Introduction to British Jazz - Listening Notes for The Overland Introductory Series* - April 17, 2024

British jazz of the early 50s and before was largely a copy of the early American jazz idioms of Dixieland, big band, and swing. This music is usually referred to as "trad jazz" in Britain, and it did not contribute unique developments or innovations to jazz. However, in the late 50s and into the 60s and 70s, British jazz musicians came into their own by mastering be-bop and hard-bop from the US and then beginning to create their own sound in modern jazz. This modern stream is where the most interesting and important developments happened in British jazz. In addition to their contributions in straight-ahead, free, and avant-garde jazz, there were also quite a few British musicians in the late 60s and into the 70s who started in jazz but then crossed over into rock and pop and were key in the developments of jazz-rock and fusion music. Some of these included Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker of Cream, John McLaughlin who played with Miles Davis and founded the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Ian Carr who formed the free fusion group Nucleus.

Beginning to draw on different sources of inspiration than American jazz, Britain became one of the first countries outside of the US to develop an identity in jazz music that was distinct from original African-American jazz. These sources and influences included British folk music and specifically British places and identities, such as in Stan Tracey's use of the Dylan Thomas play Under Milk Wood to write a jazz suite. Equally important, if not more important, were the melodies and rhythms entering British culture through immigrants from former colonies and now Commonwealth nations, particularly the West Indies, Africa, and India. While British jazz musicians from the 50s to the 70s were predominantly white players, there were quite a few key contributors and innovators who were immigrants from these Commonwealth nations and who increasingly influenced British music and culture. Some of these included Joe Harriott, Harry Beckett, 'Shake' Keane, and John Mayer Sr. A number of these musicians are represented in tonight's playlist on landmark British jazz albums that they led and played on.

The important musicians and albums of British jazz are not very well-known by most jazz fans in the US. This is not for a lack of great jazz coming out of Britain but because most of their records have not been widely available in the US. Although British jazz records have been and remain difficult to find in the US, there are recent vinyl reissue series that have made some of the landmark albums of the 60s and 70s more available than in the past. All of the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet albums from the 60s, one of which is in tonight's set, have had high quality vinyl reissues in the last five years that made their way to US record stores. A few of the others in tonight's set have also had recent vinyl reissues that are less available but can still be ordered as imports and are more affordable than the sometimes astronomically priced originals. So as you enjoy tonight's selections and read the notes below, also take a look at the "Key Resources" at the end of this post for a citation to a book about this period in British jazz and a list of "100 Essential British Jazz Albums". These are great places to start (or continue) your exploration and music collecting in British jazz.

*The Overland Hifi Bar in Redlands, CA presents a regular Wednesday series of introductions to specific genres of music.

Tubby Hayes Quintet, …After Lights Out (Tempo Records; Jasmine Records), 1957 (side 1)

Tubby Hayes - tenor sax

Dickie Hawdon - trumpet

Harry South - piano

Pete Elderfield - bass

Bill Eyden - drums

This straight ahead and beautiful hard bop record features one of the earlier well-known British jazz groups that played modern jazz. Tubby Hayes was one of the most well-known and most recorded band leaders, He traveled, played, and recorded in the US as well as in England. Before going solo, Hayes played in a quintet called The Jazz Couriers with Ronnie Scott, who was also an important musician in British jazz and who founded the famous London jazz club Ronnie Scott's, a home to British modern jazz musicians and host to many touring American jazz musicians.

Joe Harriott Quintet, Free Form (Jazzland), 1961 (side 1)

Joe Harriott - alto sax

'Shake' Keane - trumpet

Pat Smythe - piano

Coleridge Goode - bass

Phil Seamen - drums

Joe Harriott was from the West Indies and was one of many immigrants from Commonwealth countries who enriched the development of jazz in Britain. Considered by many a breakthrough record in British jazz, in terms of form and approach, Free Form was also one of the few to be released on a US label. The group plays Harriott's conception of free jazz, which some claim he created in parallel with and independently from Ornette Coleman in the US. Others believe he must have had at least some awareness of what Coleman was doing, even if he had not heard much of it, with US records difficult to come by in the UK. Either way, Harriott's free jazz has a different, more collaborative and communal feel, whereas Coleman's emphasizes the individuality of each player. Harriott describes his music this way in the liner notes of the album: "If there can be abstract painting, why not abstract music?... While it has form, while the themes are structural, our approach to it is abstract. We make no use at all of bar lines, and there is no set harmony or series of chords, but there is an interplay of musical form and we do keep a steady four in the rhythm section."

Stan Tracey Quartet, Jazz Suite (Inspired by Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood”) (Columbia UK; STEAM; ReSteamed), 1966 (side 1)

Stan Tracey - piano

Bobby Wellins - tenor sax

Jeff Clyne - bass

Jackie Dougan - drums

Stan Tracey wrote this album using Dylan Thomas's play Under Milk Wood as inspiration. He jotted down ideas for titles with the book in hand and listening to a recording of the play and then "went on from there, writing for the titles and for the characters." Many considered this to be the first British jazz album to make a contribution to jazz internationally, and it can be understood as uniquely British in its inspiration from and evocation of British literature and small town life as well as other British and non-American musical influences Tracey brings into the compositions. At the same time, you can definitely also hear the influence of Thelonious Monk's quartet with Charlie Rouse on tenor in the style and sound of many of the tunes on this record.

Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet, Dusk Fire (Columbia UK; Jazzman Records), 1966 (full album)

Don Rendell - tenor and soprano sax, flute, clarinet

Ian Carr - trumpet, flugelhorn

Michael Garrick - piano

Dave Green - bass

Trevor Tomkins - drums

This quintet represented a bridge between the earlier journeyman jazz musicians and the next generation of more intellectual, university-educated musicians. The group was a microcosm of British society in several ways. In terms of education, Don Rendell had left school at 14 to become a musician, Garrick and Carr were university educated, and Tomkins and Green had stopped at grammar school. The group was also a cross-section of British society in terms of their musical influences, which in addition to American jazz, included British folk music and Jamaican, West African, and Indian music through the members' exposure to and friendships with immigrants from these places at university and in London. The group also composed most of the songs it played, rather than playing standards, and so had many opportunities to display their varied influences. Dusk Fire is perhaps the best album from a group that is among the very top groups in 60s British jazz.

Joe Harriott/Amancio D’Silva Quartet (with guests), Hum Dono (Columbia UK; Vocalion; Trunk Records), 1969 (side 2)

Joe Harriott - alto sax

Amancio D'Silva - guitar

Dave Green - bass

Bryan Spring - drums

Ian Carr - flugelhorn

Norma Winstone - vocal

In addition to his innovations in Free Form, which is discussed above, Joe Harriott played on several Indo-Jazz fusion albums. There were two with the violinist and Indian composer John Mayer and this one with the Goan guitarist Amancio D'Silva, the rhythm players the rhythm section of Dave Green and Bryan Spring, and Ian Carr and Norma Winstone guesting on some tracks. It's a strange but cool album that brings together Harriott's Western free jazz playing with Indian-inspired melodies and rhythms in D'Silva's compositions.

John McLaughlin, Extrapolation (Marmalade; Polydor), 1969 (full album)

John McLaughlin - electric and acoustic guitar

John Surman - baritone and soprano sax

Brian Odges - bass

Tony Oxley - drums

About a month before he came to the US to record with Miles Davis on In A Silent Way, John McLaughlin recorded this tremendous jazz album with a fully British band in London. Originally released on the small UK label Marmalade but a few years later more widely on Polydor, this is one of the British jazz albums that is more readily available in the US. At the same time, it is not one of the more well-known of McLaughlin's albums and flies under the radar a little in comparison to his later solo and Mahavishnu Orchestra albums. Extrapolation hints a bit at his jazz-rock fusion sound and the guitar sound from his work on Miles Davis's electric albums, but it is more a jazz album (with some free jazz elements) than it is fusion. Although McLaughlin is the leader and composer, many listeners have felt that John Surman steals the show with his sax playing. The album is also notable for the way in which the separate tracks run together to give the sense that each side is one long piece.

Harry Beckett, Flare Up (Decca), 1970 (full album)

Harry Beckett - trumpet, flugelhorn

John Surman - baritone and soprano sax

Mike Osborne - alto sax

Alan Skidmore - tenor and soprano sax

Frank Ricotti - vibes, conga drum

John Taylor - piano, electric piano

Chris Lawrence - bass

John Webb - drums

Harry Beckett, another of the British jazz musicians from the West Indies, was born in Barbados but immigrated to the UK as a young man in 1954. Beckett was an important and ubiquitous member of the British jazz scene, playing with many different free jazz and fusion groups. This solo record, his first as a leader, is full of fairly short and tight compositions that are all extremely distinctive and interesting. All of the tracks here are engaging, they never get repetitive, and they give space for great solo work from some of the best musicians in British jazz.

Ian Carr, Belladonna (Vertigo; Mr Bongo), 1972 (side 2)

Ian Carr - trumpet, flugelhorn

Brian Smith - tenor and sopr. sax, alto and bamboo flute

Dave MacRae - Fender electric piano

Alan Holdsworth - guitar

Roy Babbington - bass guitar

Clive Thacker - drums

Gordon Beck - Hohner electric piano (on some tracks)

Trevor Tomkins - percussion (on some tracks)

After his work with the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet, Ian Carr went on to record solo records and form the fusion group Nucleus. This album with Carr as leader is a nice jammy fusion album with some chicka-chicka 70s grooves, spacey solos, and free elements that will keeping you bopping and guessing.

Polar Bear, Peepers (Leaf), 2010 (side 1)

Pete Wareham - tenor sax

Mark Lockheart - tenor sax

Tom Herbert - double bass

Leafcutter John - electronics, guitar

Sebastian Rochford - drums

Polar Bear is sometimes classified as a post-jazz group. Their albums fuse elements of jazz, funk, dance music, drum and bass and electronic music. Drummer Sebastian Rochford, the driving force behind Polar Bear, also collaborates with a number of other British groups in jazz, art rock, experimental, and electronic music, including Sons of Kemet, Acoustic Ladyland, and Pulled By Magnets. This record, along with others by Polar Bear and some of Rochford's other groups and collaborators, demonstrate the continued vibrance, evolution, and innovation in British jazz.

Key Resources:

Duncan Heining, Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers and Free Fusioneers: British Jazz, 1960-1975. Equinox Publishing, 2012.

100 Essential British Jazz Records, 1957-76 (Appendix to Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers and Free Fusioneers: British Jazz, 1960-1975):

https://jazzinbritain.wordpress.com/100-essential-british-jazz-albums/