British jazz
Encyclopedia
British jazz is a form of music derived from American jazz
. It reached Britain through recordings and performers who visited the country while it was a relatively new genre, soon after the end of World War I
. Jazz began to be played by British musicians from the 1930s and on a widespread basis in the 1940s, often within dance band
s. From the late 1940s British "modern jazz", highly influenced by American Bebop
, began to emerge and was led by figures such as John Dankworth
and Ronnie Scott
, while Ken Colyer
, George Webb
and Humphrey Lyttelton
emphasised New Orleans, Trad jazz
. From the 1960s British jazz began to develop more individual characteristics and absorb a variety of influences, including British blues
, as well as European and World music
influences. A number of British musicians have gained international reputations, although this form of music has remained a minority interest within the UK itself.
and French jazz
, namely it tended to be seen by figures of authority as a bad influence, but in Britain the concern that jazz was from the United States appears to have been less important than in France or Brazil. Instead those who objected to it did so more because they deemed it "riotous" or unnerving. One of the earliest popular jazz dance bands was that of Fred Elizalde
, who broadcast on the BBC
from 1926 to 1929.
By the early 1930s music journalism
in Britain, notably through the Melody Maker
, had created an appreciation of the importance of the leading American jazz soloists and was beginning to recognise the improvising talents of some local musicians. Louis Armstrong
played residencies in London and Glasgow in 1932, followed in subsequent years by the Duke Ellington
Orchestra and Coleman Hawkins
. But local jazz culture was limited to London where: "jazz was played after hours in a couple of restaurants that encouraged musicians to come in and jam for drinks". The groups of Nat Gonella
and Spike Hughes
became notable within Britain early in the decade; Hughes was even invited to New York to arrange, compose and lead what, in effect, was Benny Carter's
Orchestra of the time. Carter himself worked in London for the BBC in 1936. During the 1930s most British jazz musicians made their living in dance bands of various kinds. Jazz became more important, and more separate as its own genre.
led to an increase in bands to entertain the troops and these bands began to refer to themselves as "jazz" groups more often. The period also saw an increased interest in American musicians who also toured in military bands. The future leading alto-saxophonist Art Pepper
was among the visiting American musicians at this time. This all increased an interest in jazz which continued after the war.
In 1948 a group of young musicians including John Dankworth
and Ronnie Scott
, focused on the Club Eleven
in London, began a movement toward "modern jazz" or Bebop
. Significant instrumentalists in this early movement were trumpeter-pianist Denis Rose
, pianist Tommy Pollard, saxophonist Don Rendell
, and drummers Tony Kinsey
and Laurie Morgan
. A movement in an opposite direction was revivalism, which became popular in the 1950s and was represented by musicians like George Webb
, Humphrey Lyttelton
and Ken Colyer
, although Lyttelton gradually became more catholic in his approach. Trad jazz
, a variant, briefly entered the pop charts later. At this point both streams tended to emulate Americans, whether it be Charlie Parker
for Beboppers or Joe "King" Oliver and other New Orleans musicians for traditionalists, rather than try to create a uniquely British form of jazz.
During the 1950s mass emigration into the UK, brought an influx of players from the Caribbean
such as Joe Harriott
and Harold McNair
, though some, such as Dizzy Reece
, found the shortage of genuine Jazz work frustrating - dance music remained popular - and migrated to the United States. British born players too, including George Shearing
, active on the London scene since before the war, and Victor Feldman
also chose to move across the Atlantic to develop their careers. Several new jazz clubs were established in London in the 1950s, including the Flamingo Club
.
A domestic musicians' union ban on visiting American jazz musicians, initiated in the mid-thirties (Fats Waller
had to visit the UK as a 'variety' act in 1938) was gradually relaxed from the mid-fifties onwards. This benefited the local scene as the often erratic availability of American records had meant that, unlike the rest of Europe, British jazz aficionados had long been unfamiliar with the most recent jazz developments in the music's country of origin. Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
in London, co-founded in 1959 by one of the earliest native proponents of bebop
, was able to benefit from an exchange arrangement with the American Federation of Musicians
(AFM), allowing regular visits from leading American players from 1961. A key musician, pianist Stan Tracey
, developed his skills and gained regular employment from backing the visiting musicians.
musicians who had left their home nation, including Chris McGregor
, Dudu Pukwana
, Mongezi Feza
, Johnny Dyani
, Harry Miller
and later Julian Bahula.
