Hindsight Review: Tubby Hayes with Clark Terry - The New York Sessions

In the United States, there are a great many legendary figures in the history of Jazz.  Names like Armstrong, Ellington, Parker and Coltrane, are the types of musicians that are known worldwide.  Though Jazz is considered a truly American art form, there are many fine players, composers and arrangers of the genre, all over the world.

To say that Tubby Hayes is probably the most widely recognized Jazz musician from the UK is probably a vast understatement.  He was a child prodigy, excelling on Alto Saxophone first, switching over to the Tenor, for which he became famous.  If his abilities as a Tenor Saxophonist were not enough, he was a first-rate Flautist and even added playing Vibraphone to his musical arsenal.

Hayes has often been called “The British Charlie Parker”, for which the similarities are numerous.  Both were tremendous musicians with an incredible amount of technique.  Both were highly influential in their home countries.  Unfortunately, both shared a destructive nature, with drug and alcohol abuse, which cut their lives short.  Parker died at 34, Hayes at 38.  In both cases, the world was robbed of what likely would have been many more years of incredible music.  In both cases, however, there are a wealth of recordings that both men made, to document their incredible talents while here on Earth, which brings us to this particular recording.

Originally recorded on the Epic label in 1961, “Tubby The Tenor” 

is the result of a trip to New York City for a series of live performances, and to make this recording.  “Tubby The Tenor” has also been released under the name “Tubbs In New York”, 

on the UK Fontana label.  In 1990, Columbia released it on CD for the first time, as “The New York Sessions”.

With the CD release of “The New York Sessions”, it was my introduction to the music of Tubby Hayes.  I had heard a lot about him, but for whatever reason, I had never been able to land a recording of him on CD, vinyl…anything.  I was in for a big surprise!

Beginning with the opening track, “You For Me”, a medium up swinger, all the way through to the final track, the gorgeous “You’re My Everything”, the album is a tour de force for the leader, almost like a coming out party for American audiences, with the reed man playing only Tenor for the occasion.

The band is made up of a hard-driving rhythm section: Pianist Horace Parlan (known for his work with Charles Mingus), Bassist George Duvivier (Bud Powell, Shirley Scott, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Benny Goodman) and Drummer Dave Bailey (Lou Donaldson, Lee Konitz, Kenny Dorham and Horace Silver).  Incidentally, Parlan and Bailey are still with us.  Duvivier died in 1985.

Also, Vibraphonist Eddie Costa (Tal Farlow, Coleman Hawkins, Phil Woods and Gil Evans) joins the group on three tunes.  This session happened to be one of the last of Costa’s career, as he was killed in a car accident in New York a little over six months after these recordings were made.

Last, but certainly not least, the great Trumpeter Clark Terry makes up the front line with Tubby’s Tenor on four of the selections, contributing a few of his own tunes for the session.  Terry is one of the few notable musicians that had the opportunity to play with both, the Duke Ellington and Count Basie bands.  His career is one of the longest lasting, if not THE longest lasting, of the upper echelon Trumpeters of his era.  His "Serenade To A Bus Seat" (1957.  Featuring Miles Davis' current rhythm section of Wynton Kelly (Piano), Paul Chambers (Bass) and Philly Joe Jones (Drums), with the explosive Tenor man, Johnny Griffin) is essential listening, yet his entire discography merits study, whether as a sideman or leader.  As a sideman, I call these sessions a great example of his abilities.

From the moment that the music starts, the listener realizes that they are hearing something very special.  Most of the selections range in the medium up to very fast tempo range.  Even at a slower tempo, Hayes has the ability to double, or even quadruple, the time, displaying a lightning fast technique, coupled with playing amazingly long lines, sometimes stretching over entire sections/bridges of the tunes.

Though the four tunes with Clark Terry are certainly highlights of the proceedings (listen to the exchanges between the horns on Terry’s “Opus Ocean, based on “Rhythm Changes”, with a bridge!  Whoowee!), it is clear that the Saxophonist is front and center, and with good reason.

Hayes even takes on a couple of fellow Tenor man Sonny Rollins’ tunes (a relaxed “Doxy”, and the blistering “Airegin”) and does justice to the spirit of the original composition without being a regurgitation of Rollins.  In both cases, Tubby is his own man, displaying immense depth that surely would have been given Newk’s approval!

My personal favorite recording of the proceedings is the little-played Gershwin Brothers’ “Soon”,

perhaps, the highlight of a monumental recording session that yielded an album that deserved wider recognition in America.  With a favorite named. the entire CD is some of the most exciting straight-ahead music recorded at the time.

Tubby Hayes, no doubt, would have been a huge name on the American Jazz scene…

…if only he had been born in the United States!

This album is highly recommended to those who enjoy up-tempo, hard-swinging, straight-ahead Jazz!

1. You For Me
2. Pint Of Bitter
3. Airegin 
4. Opus Ocean
5. Soon
6. Doxie
7. Soho Soul
8. The Simple Waltz
9. Half A Sawbuck
10. You're My Everything

Tubby Hayes: Tenor Saxophone
Clark Terry: Trumpet
Eddie Costa: Vibraphone
Horace Parlan: Piano
George Duvivier: Bass
Dave Bailey: Drums

Recorded in New York, N.Y.; October 3-4, 1961

Reviewed by Brent Vaughan