Simon Spillett Big Band pays tribute to British jazz icon Tubby Hayes

Simon Spillett Big Band's salute to the late British jazz great Tubby Hayes, Dear Tubby H, is available now on vinyl and CD. 

Here's the scoop...

Recorded in early April 2023 this A team British big band presents roughly an hour of killer big band charts composed by or associated with Tubby Hayes. All of these charts have been painstakingly re edited by Mark Nightingale and none of them were ever recorded on any of Tubby Hayes’s commercially released albums. Available from www.petecater.org/store and www.petecater1.bandcamp.com 

Simon Spillett Big Band – Dear Tubby H

1)      Dear Johnny B 6:25 (Tubby Hayes) Sammy Mayne (alto sax) Steve Fishwick (trumpet)

2)      As Close As You Are 5:42 (Tubby Hayes) Simon Spillett (tenor sax) Freddie Gavita (trumpet) Alec Dankworth (bass)

3)      Take Your Partners For The Blues 5:43 (Tubby Hayes) Alan Barnes (baritone sax) Ian Bateman (trombone) Steve Fishwick (trumpet) George Hogg (trumpet) Alex Garnett (tenor sax) Simon Allen (tenor sax)

4)      Fish Soup 6:20 (Ian Hamer) Simon Allen (tenor sax) Freddie Gavita (trumpet) Rob Barron (piano)

5)      Star Eyes 4:06  (Don Raye/ Gene DePaul arr Tubby Hayes) Mark Nightingale (trombone)

6)      Soft and Supple 4:55 (Tubby Hayes) Alan Barnes (baritone sax) Freddie Gavita (trumpet) Simon Allen (tenor sax)

7)      Rumpus 6:46 (Tubby Hayes) Alex Garnett (tenor sax) Freddie Gavita (trumpet)

8)      Peace 5:15 (Horace Silver arr Hayes) Steve Fishwick (trumpet)

9)      Seven Steps to Heaven 5:20 (Victor Feldman arr Hayes) Freddie Gavita (trumpet) Pete Cater (drums) Alex Garnett (tenor sax) Rob Barron (piano)

10)   Solweig 3:32 (Hayes) Simon Spillett (tenor sax) Rob Barron (piano)

11)   Blues for Pipkins 6:30 (Hayes) Steve Fishwick (trumpet) Mark Nightingale (trombone) Rob Barron (piano)

12)   She Insulted Me in Marrakech 7:17  (Hayes) Pete Long (alto sax) Freddie Gavita (trumpet)

Personnel:

Saxophones: Sammy Mayne, Pete Long, Alex Garnett, Simon Allen, Alan Barnes

Trumpets: Nathan Bray, George Hogg, Freddie Gavita, Steve Fishwick

Trombones: Jon Stokes, Mark Nightingale, Ian Bateman, Pete North

Piano: Rob Barron

Bass: Alec Dankworth

Drums: Pete Cater

Musical director, tenor sax solos and all-round project mastermind: Simon Spillett

NOTES BY SIMON SPILLETT

The idea of this album - and this band - have been in my mind for thirty-odd years, since my late teens when, having begun to delve into the fascinating culture of 'bootleg' radio broadcasts, passed covertly between veteran jazz collectors, I discovered that there was so much more to the Tubby Hayes Big Band than the sixteen arrangements heard on their classic studio-recorded albums 'Tubbs' Tours' (1964) and '100% Proof' (1966).

Although it existed sporadically over its thirteen or so year lifespan, Tubby's big band was a working outfit with a pad full of compositions and arrangements used on its live, radio and television performances. Many of these were heard only in person or luckily survive on tape owing to the efforts of enthusiastic home-tapers, including Tubby himself.

Over the years since my life-changing discovery of Tubby's music (around twelve years of age) I often wondered what had become of these 'lost' pieces. Then, as I began to meet and work with musicians who had known and played with Tubby - and, of course, research his life for my biography of him - all sorts of interesting things began to emerge from the archival woodwork. Indeed, by 2010 I had accumulated, via the generosity of people like trumpeter Ian Hamer, and pianist Johnny Patrick, a veritable working pad of Hayes-associated material.