There was also a growth in free jazz
inspired by European models more than from American music. It helped to influence the development of a strong European identity in this field. South African and free jazz influences came together in projects like the Brotherhood of Breath
big band, nominally led by McGregor. Added to this, more musicians had been raised on rhythm and blues
or English forms of rock and roll
, which became increasingly significant to the genre. These influences mixed in a way that led to British contemporary jazz of the time developing a distinctive identity distancing it to some extent from American styles. Highly original jazz composers such as Mike Westbrook
, Graham Collier
, Michael Garrick
and Mike Gibbs began to make major contributions during the period and after. The local scene was not unaffected by, what elsewhere came to be known as, the British Invasion
; the jazz audience was in numerical decline at this time. One branch of this development was the creation of various British jazz fusion
bands like Soft Machine
, Nucleus
, Colosseum
, If
, Henry Cow
, Centipede
, National Health
, Ginger Baker's Air Force
, to name a few. Some of the most significant musicians to emerge during this period include John McLaughlin
and Dave Holland
(both of whom joined Miles Davis
's group), pianists Keith Tippett
and John Taylor
, saxophonists Evan Parker
, Mike Osborne
, John Surman
and Alan Skidmore
, and the Canadian-born trumpeter Kenny Wheeler
who had settled in Britain.
The Jazz Centre Society was founded in 1969 to develop a national centre for jazz in London and efforts to secure and fund premises for the centre continued until 1984; the JCS's many jazz promoting activities in London, Manchester and elsewhere survive as Jazz Services Ltd. Similar promotional organisations such as Platform Jazz in Scotland were formed in the 1970s to widen opportunities to hear and play jazz. The music continued to be presented in a wide range of venues in major British cities, but with most activity still focused in London. A National Jazz Archive was set up with its base at Loughton Library in Essex. Today it is the main location for jazz documentation in Britain, with rapidly expanding collections.
musicians entering jazz with Courtney Pine
, Gary Crosby
, Julian Joseph
, and later Soweto Kinch
and Jason Yarde, being noteworthy examples (many of these musicians were members of the Jazz Warriors
). Loose Tubes
was a very important group in re-energising the British scene. Many musicians from this band such as Django Bates
, Iain Ballamy
and Julian Argüelles
have become important artists with highly developed individual musical voices.
The expansion of jazz was also marked by the launch of Jazz FM
in 1990 and the opening of the Jazz Cafe, Camden. Both of these gradually ceased to concern themselves primarily with jazz and the radio station was renamed Smooth FM in 2005. A new national digital jazz radio station The Jazz began operations at Christmas 2006, dedicated to broadcasting jazz in most styles, but was closed by its parent company in February 2008. However, new venues continue to open.
In recent years funk
and hip hop
have become an influence on parts of Britain's jazz scene. At the same time, Black British traditions in jazz have been strengthened, in part, by the 'rediscovery' and celebration in the 2000s of Jamaican altoist Joe Harriott
's once-neglected music and by the publication of books about him and his close collaborator, bassist Coleridge Goode
. The effect has been to make Harriott, posthumously, a powerful symbol of Black British jazz achievement and identity.
There are more opportunities now for students to specialise in jazz whether at basic learner level or at major conservatoires around the country, such as the Royal Academy of Music
, Guildhall School of Music, Trinity College of Music
and Middlesex University in London, Birmingham Conservatoire and Leeds College of Music
.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. It reached Britain through recordings and performers who visited the country while it was a relatively new genre, soon after the end of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Jazz began to be played by British musicians from the 1930s and on a widespread basis in the 1940s, often within dance band
Dance band
Dance band can be one of several kinds of musical ensemble:* British dance band* Dansband, a Swedish pop genre* A Eurodance band...
s. From the late 1940s British "modern jazz", highly influenced by American Bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
, began to emerge and was led by figures such as John Dankworth
John Dankworth
Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE , known in his early career as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist...
and Ronnie Scott
Ronnie Scott
Ronnie Scott was an English jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner.-Life and career:Ronnie Scott was born in Aldgate, east London, into a family of Russian Jewish descent on his father's side, and Portuguese antecedents on his mother's. Scott began playing in small jazz clubs at the age of...
, while Ken Colyer
Ken Colyer
Kenneth Colyer was a British jazz trumpeter and cornetist, devoted totally to New Orleans jazz. His band was also known for skiffle interludes.-Biography:...
, George Webb
George Webb (musician)
George Webb was a British pianist considered by many as the father of the traditional jazz movement in Britain....
and Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton , also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...
emphasised New Orleans, Trad jazz
Trad jazz
Trad jazz - short for "traditional jazz" - refers to the Dixieland and Ragtime jazz styles of the early 20th century in contrast to any more modern style....
. From the 1960s British jazz began to develop more individual characteristics and absorb a variety of influences, including British blues
British blues
British blues is a form of music derived from American blues that originated in the late 1950s and which reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1960s, when it developed a distinctive and influential style dominated by electric guitar and made international stars of several proponents of...
