Album review: Soho Scene ’58 Jazz Goes Mod

A double CD package featuring British modernists and their American counterparts. The British, make that ‘Soho’, modernists of the time, including John Dankworth, Tubby Hayes, Don Rendell and Ronnie Scott, are represented in various combinations on disc one (15 tracks), the Americans are heard on disc two (14 tracks), Donald Byrd a notable exception, appearing on a London Blue Note recording session in August 1958.

The BSH reader will know all about Art Blakey, Kenny Burrell, Bill Evans and Horace Silver, with classic recordings in various formats sitting on shelves, perhaps gathering dust. Is the music heard on one disc better than the other? No. Is one disc more interesting than the other? Yes.

A particularly striking track features Jamaican born Dizzy Reece, at the time a key figure on the London jazz scene, locking horns with fellow trumpeter, American Donald Byrd. It could be said Reece doesn’t come off second best! What’s more, the track in question, all ten minutes of Reece’s Close-Up, features Tubby Hayes in blistering form.

The British recordings include pianists Alan Clare, Terry Shannon and Harry South, saxophonists Derek Humble, Ronnie Ross and Ronnie Scott, and trumpeters Bert Courtley, Jimmy Deuchar and Dickie Hawdon.

For the listener who wasn’t around at the time and is yet to be a dedicated collector of British jazz recordings, Soho Scene ’58 is an excellent introduction to the many top class musicians working this side of the Atlantic, the Americans requiring little in the way of introduction. Soho Scene ’58 Jazz Goes Mod (RnB Records RANDB079) with an insightful essay written by Simon Spillett, is available via the link below. Russell

www.rhythmandbluesrecords.co.uk.