Torrington Music

29/01/2026

The Railway's long gone, it's now at The Moor Club. I really rate Simon's playing, so I'll be there with several of my Northern jazz mates.

This week Stockport Jazz welcomes Simon Spillett, multi-award-winning tenor saxophonist (BBC Jazz Awards, British Jazz Awards, Jazz Journal's Album of The Year) with Andrzej Baranek (piano), Ken Marley (bass) and Eryl Roberts (drums).

Sunday February 1st

Every Sunday 8-10pm, doors open at 7.30pm
£5 entry on the door, all welcome

The Moor Club, 35 Heaton Moor Road, Stockport SK4 4PB (next to the Elizabethan PH)

27/10/2025

Love that this happened. Saw Charles with Cannonball Adderley at Finsbury Park Astoria and Jack with Miles Davis in Antibes on a Melidy Maker trip.

Out of the blue sometime in 1965, Jack called me... "I want to play with you, man." I had not heard him play yet and was told he was "from the street" and would be too loud. Eventually, we met up and early in 1966 the quartet with Keith, Jack, and Cecil coalesced with a concert at the Left Bank Jazz Society in Baltimore - a spectacular galaxy opened up. Our first recording "Dream Weaver" came out in 1966. Jack DeJohnette was a natural, intuitive musician and a great, great drummer. I'll take the street he comes from any day of the year. Jack brought the street and his own inner, very personal, purposeful vision to every sound he made. Always for the greater good of the Universe. He was a Master. My condolences to Lydia and his family. Barche Lamsel dear friend. Om shanti shanti shantihi

Photo: Tallinn 1967
Jack DeJohnette

16/09/2025

Torrington Music
LEGENDS; Dick Jordan, Roland Kirk, Malcolm Cecil, Tubby Hayes.
I'm loving Barnet Music posts re venues, young bands, but here's a memory;
Dick Jordan, the legendary promoter, ran Klooks Kleek, at the Railway Hotel in West Hampstead. Over the years, he put on many top guys including Roland Kirk and Coleman Hawkins. He also promoted Elton John and Roland Kirk at the Country Club, Hampstead. I went to both Kirk gigs and was greatly impressed by this great man who died not much older that did Tubby. Roland could play several instruments at once and after a massive stroke, he could still play two horns using one side of his body. The next week I didn't have the readies, only £1, I remember, so didn't go to Klooks Kleek to see the ageing Hawkins. In Belfast, I saw Louis Armstrong blow in a boxing ring stage at the Kings Hall but inexplicably missed out when Sidney Bechet came over with Humph. I didn't get another chance. Not going to see one's heroes is, I would suggest, usually, if not always a mistake.
Once when I saw Kirk at The Marquee (then still a jazz gig on Oxford Street), he was playing magnificently in front of a trio whose bass player was Malcolm Cecil, later founder of the BBC Electronic Workshop and writer of the Doctor Who theme. The gig was really kicking off and Kirk had played all his instruments often together, tenor, stritch and manzello (the latter two being antique instruments he found 'after hearing them in a dream'. This blind colossus often punctuated his playing by sticking a nose flute up a nostril to emit a blast while dancing around in kaftan and beads.
There didn't seem to be much else he could do to heighten the performance. However, he felt his way around the stage until he could grab the double bass. He then pressed it above his head. The enjoyable tension of the audience turned to horror as the bridge of the bass crumpled as it contacted the rather low ceiling.
Malcolm, to his credit, ensured that the show went on - he moved on to a little moog he had rigged up for special effects. I don't suppose Roland even knew what happened until the gig was over.
Tubby Hayes and Roland recorded together a couple of times. I thought it was on We Free Kings, but I need this verified by some more knowledgeable discographer.
Somewhat awkwardly, this leads me to my Tubby Hayes story:-
At The Torrington, we used to put Tubbys on as a quartet, but also as a big band. I've discovered that the sound guy we hired at the time, has unearthed some tapes that have been issued as 'Rumpus'. Must buy it. This March, my old partner, David Rudland and I, having just met up again after 30 years, went to see a new film on Tubby at Regent Street Cinema 'A Man in A Hurry'. It was put together by a non-jazz film buff who didn't know Tubby when he was alive. Simon Spillet did some wonderful research work for it but again had not known him. Had we been contacted we could have related this:-
At Tubby's funeral at Golders Green Crematorium, the place was packed, the weather was hot, even stifling and the mood was sombre. I was there with David Rudland alongside Annie Ross (of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross), who I often drove home from Ronnies, sometimes 'tired and emotional', to outside her flat in West Hampstead.' To cut to the chase: After the eulogy and just before the casket was about to go into the flames (it was still like that then), a blackbird swooped in through an open window, sat on the edge of the casket and sang for about 20 seconds. As the casket moved towards the flames, it unerringly flew out the same window. Instinctively, everyone hugged the person next to them and there really wasn't a dry eye in the place; but it was so fitting. I checked the veracity of my story with Dave and bassist Jim Richardson last week, thinking maybe I had dreamed it all. Jim verified it exactly as I remembered it, then followed it with a PhIl Seamen story; but that's for another day and I'll have to censor it.
Comments
Dave Cox
Dave Cox. Tubby Hayes died in 1973 aged 38. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubby_Hayes
Edward Brian "Tubby" Hayes (30 January 1935[1] – 8 June 1973)[
Michael Griffin Wonderful memory! Phil Seamen. There's a character. Taught Ginger Baker.
Norman Price That's a lovely story, George. can't wait for the Phil Seamen one!