, as well as European and World music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
influences. A number of British musicians have gained international reputations, although this form of music has remained a minority interest within the UK itself.
The early twentieth century
Jazz in Britain is usually said to have begun with the British tour of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1919. That stated, British popular music aficionados in the 1920s generally preferred the terms "hot" or "straight" dance music to the term "jazz". Jazz in Britain also faced a similar difficulty to Brazilian jazzBrazilian jazz
Brazilian Jazz may refer to:*Bossa nova*Samba jazz like Zimbo Trio and other Bossa Nova and samba influenced jazz bands.*Brazilian influenced forms of Jazz fusion....
and French jazz
French jazz
France has a long history with jazz music.Jazz began to become significant in France starting in the 1920s. As with Brazil , the French were at first concerned it was too American of an influence before "making it their own." Although in the case of the French the adjustment proved faster as by the...
, namely it tended to be seen by figures of authority as a bad influence, but in Britain the concern that jazz was from the United States appears to have been less important than in France or Brazil. Instead those who objected to it did so more because they deemed it "riotous" or unnerving. One of the earliest popular jazz dance bands was that of Fred Elizalde
Fred Elizalde
Federico "Fred" Elizalde was a Philippines-born Spanish classical and jazz pianist, composer, conductor, and bandleader.-Biography:...
, who broadcast on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
from 1926 to 1929.
By the early 1930s music journalism
Music journalism
Music journalism is criticism and reportage about music. It began in the eighteenth century as comment on what is now thought of as 'classical music'. This aspect of music journalism, today often referred to as music criticism , comprises the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of...
in Britain, notably through the Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
, had created an appreciation of the importance of the leading American jazz soloists and was beginning to recognise the improvising talents of some local musicians. Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
played residencies in London and Glasgow in 1932, followed in subsequent years by the Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
Orchestra and Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...
. But local jazz culture was limited to London where: "jazz was played after hours in a couple of restaurants that encouraged musicians to come in and jam for drinks". The groups of Nat Gonella
Nat Gonella
Nathaniel Charles Gonella was an English jazz trumpeter, bandleader, vocalist and mellophonist born in London, perhaps most notable for his work with the big band he founded, The Georgians....
and Spike Hughes
Spike Hughes
Patrick "Spike" Cairns Hughes was a British jazz musician, composer and music journalist. He was the son of Irish composer, writer and song collector Herbert Hughes...
became notable within Britain early in the decade; Hughes was even invited to New York to arrange, compose and lead what, in effect, was Benny Carter's
Benny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...
Orchestra of the time. Carter himself worked in London for the BBC in 1936. During the 1930s most British jazz musicians made their living in dance bands of various kinds. Jazz became more important, and more separate as its own genre.
The 1940s and 50s
World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
led to an increase in bands to entertain the troops and these bands began to refer to themselves as "jazz" groups more often. The period also saw an increased interest in American musicians who also toured in military bands. The future leading alto-saxophonist Art Pepper
Art Pepper
Art Pepper , born Arthur Edward Pepper, Jr., was an American alto saxophonist and clarinetist.About Pepper, Scott Yanow of All Music stated, "In the 1950s he was one of the few altoists that was able to develop his own sound despite the dominant influence of Charlie Parker" and: "When Art Pepper...
was among the visiting American musicians at this time. This all increased an interest in jazz which continued after the war.
In 1948 a group of young musicians including John Dankworth
John Dankworth
Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE , known in his early career as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist...
and Ronnie Scott
Ronnie Scott
Ronnie Scott was an English jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner.-Life and career:Ronnie Scott was born in Aldgate, east London, into a family of Russian Jewish descent on his father's side, and Portuguese antecedents on his mother's. Scott began playing in small jazz clubs at the age of...
, focused on the Club Eleven
Club Eleven
Club Eleven was a nightclub located in London between 1948 and 1950. Despite being in business for only two years, the club played a significant role in the early history of British bebop, a form of modern jazz....
in London, began a movement toward "modern jazz" or Bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
. Significant instrumentalists in this early movement were trumpeter-pianist Denis Rose
Denis Rose
Denis Rose was an English jazz pianist and trumpeter. He was a longtime fixture on the London jazz scene and was an early influence on British bebop....
, pianist Tommy Pollard, saxophonist Don Rendell
Don Rendell
Donald Percy 'Don' Rendell is an English jazz musician and arranger, specialising on tenor saxophone, but also playing soprano saxophone, flute, and clarinet....
