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Start Date: June 15, 2018
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Side One

Night Talk             Directions In Jazz/Johnny Scott

The Killers Of W1                Tubby Hayes Big Band

Rustic Gait            Directions In Jazz/Ronnie Ross

Mark 1   Johnny Dankworth

Times Two And A Half      Bill Le Sage & The New Directions In Jazz Unit

Side Two

El Soulo Les McCann

Feeling Good        Ahmad Jamal

Rattlesnake          Monty Alexander

Blues For Mister Charlie #1               Bobby Sharp

Broadway Caravan            Clifford Scott

Little Suzie            Ray Bryant

Nightingale            Willis Jackson

Champin'              Eddie Chamblee

January 1964, the first edition of Jazzbeat magazine has hit the shelves. On the cover is jazz band leader Chris Barber next to blues artist Sonny Boy Williamson. Inside the magazine there is an article written by Giorgio Gomelsky entitled ‘Is there a Rhythm & Blues boom?’ A few pages along there is a two page piece on the Rolling Stones. The centre pages of the magazine are dedicated to music predictions for the coming year, with Ted Heath declaring ‘I predict the return of the unsurpassable, swinging excitement of big band jazz.’ Kenny Ball was optimistic too: ‘I predict that a few trad bands will be a little better in 1964 and the scene will be fairly healthy provided jazz clubs stay open even at the expense of some promoters losing money. I think that most rhythm and blues groups in this country are pretty appalling and have nothing to do with jazz.’ The Beatles, who were the top pop group in Britain at the time, also gave their prediction: ‘We would like to think that rhythm and blues will become popular.’

The Beatles were right. More right than they could ever have hoped. Whilst the Marquee in Oxford Street still featured the likes of the Joe Harriott Quintet and the Ronnie Ross Quartet (featuring Bill Le Sage on vibes and piano) on Saturday nights, the weekdays featured mostly R&B acts such as The Yardbirds, Manfred Mann and Long John Baldry. Tuesday evenings were given over to Siggy Jackson’s newly acquired Blue Beat nights, with Duke Vin’s Sound System. Jazz was being pushed out of the West End and was more easily found at venues such as the Leather Bottle in Edgware, the Bulls Head in Barnes or the Six Bells in Chelsea.

The Marquee’s days were numbered too. The Academy Cinema had notified the owner, Harold Pendleton, of their intentions to build a second screening room in the basement, where The Marquee was situated. On Sunday March 5th 1964 the final evening took place and featured jazz saxophonist Stan Getz. Also sharing the bill that night were The Yardbirds, and this would show the direction that the club intended to follow when it moved to its new premises in Wardour Street a week later.

Seeing good live jazz in 1964 seemed to get harder. The BBC did give some deserved coverage with their television programme ‘Jazz 625’ which started in April that year, spotlighting some of our home grown artists. Early shows featured the Tubby Hayes Quintet with singer Betty Bennett, the Johnny Ross Quartet, Johnny Dankworth and Tony Kinsey. The show was not just restricted to British talent though; the programme delivered performances by American artists such as Dave Brubeck, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet and Thelonious Monk.

In June 1964, Bill Le Sage and his group Directions in Jazz appeared on the programme. Introduced by presenter Steve Race, the atmospheric ‘Night Talk’ was aired, featuring four cello players to give a huge sound. Bob Burns gives a great performance on alto sax, then the slick-looking Ronnie Ross joins in on baritone sax before Johnny Scott blows up a storm on flute. By now Le Sage had switched from piano to vibes and the whole thing was swinging; ‘Jazz 625’ captured the vibe so clearly.

Tubby Hayes though was destined for the silver screen, and in 1964 landed himself a part in a major film, ‘Dr Terror’s House of Horrors’. This was his second cinema screen outing after having appeared in ‘All Night Long’ in 1962. Under the guise of ‘Biff Bailey and his Band’, Tubby’s Quintet played the backing band to trumpeter Roy Castle (although in reality Castle mimed to Shake Keane from Joe Harriott’s band). The song in the film, ‘Voodoo’, showed exactly how good the band were to an untapped audience. Many fans already knew, and had heard fantastic uptempo tunes such as ‘ The Killers of W1’ around the Soho club circuit.

The second side of this vinyl you are holding is a great showcase of the American side of things. It kicks off with Les McCann’s ‘El Soulo’ from his Pacific Jazz LP ‘Spanish Onions’ and an EP of the same name. Ahmad Jamal’s ‘Feeling Good’ appeared on an Argo 7” and also the LP ‘The Roar of the Greasepaint the Smell of the Crowd’. ‘Rattlesnake’ by Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander was on the back of the ‘Spunky’ single.’  Bobby Sharp was the original composer of ‘Unchain my Heart’ that was covered by Ray Charles and Trini Lopez amongst others. ‘Blues For Mister Charlie’ got a UK release on the Stateside label. ‘Broadway Caravan’ by saxophonist Clifford Scott came out on the prestigious King label. Clifford had pedigree and had played with Jay McShann, Amos Milburn, Lionel Hampton and Ray Charles. He is probably known best for his solo on Bill Doggett’s ‘Honky Tonk Pt 2’. ‘Little Susie’ by Ray Bryant may have been re-recorded in New York in 1964 but it was far from a new record. He’d recorded the song as early as March 1959, and would later add parts 2, 3 and 4 plus a song called ‘Big Susie’. Willis ‘Gatur’ Jackson had built up a name working alongside Jack McDuff and released a steady stream of albums and singles on Prestige. In Jamaica, Prince Buster cited Jackson's song ‘Later for the Gator’ as one of the first ska songs. ‘Nightingale’ first appeared as a B-side to ‘People’. The last offering also a single on Prestige, ‘Champin’, by Chicago saxophonist Eddie Chamblee really gets the whole place rocking.

Apart from in the clubs, the records on the second side of the album would have been almost impossible for people over here to have heard at the time. Importing records wasn’t easy back then. These days we can be thankful that hearing and getting these records in one form or another is much easier. Then again, what would you give for one night to venture back to the hot sweaty nights of Soho 1964 to dance to these records in some dimly lit basement club or maybe catch Tubby or Bill Le Sage playing live? Sadly, that isn’t going to happen, so the next best thing is to pour yourself a drink and put this record on LOUD!