Spillett Gives Praise At Altar of Tubby

Despite the threat of transport chaos posed by the arrival of Storm Dennis, fans and dignitaries descended in droves on a concert presented by Simon Spillett at Loughton’s Methodist Church Hall. The tenor saxophonist’s Quartet featured pianist Rob Barron with Alec Dankworth on bass and Clark Tracey on drums. Their enthusiasm matched the leader’s energy during two superb sets that celebrated the genius of the late Tubby Hayes. Blues, ballads and bop anthems delighted the attentive audience packing the National Jazz Archive’s Loughton venue.

Author of critically acclaimed biography Tubby Hayes – The Long Shadow of the Little Giant (Equinox, 2015), Spillett is a dynamic soloist whose playing is steeped in the influence of Edward Brian Hayes, one of Britain’s finest ever jazz musicians and grand master of the tenor saxophone. He was welcomed on stage by MC David Nathan of the NJA, before the quartet stomped straight into 'Nobody Else But Me', a Jerome Kern song ideal for warming up both band and audience. Barron took the first of many satisfying solos that revealed his penchant for slipping in surprises, like a surreptitious quote from 'Salt Peanuts'. Tracey, playing his new Cambridge drum kit, maintained close contact with the leader’s changes of mood and tempo, notably whenever the pair exchanged complex ‘eights’.

The origins of the next tune, Off The Wagon, were revealed by Spillett, who explained it was composed in 1966, a tipping point year in his hero’s life. The tenor man blew a bluesy slur in the coda that evoked the spirit of Tubby at his most down home and earthy. A delightful 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most' was reserved as a feature for Barron’s graceful piano. In direct contrast, the first set concluded with 'Seven Steps To Heaven', the kind of ultra-fast hard bopper Tubby used to blow at Ronnie Scott’s original Soho jazz club. Spillett told how Victor Feldman, another great British export, wrote the theme at the urgent behest of Miles Davis.

As the tenor sax wailed so Dankworth, a tower of tasteful power throughout the afternoon, attacked the strings of his double-bass with relentless speed and accuracy, while later, during the second set, he delivered a melodic solo on 'Souriya', an original composition by Tubby dedicated to his wife.

Spillett told how when Tubby played at the Half Note club in New York in 1961 he blew away his American audience, which included Miles Davis sitting in the front row. During that historic US trip he also recorded a lively album with Clark Terry, from which Spillett played 'Opus Ocean', soloing with incredible dexterity. Combined with creative forays from Dankworth and Tracey these were yet more steps to jazz heaven for the Methodist Hall audience, who demanded an encore. What better than 'Grits, Beans & Greens', a groovy tune from The Lost Fontana Studio Session 1969 album by the Tubby Hayes Quartet, finally released 50 years later in 2019.