, and drummers Tony Kinsey
Tony Kinsey
Cyril Anthony 'Tony' Kinsey is an English jazz drummer and composer.Kinsey held jobs on trans-Atlantic ships while young, studying while at port with Bill West in New York City and with local musician Tommy Webster in Birmingham. He had a close association with Ronnie Ball early in his life; the...
and Laurie Morgan
Laurie Morgan
Laurie Morgan From , is a Deputy of the States of Guernsey. He was Guernsey's first Chief Minister and was elected to the post in May 2004. His term of office was due to expire in 2008, when the next General Election is due...
. A movement in an opposite direction was revivalism, which became popular in the 1950s and was represented by musicians like George Webb
George Webb (musician)
George Webb was a British pianist considered by many as the father of the traditional jazz movement in Britain....
, Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton , also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...
and Ken Colyer
Ken Colyer
Kenneth Colyer was a British jazz trumpeter and cornetist, devoted totally to New Orleans jazz. His band was also known for skiffle interludes.-Biography:...
, although Lyttelton gradually became more catholic in his approach. Trad jazz
Trad jazz
Trad jazz - short for "traditional jazz" - refers to the Dixieland and Ragtime jazz styles of the early 20th century in contrast to any more modern style....
, a variant, briefly entered the pop charts later. At this point both streams tended to emulate Americans, whether it be Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
for Beboppers or Joe "King" Oliver and other New Orleans musicians for traditionalists, rather than try to create a uniquely British form of jazz.
During the 1950s mass emigration into the UK, brought an influx of players from the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
such as Joe Harriott
Joe Harriott
Joseph Arthurlin 'Joe' Harriott was a Jamaican jazz musician and composer, whose principal instrument was the alto saxophone....
and Harold McNair
Harold McNair
Harold McNair was a renowned saxophonist and flautist.-Background:...
, though some, such as Dizzy Reece
Dizzy Reece
Alphonso Son "Dizzy" Reece is a hard bop jazz trumpeter with a distinctive sound and compositional style.Reece was born 5 January 1931 in Kingston, Jamaica, the son of a silent film pianist. He attended the Alpha Boys School , switching from baritone to trumpet at 14...
, found the shortage of genuine Jazz work frustrating - dance music remained popular - and migrated to the United States. British born players too, including George Shearing
George Shearing
Sir George Shearing, OBE was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s...
, active on the London scene since before the war, and Victor Feldman
Victor Feldman
Victor Stanley Feldman was a British jazz musician, best known as a pianist.-Early history:...
also chose to move across the Atlantic to develop their careers. Several new jazz clubs were established in London in the 1950s, including the Flamingo Club
Flamingo Club (London)
The Flamingo Club was a nightclub that operated in Soho, London, between 1952 and the late 1960s. It was located at 33-37 Wardour Street from 1957 onwards, and played an important role in the development of British rhythm and blues and jazz....
.
A domestic musicians' union ban on visiting American jazz musicians, initiated in the mid-thirties (Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
had to visit the UK as a 'variety' act in 1938) was gradually relaxed from the mid-fifties onwards. This benefited the local scene as the often erratic availability of American records had meant that, unlike the rest of Europe, British jazz aficionados had long been unfamiliar with the most recent jazz developments in the music's country of origin. Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
Ronnie Scott
Ronnie Scott was an English jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner.-Life and career:Ronnie Scott was born in Aldgate, east London, into a family of Russian Jewish descent on his father's side, and Portuguese antecedents on his mother's. Scott began playing in small jazz clubs at the age of...
in London, co-founded in 1959 by one of the earliest native proponents of bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
, was able to benefit from an exchange arrangement with the American Federation of Musicians
American Federation of Musicians
The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada is a labor union of professional musicians in the United States and Canada...
(AFM), allowing regular visits from leading American players from 1961. A key musician, pianist Stan Tracey
Stan Tracey
Stanley William Tracey CBE is a British jazz pianist and composer, most influenced by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk.-Early career:...
, developed his skills and gained regular employment from backing the visiting musicians.
The 1960s and 70s
In the 1960s and 1970s British jazz began to have more varied influences, from Africa and the Caribbean. One important aspect was the South African jazzSouth African jazz
South African jazz is the jazz music of South Africa, also often mistakenly called "African jazz".-History:As in the United States, South African jazz was strongly influenced by the music styles of the black population. That said influences from the US led to its formation...
musicians who had left their home nation, including Chris McGregor
Chris McGregor
Christopher McGregor , was a South African jazz pianist, bandleader and composer born in Somerset West, South Africa.- Early influences :...
, Dudu Pukwana
Dudu Pukwana
Mtutuzel Dudu Pukwana was a South African saxophonist, composer and pianist .-Early years in South Africa:...
