My initial memory of hearing Tony Coe was with the first great Lyttelton band. The band with Coe, Jimmy Skidmore and Joe Temperley on saxes. I heard them at a concert in London, somewhere near Covent Garden. This was back in the late 1950s. I'd gone to the concert expecting to hear some New Orleans' jazz and came away in what was an almost Damascus moment! I particularly recall their version of In a Mellotone and, most of all, the sax solos, plus of course Humph's humorous announcements and, to a lesser extent, his trumpet playing.
I heard Tony many times again on record, with Humph and with the Clarke-Boland Big Band - How I'd have loved to have heard that band live.
However, the next time I actually heard Tony Coe live, and you gotta believe this, was at the Rising Sun pub on the Coast Road in Wallsend.
Coe was there along with Ian Carr, John Stevens and other names along with local luminaries such as Nigel and Germaine Stanger. The photo shows Coe blowing clarinet at that April 1981 session. I'm not quite sure how or why they all came to be jamming in that pub which, at the time, was considered a bit 'dodgy' but it was, nevertheless, one of those memorable nights.
Tony Coe, you were an inspiration to all musicians irrespective of instrument or genre. May you rest in peace with the knowledge that your music touched so many people. Lance
1 comment :
He was a terrific player on all of his instruments, especially clarinet and tenor - seemingly effortless improvisations with a great sound and technique. The edition of the Clarke/Boland Band that I first saw on telly back in the sixties was the one with Derek Humble on alto, Johnny Griffin, Ronnie Scott and Tony Coe on tenors, and Sahib Shihab on baritone. Now THAT was a saxophone section! R.I.P., and to quote the late Carlisle drummer George Mitchell-Hill , "thank you for your music".
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