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Tubby Hayes was a multi instrumentalist who helped speared-head the UK jazz scene in the 60’s. A sensational sax player and musical innovator.
Favorite track: Modes and Blues (Part One).
The Official Japanese Edition
Shipping from Japan; limited quantities available from the US and UK
Release date: 10 March, 2021
12” 180gram 33rpm LP MONO
Liner notes by Hiroki Sugita
Includes unlimited streaming of Modes and Blues: 8th February 1964
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
This is a previously unreleased mono recording of Modes and Blues from the Tubby Hayes Quintet’s weekly Ronnie Scott’s residency on 8th February 1964. Regarded as one of the masterworks of British modern jazz, Modes and Blues shows the Quintet at the very height of its powers, channelling the new musical flavours and inspiration that Tubby Hayes had absorbed from the cutting edge of jazz and the new directions of John Coltrane.
Recorded with Hayes’ approval by Les Tomkins on his Ferrograph tape recorder, this is one of the most engrossing of all his stretch-out epics. Hayes digs in deep with marathon and breathtaking soloing, trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar delivers his characteristically lyrical improvisation, and there’s dynamic interplay and drive from the great Terry Shannon, Freddy Logan and Allan Ganley rhythm section.
The Quintet had barely a few months left to run at the time of this performance, splitting in August 1964, fearing its music had atrophied into self-parody. Modes and Blues is among its many triumphs, a performance that shows how high the band had set the aspirational bar for British modernism, and, as such, is as much a cultural document as a musical souvenir.
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