, Mongezi Feza
Mongezi Feza
Mongezi Feza was a South African jazz trumpet player and flautist.-Biography:Feza was born in Queenstown, South Africa in 1945. A member of The Blue Notes, he left South Africa in 1964 and settled in Europe, living in London and Copenhagen. As a trumpeter, his influences included hard bopper...
, Johnny Dyani
Johnny Dyani
Johnny Mbizo Dyani was a South African jazz double bassist and pianist, who played with such musicians as Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, David Murray and Leo Smith....
, Harry Miller
Harry Miller (jazz bassist)
Harold Simon 'Harry' Miller was a South African jazz bass player.Miller began his career as a bassist with Manfred Mann, and came to settle in London...
and later Julian Bahula.
There was also a growth in free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
inspired by European models more than from American music. It helped to influence the development of a strong European identity in this field. South African and free jazz influences came together in projects like the Brotherhood of Breath
Brotherhood of Breath
The Brotherhood of Breath was a big-band created in the late 1960s by South African pianist/composer Chris McGregor , essentially an extension of McGregor's previous band The Blue Notes....
big band, nominally led by McGregor. Added to this, more musicians had been raised on rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
or English forms of rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, which became increasingly significant to the genre. These influences mixed in a way that led to British contemporary jazz of the time developing a distinctive identity distancing it to some extent from American styles. Highly original jazz composers such as Mike Westbrook
Mike Westbrook
Michael John David 'Mike' Westbrook is an English jazz pianist, composer, and writer of orchestrated jazz pieces.-Early work:Mike Westbrook grew up in Torquay...
, Graham Collier
Graham Collier
James Graham Collier OBE was an English jazz bassist, bandleader and composer.-Life and career:Born in Tynemouth, Northumberland, on leaving school Collier joined the British Army as a musician, spending three years in Hong Kong...
, Michael Garrick
Michael Garrick
Michael Garrick MBE was an English jazz pianist and composer, and a pioneer in mixing jazz with poetry recitations.-Biography:...
and Mike Gibbs began to make major contributions during the period and after. The local scene was not unaffected by, what elsewhere came to be known as, the British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
; the jazz audience was in numerical decline at this time. One branch of this development was the creation of various British jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
bands like Soft Machine
Soft Machine
Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...
, Nucleus
Nucleus (band)
Nucleus were a pioneering jazz-rock band from Britain who continued in different forms from 1969 to 1989. In their first year they won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival, released the album Elastic Rock, and performed both at the Newport Jazz Festival and the Village Gate jazz club.They were...
, Colosseum
Colosseum (band)
Colosseum is a pioneering British progressive jazz-rock band, mixing progressive rock and jazz-based improvisation.-History 1968 - 1971:The band was formed in September 1968 by drummer Jon Hiseman, tenor sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith and bass player Tony Reeves, who had previously worked together...
, If
If (band)
If was a progressive rock band formed in Britain in 1969.Referred to by Billboard as "unquestionably the best of the so-called jazz-rock bands", in the period spanning 1970-1975, they produced 8 studio-recorded albums and did some 17 tours of Europe, the US and Canada.-History:They toured...
, Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
, Centipede
Centipede (band)
Centipede were an English jazz/progressive rock/Canterbury sound big band with more than 50 members, organized and led by the British free jazz pianist Keith Tippett...
, National Health
National Health
National Health were a progressive rock band associated with the Canterbury scene. Founded in 1975, the band included members of keyboardist Dave Stewart's band Hatfield and the North and Alan Gowen's band Gilgamesh, the band also included guitarists Phil Miller and Phil Lee and bassist Mont...
, Ginger Baker's Air Force
Ginger Baker's Air Force
Ginger Baker's Air Force was a jazz-rock fusion band comprising Ginger Baker on drums, Steve Winwood on organ and vocals, Ric Grech on violin and bass, Jeanette Jacobs on vocals, Denny Laine on guitar and vocals, Phil Seamen on drums, Alan White on drums, Chris Wood on tenor sax and flute, Graham...
, to name a few. Some of the most significant musicians to emerge during this period include John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
and Dave Holland
Dave Holland
Dave Holland is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for 40 years....
(both of whom joined Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
's group), pianists Keith Tippett
Keith Tippett
Keith Tippett is a British jazz pianist and composer.Tippett, the son of a local police officer, went to Greenway Boys Secondary Modern school in Southmead, Bristol. He formed his first jazz band called The KT7 whilst still at school and they performed numbers popular at the time by The Temperance...
and John Taylor
John Taylor (jazz)
John Taylor is a British jazz pianist; he has occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesiser. He is one of Europe's most celebrated jazz pianists and composers.-Performing career:...
