Grits, Beans and Greens: The Lost Fontana Studio Sessions 1969
| Grits, Beans and Greens: The Lost Fontana Studio Sessions 1969 | ||||
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| Studio album by Tubby Hayes | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Decca Records / Universal Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD, 2CD |
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Title (number) |
5/18 |
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running time |
36:30 (LP) |
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Studio (s) |
Philips Studios, Stanhope Place, London |
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Grits, Beans and Greens: The Lost Fontana Studio Sessions 1969 is a jazz album by saxophonist Tubby Hayes . The recordings were made on June 24, 1969 at Philips Studios Stanhope Place for the Fontana record label and were released on July 26, 2019 by Decca Records / Universal Records as a long-playing record or compact disc and as a two-CD set with previously unreleased material. The CD box, which contains the session tracks in the order in which they were recorded, along with alternative takes and studio entertainment, also contains material from an earlier recording session in which guitarist Louis Stewart replaces the pianist.
background
The British tenor saxophonist Tubby Hayes made a number of recordings in 1969: Rumpus with his big band (a live recording from the Torrington Pub in London on May 8), The Orchestra (a Fontana studio production on May 28), as sideman on a track the Harry South Big Band (on June 23), 200% proof again with his own big band (a BBC radio broadcast on July 25), Live 1969 in a quartet line-up (August 6), a big band studio session with Laurie Johnson ( Synthesis ; Watford Town Hall August 8), a big band session for the BBC (August 24), Blue Hayes: the Tempo Anthology (a live recording from the Torrington Pub on October 26) and Live 1969 (from London's Hopbine Club from December 23).
The Grits, Beans and Greens tapes were discovered when the late jazz writer and Polygram catalog manager Richard Cook came across Hayes' diary and noticed entries with a series of recording sessions. He then searched the Polygram archives and discovered unreleased tapes on 1969. Cook left the company in 1997 before the tapes were released, and it was allegedly not until 2018 that those tapes were remembered. Coordinated by Tubby Hayes specialist Simon Spillett , who had already mentioned the recordings in his book about Hayes ( The Long Shadow of the Little Giant ), the tapes were mastered for the first time by high-end vinyl specialist Gearbox Studios and released in 2019 as The Lost Fontana Studio-Session in 1969 .
The Tubby Hayes Band consists of pianist Mike Pyne , bassist Ron Mathewson and Spike Wells on drums. On the three versions of "Where Am I Going", which were written in May 1969, the pianist has been replaced by the Irish guitarist Louis Stewart .
Music of the album
The first track on the album is an original composition by Hayes called "For Members Only". Charles Warland wrote: “We hear the saxophonist count that and then an explosion of spinning drums from Spike Wells initiating a pulsating swing groove, with Hayes formulating a meandering, Coltrane- like main theme over the top. Before it starts to steam, however, the piece quickly shifts down the gears and the music becomes more discursive and abstract for a few moments. Then things really start: Mathewson's rapid bass line and Wells' kinetic drums ensure that the song progresses rapidly. Hayes plays the first solo, then Pyne, and then there's a Trading Fours section where Hayes and the entire band take turns with the drummer Spike Wells in call and response passages. "
This is followed by the title track "Grits, Beans and Greens", according to Warland less direct than the opening track. The title is characterized by a series of fluid saxophone motifs that pour out of Hayes' instrument over a swirling, sometimes carefree, rhythmic undertone. "Rumpus" was a feature of the live sets by Hayes from the late 1960s; the title shows how the saxophonist stylistically moved towards a more advanced and explorative way of playing hardbop . "The melodic fluidity of the main theme, combined with the incisive, lively, highly rhythmic way in which Hayes drives the track forward, also reflects the influence of Coltrane." The second half of the LP begins with Hayes in a quieter ballad . When interpreting the Duke-Pearson ballad “You Know I Care”, his playing is deeply melodic and lyrical; Mathewson and Wells - the latter using brooms for a softer sound - create a gentle but fluid backdrop. The shimmering “Where Am I Going”, on the other hand, has an “airy”, Latin American character. "Pyne's glittering piano chords set the tone in a gentle syncopated rhythm before Hayes begins a long solo that is smooth, sensual, and melodic."
