Over the years I have had the great good fortune to play with some bona fide jazz legends during their visits to Britain. Unfortunately very little recorded evidence exists to bear this out, but here is a bit of glorious, high fidelity, BBC outside broadcast audio recorded at the Concorde Club, Eastleigh.
I had only been in London about two years at this point, but had had the good fortune to come to the attention of legendary bassist Jim Richardson. Jim was a great talent spotter and not long after our initial meeting he got me roped in to play a fundraiser for Barney Kessell at the 100 Club. This benefit was organised by jazz agent Robert Masters, and some months later when a number of dates on the Gibbs/DeFranco tour needed covering, I got the call. Luckily that included the broadcast date, and I'll leave it to the dulcet tones of Digby Fairweather to introduce the band.
Listening to this for the first time since 1996 I find the 'clapometer' interesting. Note, at the conclusion of my trade chorus with Buddy and Terry the truly lukewarm reception from the audience. It's not to do with the quality of the playing because it's fine. It's much more to do with the 'never heard of him effect', as my lifelong quest for obscurity was far more successful back then than it is now.
More music from this session coming soon.
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