, saxophonists Evan Parker
Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
, Mike Osborne
Mike Osborne
Michael Evans Osborne was an English jazz alto saxophonist, pianist and clarinetist, perhaps most noteworthy for his contributions as a member to the Chris McGregor band Brotherhood of Breath in the 1960s and 1970s.He was born in Hereford and attended Wycliffe College in Gloucestershire and the...
, John Surman
John Surman
John Douglas Surman is an English jazz saxophone, bass clarinet and synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, often using themes from folk music as a basis...
and Alan Skidmore
Alan Skidmore
Alan Skidmore is a tenor saxophonist of jazz and blues music, son of the saxophonist Jimmy Skidmore.-As a sideman:...
, and the Canadian-born trumpeter Kenny Wheeler
Kenny Wheeler
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....
who had settled in Britain.
The Jazz Centre Society was founded in 1969 to develop a national centre for jazz in London and efforts to secure and fund premises for the centre continued until 1984; the JCS's many jazz promoting activities in London, Manchester and elsewhere survive as Jazz Services Ltd. Similar promotional organisations such as Platform Jazz in Scotland were formed in the 1970s to widen opportunities to hear and play jazz. The music continued to be presented in a wide range of venues in major British cities, but with most activity still focused in London. A National Jazz Archive was set up with its base at Loughton Library in Essex. Today it is the main location for jazz documentation in Britain, with rapidly expanding collections.
1980s to the present
The 1980s saw a continuing development of distinctive styles. There was a new generation of Black BritishBlack British
Black British is a term used to describe British people of Black African descent, especially those of Afro-Caribbean background. The term has been used from the 1950s to refer to Black people from former British colonies in the West Indies and Africa, who are residents of the United Kingdom and...
musicians entering jazz with Courtney Pine
Courtney Pine
Courtney Pine CBE is an English jazz musician. At school he studied the clarinet, although he is known primarily for his saxophone playing. Pine is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing the flute, clarinet, bass Clarinet and keyboards...
, Gary Crosby
Gary Crosby (bassist)
Gary Crosby OBE is a jazz double bassist, music arranger, educator and Executive Artistic Director of...
, Julian Joseph
Julian Joseph
Julian Joseph is a jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger and broadcaster. Joseph has worked solo, in his all-star big band, trio, quartet, forum project band or electric band....
, and later Soweto Kinch
Soweto Kinch
Soweto Kinch is a British jazz alto saxophonist and rapper.Born in London, England to a Barbadian father, who is a playwright, and British-Jamaican mother, who is an actress, Kinch began playing saxophone at the age of nine after learning clarinet at Allfarthing Primary School, Wandsworth, SW London...
and Jason Yarde, being noteworthy examples (many of these musicians were members of the Jazz Warriors
Jazz Warriors
The Jazz Warriors were an all-black London-based group of jazz musicians that made their debut in 1986. The idea for the band came from the Abibi Jazz Arts - a London organization that promoted black music and black culture - in 1985...
). Loose Tubes
Loose Tubes
Loose Tubes was a British jazz big band/orchestra active during the mid-to-late 1980s. Critically and popularly acclaimed, the band was considered to bethe focal point of a 1980s renaissance in British jazz...
was a very important group in re-energising the British scene. Many musicians from this band such as Django Bates
Django Bates
Django Bates , is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and band leader. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. He currently lives in Copenhagen where he is a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and leader of the StoRMChaser orchestra.-Career:Django Bates was born in Beckenham,...
, Iain Ballamy
Iain Ballamy
Iain Ballamy is a British composer, soprano, alto and tenor saxophone player.- Career :Ballamy was schooled at 1975-80 George Abbot School, Guildford. He then studied Musical Instrument Technology from 1980-1982 Merton College...
and Julian Argüelles
Julian Argüelles
Julian Argüelles is a saxophonist. He is currently a member of the HR Big Band in Frankfurt am Main, Germany....
have become important artists with highly developed individual musical voices.
The expansion of jazz was also marked by the launch of Jazz FM
102.2 Jazz FM
102.2 Jazz FM was a local jazz and soul music station for London run by GMG Radio. The station was based and broadcast from Castlereagh Street in London to around 15.5 million people within the broadcasting area...
in 1990 and the opening of the Jazz Cafe, Camden. Both of these gradually ceased to concern themselves primarily with jazz and the radio station was renamed Smooth FM in 2005. A new national digital jazz radio station The Jazz began operations at Christmas 2006, dedicated to broadcasting jazz in most styles, but was closed by its parent company in February 2008. However, new venues continue to open.
