
to the MJQ and other `safe' sounding bands and it was an absolute
revelation when I did discover Tubby Hayes and I've been one of his
greatest fans ever since. It was only a few years after that first
encounter that Ronnie Scott had of Tubby that he played alongside
him and there are several examples of this on discs in this wonderful
compilation. One such was an attempt to recreate the atmosphere of
the Flamingo club at a West Hampstead pub `The Railway Arms' when
the two great tenorists share the sax limelight on two numbers Night
in Tunisia and leader Tony Crombie's Laker's Day when
the pair feed off each other in a really exciting way and which also
includes some lovely sounds from Harry Klein's dreamy baritone. Indeed
for an all too brief period the two sax giants played together in
The Jazz Couriers, a band they co-lead and cds 3 & 4 cover this
period with further examples on cds 5&6. With the third cd in
this set we experience Tubby's prowess on vibes, the first example
being one of his originals Royal Ascot, showing how versatile
a musician he was. Irving Berlin’s Cheek to Cheek is a great
example of the saxes of Tubby and Ronnie egging each other on to deliver
some blistering playing; it’s not for nothing that Spillett uses the
phrase “flying sweat” to describe the atmosphere created by the Jazz
Couriers and Allan Ganley’s Oh, My! is a further pertinent
example. You have to continually remind yourself that Tubby was still
only 22 when these tracks were recorded as his sound seems so mature,
despite its further development over time. Tubby’s compositional abilities
continued apace as well and cd4 opens with one of his entitled The
Serpent, a brilliant catchy tune you’d swear you’d heard before
even if you hadn’t which to me is always the mark of a good composer.
However, tracks 6-8 feature was what at the time a wacky experiment
(somewhat more common today) in which he was overdubbed playing piano
showing another side to his musicianship, as well as alto, tenor,
baritone and vibes and which were released on an EP (45 rpm ‘extended
play’) entitled The Eight Wonder, obviously! The rest of this cd is
made of another record called The Couriers of Jazz from November 1958
starting with a lovely rendition of Mirage a composition
the listing gives as being written by Howard Robert though Spillett’s
notes seem to imply Hayes wrote it but it’s wonderful regardless.
Another of Tubby’s compositions follows entitled After Tea
a beautifully laid back tune with some brilliantly dreamy playing
from all concerned, especially Terry Shannon on piano and it’s no
wonder Spillett makes a favourable comparison with Horace Silver for
the sound created by the band. Tubby’s thoughtful and incisive writing
is also brought out in spades with the amusing and affectionate take
on Thelonius Monk The Monk. The fifth cd in the set opens
with a great performance of My Funny Valentine with a beautiful
vibes solo from Tubby and dreamy sax playing from both him and Ronnie
Scott, continuing The Couriers of Jazz 12” LP which closes with Day
In, Day Out which has a fabulous horn solo from the aptly nicknamed
‘Little Giant’ that exhibits all the hallmarks of the best US sax
players. The ensuing 14 tracks were mostly penned by drummer and pianist
Tony Crombie released on a 12” LP entitled The London Jazz Quartet
and which comprises short gentle pieces designed for background music
for TV programmes rather than anything in which a jazz musician’s
normal wish to improvise is in evidence. However, it does include
Tubby’s first excursion into playing the flute, another instrument
he later mastered. The penultimate cd finishes with the first four
tracks of a record entitled The Jazz Couriers – The Last Word
which self explanatory title signalled an end to this highly successful
band that had so many devoted fans but running out of creative steam
it had to happen, much to the fans’ huge regret. After the rather
saccharin sweetness of tracks 3-16 these four tracks come as welcome
relief with a return to the improvisatory brilliance of Tubby’s blistering
sax cutting through the tunes partnered as ever on these recordings
by the late lamented Ronnie Scott whose club introduced British Jazz
fans to so many wonderful musicians over the years. I have to agree
with Spillett when he observed how difficult it was at times on these
late recordings of The Jazz Couriers to tell the two tenorists apart
though when Tubby’s playing vibes that at least lets you know any
sax playing has to be Scott. On Whisper Not and Autumn
Leaves however, while Ronnie Scott sounds more like Tubby than
he did when the group first played together, Tubby sounds distinctly
like Milt Jackson when playing vibes with that silky smooth sound
that Jackson made his own. The final cd in this scintillating set
of discs begins with the last 3 tunes from ‘The Last Word’ of The
Jazz Couriers opening with a great performance of Too Close For
Comfort followed by Yesterdays and Love Walked In.
It is a bit of an emotional wrench to bid them goodbye for they were
such an iconic band in their time and many jazz sax players who came
after were nurtured on the sounds from them including as Spillett
notes the likes of Dick Morrissey, Alan Skidmore and Art Themen. The
rest of the disc, however, is of Tubby’s preferred line-up of sax,
piano, bass and drums (mine too) in which he could take the creative
centre spot giving him the greatest scope to improvise while leading.
Spillett notes too that it was here that some of Tubby’s detractors
made their points about his over dominating role which tended to subjugate
the rhythm section to one of simply accompanying him with some slightly
more individual work from pianist Terry Shannon though even here it
is often just a few chords that intervene to back him as happens particularly
with the opener Tin Tin Deo. However, you’re unlikely to
find many real Hayes fans regarding this as much of a disappointment
even if they concede that it is true and the British jazz scene’s
bible Melody Maker made the LP that these numbers are taken
from, Tubby’s Groove, the first British one to be awarded
their coveted Album of the Month status – So There! one is
tempted to add. This record was the final one that Hayes made for
Tempo whose owner Decca had lost what little interest it had in producing
jazz and who shelved the planned subsequent project leading to Hayes
abandoning ship to migrate to Fontana with the hope of making further
inroads into the US market which he did indeed achieve to some extent
both as a recording artist and performer. What we have though in the
shape of this collection is further proof if needed of the singular
contribution that Tubby Hayes made to jazz in Britain which continued
right through the 60s and still benefits today’s musicians. It was
him as much as anyone else who showed the world and America in particular
that British Jazz, while it may have its own special flavour, was
equal to anything that could come from ‘over the pond’. Signing off
with his own composition Blue Hayes this set comes to an
end in great style with his pensive sax playing him out. As a document
this 6 cd set is as invaluable as the music it contains which includes
some extra tracks from Tubby’s Groove that had been auditioned
by Blue Note and then lost and which has taken 50 years to find and
release. The restoration of sound quality is excellent and you have
to constantly remind yourself that these recordings date back almost
60 years. I’ve already mentioned what excellent notes Simon Spillett’s
are which tell the full story behind the recordings. There is really
only one gripe and that is that I’d have preferred the discs in cardboard
sleeves in a cardboard outer since the biggest frustration for me
with the cd as a medium is and has always been the jewel case which
so often breaks within or without and this one is difficult to open
and then to reclose so Acrobat please note for any future releases.
That apart I cannot praise this set too highly and there is no doubt
whatever that all Tubby Hayes fans will fall over themselves to acquire
it especially at the attractive price and I shall now have to go ‘cold
turkey’ while I come down from the high it has left me with.
Steve Arloff
CD Reviews
ACROBAT MUSIC 
