Tubby Hayes - Tubbs (1961)

Tubby Hayes
Tubbs
Fontana, 1961

For the last couple months,  I’ve been diving into the mysterious world of British Jazz, particularly of the 1950’s & 60’s. Why is it mysterious? Because we as Americans have never felt the full blown power of jazz from across the pond. During this period, England’s Jazz scene was split by two contrasting sounds. On one side, musicians such as Chris Barber, Ken Coyler, and Humphrey Lyttleton played in the style of the Polyphonic New Orleans tradition, known as Trad Jazz. 

On the other side, musicians were looking toward the modern sounds of Charlie Parker and Horace Silver, inspiring the likes of Ronnie Scott, Joe Harriott, and Tubby Hayes. 

While there is nothing wrong with the Trad Jazz boom, I’ve found the the Modern Jazz scene and sound to be extremely interesting. When I picked up the Tubby Hayes album “Tubbs”, I was gobsmacked. 

This album is somewhat split, some of the tracks feature Hayes playing with a big band, while the other tracks feature him with a quartet. I was shocked to hear a Saxophonist who could easily hold his own and, dare I say, outplay these masters.  Hayes was 26 at the time of this recording, and to put it into perspective, Coltrane was 34, and Rollins was 30. Put on Hayes’s take on "Cherokee" to get the best taste. Even then, on two of the tracks, “S’posin” and “The Folks Who Live On The Hill”, Hayes puts the sax down and shreds on vibes!  

Hayes’s playing has a high level of technical proficiency as heard in the blowing, but also, he gives off a strong proficiency in the blues and shows the appropriate vocab, like in the track “Tubbsville”. All these things mentioned can be seen in each of the other tracks on this album. Even his vibe playing shows great skill, I can’t name another sax player who goes and plays both these instruments very well. 

After hearing this album, I’m left with two questions, Why does nobody talk about Tubby Hayes and why does nobody in America know anything about Jazz in England? Even though Hayes came to America on a few occasions to play, he went practically unnoticed (except for recording an album with Clark Terry, and being the first British musician to play at the Half Note).  I’m always impressed with how music is able to travel, for example, many of these British musicians got their hands on American jazz records somehow. Using Blue Trane as an example, that album was only released in the United States when first released in 1957. The UK’s first official release of that album wasn’t until 1977, twenty years later. So somehow, these British players got American records, but vice versa, American players never got hold of these British records. It’s a shame that most musicians of the time never got to hear these records, but today, thanks to the internet, we can appreciate these breathtaking recordings.