In recent years funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
and hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
have become an influence on parts of Britain's jazz scene. At the same time, Black British traditions in jazz have been strengthened, in part, by the 'rediscovery' and celebration in the 2000s of Jamaican altoist Joe Harriott
Joe Harriott
Joseph Arthurlin 'Joe' Harriott was a Jamaican jazz musician and composer, whose principal instrument was the alto saxophone....
's once-neglected music and by the publication of books about him and his close collaborator, bassist Coleridge Goode
Coleridge Goode
Coleridge George Emerson Goode is a former British Jamaican-born jazz bassist most noteworthy for his long collaboration with alto saxophonist Joe Harriott. Goode was a key figure in Harriott's innovatory jazz quintet throughout its eight year existence as a regular unit...
. The effect has been to make Harriott, posthumously, a powerful symbol of Black British jazz achievement and identity.
There are more opportunities now for students to specialise in jazz whether at basic learner level or at major conservatoires around the country, such as the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
, Guildhall School of Music, Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...
and Middlesex University in London, Birmingham Conservatoire and Leeds College of Music
Leeds College of Music
Leeds College of Music, located in Leeds’ Quarry Hill cultural quarter, is the largest music college in the United Kingdom, with over 1,000 full-time and 1,000 part-time students. The college is best known for its leading role in jazz education and started one of the first jazz degrees in Europe...
.
Jazz publications
Jazz publications in the UK have had a chequered history.- Jazz Journal (for some years known as Jazz Journal International) was founded in 1947 and edited for many years by Sinclair Traill. It formerly tagged itself "the greatest jazz magazine in the world", but was thought to have ceased publication in January 2009. The holding company though absorbed Jazz ReviewJazz ReviewJazz Review was a British jazz magazine, founded in 1998 by a former editor of The Wire and jazz writer Richard Cook and Roger Spence of the talent management agency Direct Music. The magazine covered the entire range of jazz history from early jazz, through Swing to Bebop, Modern Jazz and the...
around April 2009, and the magazine was revived at the end of that month, edited by Mark Gilbert. - Jazz Monthly (1955–71), edited by Albert McCarthyAlbert McCarthyAlbert McCarthy was an English discographer and historian of jazz.McCarthy began listening to jazz in his teens, and edited publications of the Jazz Sociological Society in the 1940s...
, had a particularly high reputation during its run and numbered many of the leading British jazz critics of the time among its contributors. - Jazz ReviewJazz ReviewJazz Review was a British jazz magazine, founded in 1998 by a former editor of The Wire and jazz writer Richard Cook and Roger Spence of the talent management agency Direct Music. The magazine covered the entire range of jazz history from early jazz, through Swing to Bebop, Modern Jazz and the...
(1998–2009) was published by the music promoter Direct Music. A monthly, for most of its history, it was edited by Richard CookRichard CookRichard David Cook was a British jazz writer, magazine editor and former record company executive.Sometimes credited as R. D. Cook, Cook was born in Kew, Surrey and lived in west London as an adult. He was co-author, with Brian Morton, of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings , now in its ninth...
, until his death in 2007. It was formally absorbed by Jazz Journal in April 2009. - Jazz UK has for many years been the main periodical specialising in news and features about jazz in Britain. Its former editors are Jed Williams and John Fordham.
- JazzwiseJazzwiseJazzwise Publications Limited is a UK-based specialist jazz music publisher and education company. It was founded in 1984 as a mail-order company promoting jazz and improvisation through catalogues and short courses and workshops for musicians...
is a monthly founded in 1997 and mainly covers modern and contemporary jazz. - Melody MakerMelody MakerMelody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
, originally founded as a jazz magazine, had a notable proselytiser for the music in Max JonesMax JonesMax Jones is an American Journalist, best known for his role as host of 2011 documentary, The Seoul Sisters and being the founder & an on air personality of positive news network, Felice News...
on its staff, but it had abandoned its coverage of jazz by the late 1970s. - The WireThe Wire (magazine)The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...
founded in 1982 originally as a jazz magazine with contributions from Max Harrison and Richard CookRichard CookRichard David Cook was a British jazz writer, magazine editor and former record company executive.Sometimes credited as R. D. Cook, Cook was born in Kew, Surrey and lived in west London as an adult. He was co-author, with Brian Morton, of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings , now in its ninth...
among others, but subsequently broadening its focus.
Specialist publishers
- Northway BooksNorthway BooksNorthway Books is a British publishing company based in London. It specialises in autobiographies and biographies of musicians, and British social and cultural history. Its main focus is on documenting jazz history in Britain and Europe...
founded in 2000, is a British publishing company specialising mainly in books about the history of jazz in Britain.
