BRUSHES! STICKS! ACTION!

I was always rather in awe of pianist COLIN PURBROOK who died just over 20 years ago at the early age of 62.

He had a fearsome reputation for barking out orders for drummers to switch from brushes to sticks or vice versa, not leaving the artistic choice to their own discretion, and for generally policing their accompaniment of him. He was very hard on anyone who speeded up or slowed down. Because a meticulous sense of dynamics and of timekeeping were hallmarks of his own playing, as was the most exquisite touch on the keys. As Humph put it, Colin’s solos floated light as air and his canny ‘comping’ was the best in the business.

He made his name on the London jazz scene in the late 50s and early 60s.

I nearly met him when I was at university in 1965. Pianist Lionel Grigson was coming to play with guest soloist Duncan Lamont and blithely announced that he was going to bring Colin Purbrook on bass. I didn’t even know that Colin played bass (he had apparently done so with Sandy Brown’s band and others) and I confess it crossed my mind that I wished Colin was going to be on piano. In the event, he did not appear at all and Lionel brought the excellent bassist Tony Bayliss.

I did meet Colin as soon as I left university in 1968. This was through Tony Coe with whom I had become friends and who was determined to use me on drums as soon as I moved to London.

In the summer of that year (I joined the Tubby Hayes quartet in the late autumn), there were some great gigs with Tony and Colin and bassist Kenny Baldock, sometimes plus John Picard on trombone. I loved this modern-mainstream bag (I would soon spend a year with Humph’s band) and one of my favourite records of all time is Swingin’ till the girls come home by the Tony Coe quintet including Colin recorded back in 1962.

Baldock and I instantly hit it off. We would of course play together again later on in the Bobby Wellins quartet – see the musing “Put up Baldock”. Colin seemed to like my playing, which was a very pleasant surprise.

So a trio sprung up with Colin using Ken and me which did a weekly gig at a Paddington pub for a few months and got work at the BBC: several Jazz Club broadcasts and also more commercial Late Night Extra sets for Radio 2 when we played “easy listening” Purbrook titles like the politically incorrect Poova Nova……………

In 1968/1969, he was living in a bedsitter and I believe had at one point strategically declared himself bankrupt to deal with an excess of debts because, to my surprise, the first time I visited him there, there was nothing to be seen except his piano and a Ferrograph tape recorder. “They’re not allowed to take the tools of your trade”, he explained knowingly.

Earlier in the decade, Colin had been one of a number of musicians living in a chaotic kind of commune in a house in Fawley Road, West Hampstead. Humph used to say that, if you called round at 2o’clock in the afternoon, the occupants would all be spark out snoring, mouths agape, after the previous night’s party in a scene resembling an 18th century Hogarth cartoon of the demi-monde.

It would be an understatement that Colin liked a drink and it is fair to say that this could make him aggressive. But he was mainly very funny when drunk. As he held forth in his high-pitched rasping voice, he would point a declamatory finger at you and wag his head with its Julius Caesar-style hair brushed forward.

I’ll never forget a night at Ronnie’s in the basement bar where musicians hung out between sets. Colin was regaling us with stories and eventually remembered he needed to make a phone call from the coin box at the top of the stairs. “I say, anybody got tuppence? I’m going public!” he announced portentously.

Fast forward to the 1980s. (This is a personal memoir, not a biography and I am not trying to cover the considerable achievements of Colin’s career – like carrying out the role of MD for the long-running West End hit Bubbling brown sugar or scoring the film All night long with Charlie Mingus).

In 1984, I formed my own quartet with altoist Geoff Simkins and Geoff and I were both delighted when Colin agreed to be the pianist. I was also thrilled to have the ubiquitous Dave Green on bass. We did a couple of BBC Jazz Club broadcasts and a number of gigs.

Manchester promoter Ernie Garside was bringing over an array of American soloists at the time and these included the revered flugelhornist Art Farmer. The first gig I did with Art was at the Strathallan hotel in Birmingham. I tried not to get in his way and kept it down. He kept turning round and glaring at me. I withdrew even more into my shell.

In the interval, I asked him what the problem was and he said he loved what I was doing but wished I would play out more and let rip. I had no idea that he had become quite deaf by that time. From that moment, we got on really well and he always asked Ernie to get me on drums whenever I was available. In the end, Art played several gigs with the quartet including Colin which was a real thrill.

Colin had stopped drinking a while back but he still liked to be a few inches off the ground. When he had a gig in Brighton, he would always make sure he arrived with an impressive cigarette case full of ready-rolled joints. We would often retire at the end of the evening to my basement where in those days I had a quarter size snooker table. Colin loved to play frame after frame and smoke (never over the table)………..

I did a few more broadcasts with his octet and trio but sadly lost contact with him after 1986.

Towards the end of his life, I know he did a lot of work on a recording studio. He also made a final trio album (recorded by Andy Cleyndert) at Wavendon stables with Andy on bass and Colin Oxley on guitar. That was three years before his untimely death from cancer.

I am so grateful that I was able to work regularly with Colin at the beginning of my career and again in the 1980s. I just love his playing. It is so musical. Delicate but firm and fiercely swinging.

I have added to the top of the playlist on the Music page this week no fewer than four items featuring Colin Purbrook. Do check them out.