BOBBY MAKES LIGHT WORK (OF PRETTY WELL EVERYTHING)

High time we got back to the history of my musical experiences with the wee Glaswegian genius.

Last time (the Musing “RARA AVIS”), I told the story of the composing, performances, recording (and funding!) of Bobby’s suite THE ENDANGERED SPECIES which morphed into BIRDS OF BRAZIL.

That took us roughly to the end of 1982. Before looking ahead however, I do have one other gig from the Autumn of 82 which sticks in my memory.

A fairly wild multiple gig was organised at the 100 CLUB to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the death of the legendary PHIL SEAMEN. (He had of course died in October 1972 – about sixth months before his close musical associate Tubby Hayes – at the tragically early age of 46, having lived life to unimaginable excess!) For more on the great Phil, go back to the Musing “(VERY) ABLE SEAMEN”.

Anyway, I can’t now recall who else played on the 100 club gig (very probably John Stevens & co) but my set was with BOBBY, PETER KING,  STAN TRACEY, DAVE  GREEN and BRYAN SPRING.

I don’t like dual drums, which lead to jousting drums and I was quite in awe of Bryan’s 6-hours-practice-a-day fearsome chops and technique. But he was happy to do an exhibition bout of soloing and I was equally happy just to play in the ensemble and it all worked out rather well.

1983. The quartet continued to gig around with Pete Jacobson on piano and Kenny Baldock on bass. We did a week at the CANTEEN in Covent Garden with veteran American trumpeter Howard McGhee and I have told the story (see the Musing “PUT UP BALDOCK……TAKE HIM DOWN”) of how Ken donned a chauffeur’s uniform to drive us to the club.

Among other dates and broadcasts, we played the Camden Jazz Festival at the Round House and in October we had the opportunity to do a live recording under unlikely circumstances.

Bobby was asked to provide the music at a promotional shindig held in the London showroom of a German lighting company called Erco. He clearly didn’t think the occasion justified another suite so, as I recall, we performed a number of Bobby’s familiar originals masquerading under titles such as Erco makes light work, Visionaire, Logotec logarhythm, Track sound and Downright downlight.

Happily the proceedings were recorded by Pete Bould and a now very rare lp entitled ERCO MAKES LIGHT WORK was pressed for in-house distribution among the Erco sales force. There has subsequently been a commercial CD release (with extra tracks including, inevitably, I’m beginning to see the light) retitled simply MAKING LIGHT WORK on the HEP JAZZ label.

My 1984 diary show simply more gigs and broadcasts (one augmented by the excellent trumpeter Dick Pearce) by the same quartet.

1985 saw a welcome series of Sunday lunchtime gigs hosted by Bobby in the “Bognor Regis Centre”, on his home doorstep. I used to come over from Brighton each week with my wife and two small daughters who would have great fun chasing round the entire town hall building while the band performed in one room.

For these gigs, a very (perhaps I should say “even more”) youthful looking Andy Cleyndert played bass with either Alan Branscombe or Brian Dee on piano and front line guests including Art Themen, Jim Mullen, Roy Williams and Bill Le Sage.

An endearing shot of ALAN BRANSCOMBE and BOBBY WELLINS at the Bognor Regis centre 1985

Towards the end of the year, for a month or two the usual quartet was joined by New York trumpeter CHRIS ALBERT who I believe had played with Horace Silver or Art Blakey or both and went on to become a member of the recreated Ellington band. He and Bobby made a great front line.

In 1986, we were operating quite a bit as a quintet with JIM MULLEN joining Bobby, Pete J, now Andy Cleyndert in place of Baldock, and me.

The repertoire was expanded to include new originals to showcase the guitar: Silent waves, Blueprint, Pyramid which Jim wrote as a feature for, and salute to, Pete Jacobson and The swirl – a Bobby tune dedicated to my quarter size snooker table which, although it had a slate bed, caused the ball to “swirl” disconcertingly and fail to reach the pocket for which it had been firmly on course.

In September, when we had an evening gig at the BULL’S HEAD, Dave Bennett brought his recording equipment down in the afternoon and taped seven titles in several takes. This recording has never seen the light of day but, if Dave agrees, I might put some bits up on the Music page.

We’ll call it a day there for now. In the next BOBBY WELLINS reminiscence, I’ll move on to the days of an inspired but alas short lived line-up with JONATHAN GEE on piano and CHRIS LAURENCE on bass and maybe get as far as the inception of the final great quartet which lasted right up until Bobby’s death, copiously and brilliantly recorded by ANDY CLEYNDERT and featuring him and the soulful, expressive genius MARK EDWARDS on piano………………………..

B