Edward Brian "Tubby" Hayes (30 January 1935[1] – 8 June 1973)[2] was a British jazz multi-instrumentalist, best known for his virtuosic musicianship on tenor saxophone and for performing in jazz groups with fellow sax player Ronnie Scott and trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar.[3] He is widely considered to b...

09/09/2025

Barnet Bee
·
Torrington Music
A few music based stories from old jazzer, Barnet Bee.
(I’m writing it down before I forget it all)
This story pre-dates The Torrington, but indicates how music influences us; well, at least, me. Once, when in Isle of Man, under canvas with the Scouts, I went AWOL to see two musical acts at the Villa Marina in Douglas: Lonnie Donegan: he had already left Barber and drafted in Denny Wright on guitar, still skiffle, but very influential, probably guiding many of us towards the blues and The Johnny Dankworth Orchestra: J.D.’s showcase was 'Three Blind Mice', with his band playing in the styles of Woody Herman, Stan Kenton and Gerry Mulligan, maybe a very early example of a tribute band. It was the first time I'd seen a first-rate big band and I was mightily impressed.
Some five years afterwards, having moved to London, I used to see the Dankworth band during their Sunday eve residency at The Marquee, then in Oxford Street below London Dance Studios. Their tenor sax player was Art Ellefson, the altoist, Bob Burns and Ronnie Ross was the baritone player. These were my favourites and I hired them in '68 when I started running the Torrington. John D himself played superbly on clarinet and alto but it was never quite ballsy enough for me.
After a few years, The John Williams Big Band succeeded Dankworth there and there were often visiting Americans filling the 45 minute guest spot between the band’s two sets. They may well have been on tour with, say Duke Ellington, or at Ronnie’s (which ran every night except Sunday). I was at that time working (in my day job) with John William’s second alto player, so all our gang were ‘honoured guests’, able to get in Sunday nights for free - what a gas. We saw Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Cat Anderson, Roland Kirk and many other Americans, also home-grown Kenny Baker and Humph, always good value. At that time the fashion was big overcoats and trilby hats. One night, thus attired, we entered just as a dance was coming to an end, All six of us, walked over to the bandstand to say 'Hello' to my mate in the band, Julian and his girlfriend Helen May Stripp on first alto (can you believe that name?), Suddenly everything went very quiet, someone screamed then a glass broke. The floor cleared in a flash and everyone ran for cover, some diving under tables. In time-honoured tradition the band soon struck up again and tension very quickly evaporated.
I guess everyone was a bit jumpy just after the Jack Spot murder and a few were particularly on edge. I guess they thought the Krays or Richardsons had come to create trouble. Bandsmen later said that they had never seen anything like it, but coming from Belfast, we had; while playing gigs in ‘The Seamen’s Mission’ later immortalised by Van as ‘The Maritime Hotel’.
Probably the reason why we were late that night, was that the craic was grand in the pub round the corner, (The Coach and Horses I think). It was run by two gay chaps; Jimmy, who when asked what he wanted to drink always said 'a shillingsworth of gin' and filled his glass and; Charles when he thought there was enough in (usually only us and a few cronies) used to say 'Shut that fu**ing door' meaning ‘lock it’. We did - so no one else was allowed in, at all. I'm certain that originated Larry Grayson’s catchphrase, minus the expletive, on the BBC’s Palladium show.

09/09/2025

This is one of my favourite memories which I may have put on Barnet Music. A GIG WORTH REMEMBERING. In 1969/70 I ran other gigs as well as The Torrington. One hot Wednesday night when I was running The Phoenix in Cavendish Square, the house was full, but there was no sign of front man Harold McNair, wonderful West Indian flautist and tenor player. The Ed Faultless trio was trying to keep the crowd in place and Ed was sweating buckets. When I eventually got through to Harold's wife, she said he couldn't play that night - he was distraught because his cat had died that day. I jumped in the VW and shot round the BBC Broadcast Theatre just off Piccadilly, parked illegally outside and met Humph coming out. I gasped out the problem. He said that he couldn't really do it as it was a fairly modern jazz venue. His trombonist Malcolm Griffiths, quite a modernist, reckoned he couldn't hold the crowd on trombone for the whole gig, but he told me that Tubby Hayes was drinking in the Blue Posts. I knew there were at least two Blue Posts in the area and having drawn a blank in the first one I found Tubbs in the second, surrounded by a group of admirers,him telling some fantastic tale (as was his wont). It was late, I was desperate so didn't think twice, I broke in and stuttered out that I had a full house and McNair had let me down. 'Quiet you - I'll deal with that in a minute'. He then finished his lurid tale and with everyone hooting and falling about, instructed his manager, Don Norman, to shoot back to the BBC to pick up his horn, then ran with me to the car, jumped in beside me and high as a kite, started shouting abuse at the hippies as I drove around Eros and we reached The Phoenix in double quick time. He embraced the girl on the desk, and when Don Norman arrived with his horn he kissed every girl in the hall, at the same time as he was putting together his horn.
He broke seamlessly into what Ed's trio was playing and didn't stop for an hour and a half, moving from one tune to the next as the trio struggled to keep up. At the end Alan Berry was slumped over the piano and big Ed and drummer Dick Brennan were lying on the floor. The applause didn't die down for ten minutes. God bless you Tubby.
Past comments on early Barnet Music F.B. page.
Peter Jenkins Great story Amazing times