TUBBY HAYES QUARTET - Invitation: Live At The Top Alex 1973
Acrobat ACMCD 4391
Tubby Hayes (flute tenor sax); Mick Pyne (piano); Ron Mathewson (bass); Spike Wells (drums)
Recorded at The Top Alex, Southend 8th March 1973
This is the final known live recording of Hayes’ group. Tubby Hayes died at 38 a few weeks later on 8th June 1973.
The rhythm section of the group is magnificent: Stan Getz recognised that and once took them for a short European tour. They knew the Hayes’ book well. Pyne and Mathewson had played on ‘Mexican Green’ in 1967. Each piece is played with a fluency and understanding that comes from being played at gig after gig after gig.
The main hazard at a venue like the Top Alex was the piano: Steinways were not much in evidence. The pianos that were available at pub gigs were often poor and Mick Pyne had one that evening that was a real challenge to make musical. He manages well but that comes from years of practise around pubs and clubs.
Hayes at that time was not the rambunctious coiled spring of energy of ten years earlier. Here he is more thoughtful, more reflective. Is this an insight into a new phase of Hayes that his death deprived us of? ‘Trenton Place’, the only Hayes composed piece on the album, is a beautiful ballad, and here it gets a sensitive reading as well as a Hayes flute solo. .It seems to be played with more sensitivity. Hayes even requests the audience to listen to Mike Pyne’s long introduction. It could be said that Hayes, deprived by illness, dropped the virtuosic runs to concentrate more on being musical. You can hear it in ‘Poinciana’, a piece that he played only rarely. As you listen you can wonder how he would have approached it as a younger man. Here it is thoughtful and he explores the timbre of the tenor. .’Seven Steps To Heaven’, by Victor Feldman is now a jazz standard. ‘Without A Song’ and ‘Invitation’ are both full of a different kind of energy as Tubby Hayes plays long solos.
Simon Spillett writes the accompanying notes, twenty seven pages of them. As usual the pages are full of detailed information to put the music into context. You even find out what was playing at the local cinema in March 1973. Like his biography of Hayes, the notes lovingly recreate the era. They are an essential coda to Spillett’s biography of Hayes.
Spillett also takes time in the notes to set up a pre-emptive strike to deal with reviewers who will spend time complaining about the quality of the recording. He tells reviewers: ‘So please think a little before you compare it to a professionally recorded studio album.’
So, Simon, here goes: ‘The album is not well recorded but it is listenable.’ Will that do? There are Parker and Coltrane albums that almost make this sound like hifi. Of course, Spillett is right, we are fortunate to have the recording, however flawed, of a man who made an immense contribution to jazz in the UK.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
Acrobat ACMCD 4391
Tubby Hayes (flute tenor sax); Mick Pyne (piano); Ron Mathewson (bass); Spike Wells (drums)
Recorded at The Top Alex, Southend 8th March 1973
This is the final known live recording of Hayes’ group. Tubby Hayes died at 38 a few weeks later on 8th June 1973.
The rhythm section of the group is magnificent: Stan Getz recognised that and once took them for a short European tour. They knew the Hayes’ book well. Pyne and Mathewson had played on ‘Mexican Green’ in 1967. Each piece is played with a fluency and understanding that comes from being played at gig after gig after gig.
The main hazard at a venue like the Top Alex was the piano: Steinways were not much in evidence. The pianos that were available at pub gigs were often poor and Mick Pyne had one that evening that was a real challenge to make musical. He manages well but that comes from years of practise around pubs and clubs.
Hayes at that time was not the rambunctious coiled spring of energy of ten years earlier. Here he is more thoughtful, more reflective. Is this an insight into a new phase of Hayes that his death deprived us of? ‘Trenton Place’, the only Hayes composed piece on the album, is a beautiful ballad, and here it gets a sensitive reading as well as a Hayes flute solo. .It seems to be played with more sensitivity. Hayes even requests the audience to listen to Mike Pyne’s long introduction. It could be said that Hayes, deprived by illness, dropped the virtuosic runs to concentrate more on being musical. You can hear it in ‘Poinciana’, a piece that he played only rarely. As you listen you can wonder how he would have approached it as a younger man. Here it is thoughtful and he explores the timbre of the tenor. .’Seven Steps To Heaven’, by Victor Feldman is now a jazz standard. ‘Without A Song’ and ‘Invitation’ are both full of a different kind of energy as Tubby Hayes plays long solos.
Simon Spillett writes the accompanying notes, twenty seven pages of them. As usual the pages are full of detailed information to put the music into context. You even find out what was playing at the local cinema in March 1973. Like his biography of Hayes, the notes lovingly recreate the era. They are an essential coda to Spillett’s biography of Hayes.
Spillett also takes time in the notes to set up a pre-emptive strike to deal with reviewers who will spend time complaining about the quality of the recording. He tells reviewers: ‘So please think a little before you compare it to a professionally recorded studio album.’
So, Simon, here goes: ‘The album is not well recorded but it is listenable.’ Will that do? There are Parker and Coltrane albums that almost make this sound like hifi. Of course, Spillett is right, we are fortunate to have the recording, however flawed, of a man who made an immense contribution to jazz in the UK.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
