Book review: Duncan Heining - And Did Those Feet, Six British Jazz Composers

Duncan Heining has been writing about jazz for nearly 30 years now and, it must be said, he is very good at it. This new work is a set of extended portraits of Michael Garrick, Barry Guy, Mike Gibbs, John Mayer, Keith Tippett and Mike Westbrook and it not only provides biographical detail on each but also sets their work in a musical, cultural and social context. The detailed analysis of their major contributions to British jazz also teaches us how to listen to the works in question.

Most of the works Heining focuses on were recorded in the sixties and seventies which was a time when British (and European) jazz was breaking away from the music’s purely American origins and these musicians were amongst those who sought to combine the jazz they loved with other sources to create something particularly British. Indeed, Mayer would combine jazz with the classical music of both India and Europe.  It was a time of very ambitious creations involving, in many cases, large ensembles and there is a thread of energetic optimism running through the writing. Whilst the landscape for the music in the UK has changed dramatically since then the idea of combining jazz with music from other parts of the world from beyond America has grown to the point where jazz in the UK now fuses African, Caribbean, Urban, electronica, dub and hip-hop themes (to name just a few). This is the legacy that these six (and others) created.

I got to meet a couple of the characters discussed and it is Michael Garrick that stands out as a genial, unassuming man to talk to but what a great and imaginative composer.

For anyone with an interest in the music of this era, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The first 1000 copies come with a 2 CD set of recordings by the six composers and at £20 that makes it a real bargain. It is available from the Jazz in Britain web page Dave Sayer

Published by Jazz in Britain. (ISBN: 978-1-9163206-6-6)