So what to do with it? Over the next few years I occasionally played these charts as a guest soloist with various big bands across the UK, but what I really dreamed of was hearing it played by my own choice of players; a who's who of British jazz who, like Tubby's original band, would comprise a genuine 'jazz orchestra', full to the brim of improvising soloists, many respected bandleaders in their own right.

...and here it is, at last. Formed in 2020 but really coming until its own two years later with sold out gigs at jazz festivals and clubs up and down the country, this is a band of genuine world class ranking, one I'm incredibly proud to present in public and now, finally, on record playing music that I've long felt deserved a more appropriate fate than obscurity.

In making this album happen I'm particularly indebted to several musicians; first to Pete Cater, who as well as drumming to perfection, shares my vision for the preservation and promotion of this music. I'd also like to thank Alan Barnes and Pete Long for their invaluable practical advice on many aspects of leading a band of this size. Similarly, a huge debt of gratitude is due  to Mark Nightingale, a musician with ears like radar who painstakingly recopied Tubby's faded scores, added missing parts and more generally transformed music well-loved if not well cared for into the playable pristine pad it is today, a game-changer for all of us associated with this project.

Simon Spillett, April 2023

More Tubby Hayes archival recordings being excavated

Previously unheard tapes from three sessions recorded in 1965 promise to present other sides of British jazz great Tubby Hayes.  

Here's the scoop from Simon Spillett...

As part of this autumn's concerted campaign to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Tubby Hayes pioneering New York debut (a series of quartet and big band gigs, a screening of Mark Baxter and Lee Cogswell's documentary 'Tubby Hayes: A Man In A Hurry', two new archive CD releases on the Jazz in Britain label and a cover feature in 'Jazzwise') I'm currently working on a further issue of previously unheard Hayes recordings, this time from slightly later in his career, the year 1965.

This was a pivotal time for Tubby, both professionally and personally, one in which much of his 'old' world began to crumble while paradoxically he set in place the foundations of the next phase of his eventful existence. It was a story of suicide attempts and sackings as well as international bookings and globally acclaimed saxophone artistry. Indeed no year in Hayes' short life quite matches its balance of triumph and tragedy.

One critic writing of Hayes that year observed that he was 'capable of coming to terms with aspects of the "new thing"', the fashionable term for the avant garde.

Another conversely believed he had 'reached his peak some years ago.'

Singer Joy Marshall makes an appearance

These newly unearthed recordings from 1965 tell a somewhat more nuanced tale, one in which the saxophonist's appetite for new challenges resulted in music at once vivid, energised and ambitious. 

These tapes offer live versions of several Hayes set-pieces of the day, as well as the notable first appearance of his soon-to-be-legendary self-penned big band and tenor concerto '100% Proof' but what is perhaps even more impressive is how they reveal Hayes to have remained, a decade into his career as a bandleader in his own right, a central catalyst, one around whom all manner of British jazzmen, both established and neophyte, would gather.

Those featuring on this forthcoming release include the expected (Terry Shannon, Jeff Clyne, Ronnie Stephenson), the enigmatic (drummer Benny Goodman) and the iconic (Bobby Wellins, Kenny Wheeler). There is even room for players who are rarely thought of as Hayes associates, such as West Indian trumpeter Shake Keane. Hayes' then girlfriend, the American vocalist Joy Marshall is also showcased.

Across three separate sessions, heard on tenor, flute and vibraphone, Hayes once again carves his legend, offering music as passionately driven as anything familiar from his studio-taped albums. And, as was always the case with this most engaging of live performers, the presence of an enthusiastic audience further fuels his fire.

Once again, I'm thrilled to be working on a project aimed at bringing still more of the work of this singular genius to new listeners. Although there have been plenty of archive British jazz issues of late, all of them valuable and worthy of deeper study, this new Hayes one promises to be something very special indeed.   – Simon Spillett, author of The Long Shadow of the Little Giant: The Life, Work and Legacy of Tubby Hayes (Equinox)

NOTE: Simon Spillett's newly-formed Big Band will be performing recently-rediscovered arrangements of classics by UK jazz legend Tubby Hayes on Sunday, October 17 as part of the Herts Jazz Festival 2021. This 17-piece band features many of the top UK jazz players and makes this an unmissable experience. https://southmillarts.ticketsolve.com/shows/873624814

Watch Tubby Hayes and crew blast through "The Killers of W1" on the BBC in 1965 below.