British Jazz Record Labels
- Babel LabelBabel LabelThe Babel Label is a record label was founded in 1994 by Oliver Weindling. It primarily records and releases jazz albums from UK artists. Ongoing relationships include artists such as Billy Jenkins, Christine Tobin and Huw Warren. A close relationship has been forged with a number of musicians from...
(website) - Candid RecordsCandid RecordsCandid Records was founded as a subsidiary of Archie Bleyer's Cadence label in New York City in 1960. The jazz writer and civil rights activist, Nat Hentoff, worked as the label's A&R director, aiming to create a representative catalog of the jazz of the day...
(website) - E.G. RecordsE.G. RecordsE.G. Records was a UK-based artist management company and independent record label, mostly active during the 1970s and 1980s. The initials stand for its founders, David Enthoven and John Gaydon. The pair signed on as managers of King Crimson in early 1969, during the formative stage of the band and...
- Esquire RecordsEsquire RecordsEsquire Records is the name of two defunct record labels:*Esquire Records , jazz record label founded by Carlo Krahmer and Peter Newbrook in 1947. It issued recordings by British musicians, and others, under licence, from the American Prestige label, the Chicago blues label Delmark, and the Swedish...
- Hep RecordsHep RecordsHep Records is a Scottish record label specializing in both new and reissued jazz music. The label was founded in 1974 by Alastair Robertson in Edinburgh.-Past and present artists:*Don Lanphere*Jessica Williams*Jim Mullen*Tommy Smith*Michael Hashim...
(website) - Leo RecordsLeo RecordsLeo Records is an English jazz record label, which releases Russian jazz in addition to material from American and British musicians.Leo Records was founded in 1979 by Leo Feigin , a Russian immigrant to Britain...
(website) - Ogun RecordsOgun RecordsOgun Records is a record label created by the husband and wife team of Hazel Miller and Harry Miller, to document the music being created by a group of open-minded musicians in London in the early 1970s....
- Spotlite RecordsSpotlite RecordsSpotlite Records is a British jazz record label. It was founded in 1968, originally as an outlet for Charlie Parker's Dial recordings.- External links :*...
(website) - Dutton Vocalion website (website)
- Edition Records (website)
- Basho Records (website)
- Dune Records (website)
External links
- British Bebop
- British Jazz Saxophonists 1950–1970: An overview, Simon Spillett
- The history of British jazz, Harry Francis
- Jazz Development in Britain 1924–1974, Harry Francis]
- Various reports on Jazz in the UK
- The Ian Carr website - A portal site for modern British jazz
- Remember Tubbs, A Tubby Hayes tribute website
- "Valuing British Music - Jazz Futures", lecture by Norton York at Gresham CollegeGresham CollegeGresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in central London, England. It was founded in 1597 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham and today it hosts over 140 free public lectures every year within the City of London.-History:Sir Thomas Gresham,...
, 24 April 2007 (available for video and audio download) - Melody Maker Jazz Polls (British Section) 1962-1974
- Oral history of jazz in Britain from the British Library Sound Archive
Television Documentary
- BBC Four's Jazz Brittania
- http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/267654"Celebration: Loose TubesLoose TubesLoose Tubes was a British jazz big band/orchestra active during the mid-to-late 1980s. Critically and popularly acclaimed, the band was considered to bethe focal point of a 1980s renaissance in British jazz...
"]. Documentary. The 21-piece jazz orchestra its first national tour. The musicians are shown conducting a jazz 'workshop' in Sheffield, as well as performing. Directed by Christopher Swann. Produced by Granada TelevisionGranada TelevisionGranada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
. Channel Four, January 1987.
- "Sounds Different: Music Out of Time". Ian CarrIan CarrIan Carr was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator.-Early years:Carr was born in Dumfries, Scotland, the elder brother of Mike Carr...
& his band "Nucleus" are seen during a two day workshop with young musicians. Participants are Guy BarkerGuy BarkerGuy Barker is an English jazz trumpeter and composer. Barker was born in Chiswick, London, the son of an actress and a stuntman. He started playing the trumpet at the age of twelve, and within a year had joined the National Youth Jazz Orchestra...
, Django BatesDjango BatesDjango Bates , is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and band leader. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. He currently lives in Copenhagen where he is a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and leader of the StoRMChaser orchestra.-Career:Django Bates was born in Beckenham,...
, Steve BerrySteve BerrySteve Berry is an American author, professor and former attorney currently living in St. Augustine, Florida. He is a graduate of Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law....
, Neil Sitwell, Steve Sitwell, David Trigwell, Glen Vallint & Chris WhiteChris WhiteChris White or Christopher White may refer to:*Chris White , British jazz/rock saxophonist*Chris White , bassist and songwriter with The Zombies*Chris White , jazz bassist...
. BBC TWO, 28 November 1980.