Track list
- Tubby Hayes: Grits, Beans and Greens: The Lost Fontana Studio Sessions 1969
LP edition
- For Members Only "(take 2) 6:26
- Grit, Beans & Greens "(take 4) 6:08
- Rumpus (take 1) 7:33
- You Know I Care (take 2) (Duke Pearson) 7:04
- Were Am I Going? (take 3) (Cy Coleman / Carolyn Leigh) 9:19
CD edition
- For Members Only (Take 2)
- Grits, Beans and Greens (Take 4)
- Rumpus (Take 1)
- You Know I Care (Take 2)
- Where Am I Going? (Take 3)
2-CD edition
- CD1
- Where Am I Going? (Take 1 May 27th 1969)
- Where Am I Going? (Take 2 May 27th 1969)
- Where Am I Going? (Take 3 May 27th 1969)
- Grits, Beans and Greens (Take 1)
- For Members Only (Take 1)
- Where Am I Going? (Take 1 breakdown)
- For Members Only (Take 2 full version)
- CD 2
- Where Am I Going? (Take 2)
- Grits, Beans and Greens (Take 2 breakdown)
- Grits, Beans and Greens (Take 3)
- Rumpus (Take 1 full version)
- Where Am I Going? (Take 3 full version)
- Rumpus (Take 2 breakdown)
- Rumpus (Take 3 breakdown)
- Rumpus (Take 4)
- Grits, Beans and Greens (Take 4 full version)
- You Know I Care (Take 1 breakdown)
- You Know I Care (Take 2 full version)
review
Grits, Beans and Greens: The Lost Fontana Studio Sessions 1969 are in no way inferior to the Tubby Hayes albums Mexican Green and 100% Proof , wrote Tom Jurek in Allmusic and awarded the album 4½ (out of 5) stars. Together with a new band with whom he tried to re-establish himself as a viable musician after two years of health problems, arrests and other mishaps, this was his last great album. In the first track of the album, "For Members Only", begun by Wells, Hayes' solo is "inventive and harmoniously astonishing, as it combines his own development ideas and fascinations with the jazz avant-garde and the blues ". Wells, who made his recording debut here, is swinging like crazy, but keeps Mathewson and his juicy but lofty ideas on the ground while Pyne delivers fat comps , vamps and a thick solo.
The following “Rumpus” is a “monument to high musicality”, Hayes' solo “overwhelming in its complexity and feel, and the rhythm section offers space for exploration”. Rounding out the set is “a beautiful, heartfelt version of Duke Pearson's immortal ballad, You Know That I Care,” in which Hayes delivers both the exuberance and deep emotion in his playing that critics have belied who claimed he was just play lightning fast and without feeling ”. A lively interpretation in Latin rhythms of "Where Am I Going?", A song by Cy Coleman , closes the set when Wells pushes the band forward in a groove while Hayes and Mathewson communicate directly with one another. Pyne moves “from sharp montunos to elegant, even romantic post-bop swing, while Hayes combines cadences with short phrases and seamless arpeggios .” The Lost Fontana Studio Sessions 1969 present themselves “as a true jazz grail”, summarizes Thom Jurek. Hopefully, along with the documentary Tubby Hayes: A Man in a Hurry, it will spark a real critical and popular re-evaluation of Hayes' work.
Marc Myers praised in Jazzwax that the sound quality of the recordings was remarkable; they contain multiple versions of individual titles, which would be tedious in many cases. But here at Hayes they are all jewels. Like Stan Getz and Joe Henderson in the 1960s, Hayes played brightly lyrical and springy. There wouldn't be a bad moment in this edition either. The album offers many glorious moments.
Mike Hobart writes in the Financial Times : “The incomparably flowing and tumbling invention [wealth] that characterized the live performances of British saxophonist Tubby Hayes was a force of nature that was only intermittently captured in the studio. Hayes is bursting with energy and is experimenting with new forms and structures. ”This set shows Hayes how he has developed further as a composer and arranger and pursues ideas that still sound contemporary. The two full takes of "Where Am I Going?" With Louis Stewart made Tubby Hayes look even more forward-looking, and at least one of those versions should be on the vinyl release or single CD.
For Charles Warland, the album is the culmination of his posthumous releases. Indeed, Hayes never runs out of ideas or even the steam during his lengthy improvisation, which results in him delivering a flowing stream of seemingly endless melody in a gushing source of inspiration. "Although his personal life has been a mess , Hayes would have "not lost his muse and could still make music of the highest quality." For fans of British jazz, the discovery of the album was just as important as the discovery of John Coltrane's Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album in 2018. Warland's conclusion reads: "The lost album by Tubby Hayes reminds a new generation of jazz enthusiasts of an important musical trailblazer who carried the torch for British jazz half a century ago."
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Marc Myers: Tubby Hayes: Lost Fontana Tapes. Jazzwax, July 29, 2019, accessed on July 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Information about the album at Phonica Records
- ↑ Meeting (UK Vibe)
- ↑ a b c Charles Waring: Grits, Beans And Greens': Lost Tubby Hayes Album A Taste Of Genius. U Discover Music, July 28, 2019, accessed December 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Discographic Notes Discogs
- ↑ a b Review of Thom Jurek's album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved July 29, 2019.
- ↑ Mike Hobart: Tubby Hayes Quartet: Grits Beans and Greens: The Lost Fontana Studio Sessions - note-tumbling invention. Financial Times, July 26, 2018, accessed July 29, 2019 .