Secret valediction: Charles Rennie Mackintosh's 'Cyclamens', by Catherine Beaumont

Charles Rennie Mackintosh is an icon of design - his style is unmistakable and his name synonymous with art nouveau.

Born in Glasgow in 1868, Mackintosh had a prolific output of work throughout his life across many spheres, from designing some of the most influential architecture of the 20th century to creating a whole new language of interior décor in everything from stained glass to textiles, from art schools to high backed chairs; but Mackintosh is little known as the gifted painter that he was.

Painted between 1922 and 1923, 'Cyclamens' breaks with Mackintosh's iconic stylised designs, being a vivid yet realist piece that looks more like oil than its true medium of airy watercolour. The giveaway of this painting's origin is the artist's delight in pattern and surface design, the rich swathes of crimson backdrop here resembling a Mackintosh textile swatch. The piece is a melting pot of organic abstraction, even the cyclamen leaves contorting with pattern until reality is reasserted by the stark white blooms. The deep background makes the pure petals shine like silver on a dark Scottish winter night, yet the picture was painted in southern light, Mackintosh having fled from Glasgow to London.

It seems there may be a deeper, symbolic meaning to what appears to be simply a decorative still life... Mackintosh was part of a group of likeminded artists and designers in Glasgow known as 'the Four', the others being the designer Herbert McNair and the artist sisters Margaret and Frances Macdonald.

'Sleeping Princess' by Frances Macdonald 1909 - image: Wikipedia

The group were bound together not only by work but also in their personal relationships, Margaret becoming Mackintosh's wife and Frances marrying Herbert McNair. Also named the 'Spook School' for their eerily elongated style, their use of Celtic imagery bled into their paintings and decorative style, drawing from the natural world like botanists.

Within the wider association known as the Glasgow School, they were also part of a slightly larger circle called “The Immortals”:

Left: Charles Rennie Mackintosh surrounded by Frances Macdonald, Agnes Rayburn, 

Janet Aitken, Katherine Cameron, Jessie Keppie and Margaret Macdonald. 

Right: Herbert McNair and Mackintosh in front of the 'Immortals' c.1893 

(c) Glasgow School of Art archives

The swooning virginal petals of Mackintosh's cyclamens remind one of 'the Immortals' as they appear in early photographs, languorously nymph-like in Edwardian white dresses set against open Scottish fields. The petals of the two upper cyclamens touch as though in reluctant parting, like the hands of Janet Aitken and Katherine Cameron.

The year before 'Cyclamens' was painted Frances Macdonald, Margaret's sister had died. Her husband Herbert McNair was distraught, vowing never to paint again and burning most of his wife's work. Looking at the piece in this context, one wonders if Mackintosh might have been alluding to the loss of Frances from the Immortals - cyclamens are one of the few plants to flower during the cruelest months of winter, defying cold death with their white buds, and signalling new life. The Four's delight in Celtic imagery and symbolism allows room for such an interpretation, especially bearing in mind Victorian flower language, where cyclamen means resignation and 'goodbye’.

Detail of 'Cyclamens', 1922-23 overlaying 'the Immortals' (Glasgow School of Art archives) c. 1893

However, another farewell may be intended. 'Cyclamens' was painted two or three years after Mackintosh’s final unrealised designs for studios in Chelsea, his last completed commission having been six years earlier with the dark, jazz-age remodelling of 78 Derngate, Northampton. Perhaps it is not so much an allegory of the lost immortals, of Frances' death and McNair's dissolution, but instead the end of Mackintosh's prolific career and artistic vision. The parting touch may be a symbol of Mackintosh's defeat, closing the door with sadness on his past magnificent success before moving to the South of France, living there in poverty for the last of his days and never realising another large-scale project.

We can only guess at the enigma of Mackintosh's true meaning in this piece, knowing only that it's decorative allure is not as elusive as its symbolism. 'Cyclamens' brings Mackintosh's career to its crescendo as both artist and designer, with a creative output that could never die, like the dancing cyclamen blooms and the beaming eyes of 'the Immortals'.

Left to right; Textile designs, stylised daisies, purple on black, c1922; 78 Derngate, Northampton, 'Faded Roses' watercolour 1905
(c) The 78 Derngate Northampton Trust - see http://78derngate.org.uk/ for more

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Sackerson adds -

David Walsh, Assistant Manager at The Charles Rennie Mackintosh House, says:

"This is our Centenary Year and we have a special exhibition "Charles Rennie Mackintosh & The Great War" - ( 78derngate.org.uk/whatson , ) - the largest display of Mackintosh design in England, until 29th April. If you or readers are able to visit, a warm welcome awaits."

Sunday Music: Trumpet Voluntary, by Wiggia

The first of what would be considered modern jazz recordings featuring a lead trumpet would be during the period ‘49 to ‘51 and featured Kenny Dorham, Fats Navarro, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. The Davis album Morpheus, Whispering Down was his first of many for the Prestige label and only his second as leader, the beginning of a long influential career.

The Trumpet or Cornet was always the front line instrument in early jazz and ditto here in the early days of modern jazz, not so much nowadays with the saxophone more prominent in most groups.

For a start we have the wonderful soft lyrical style of Fats Navarro, this is a ‘47 version of a tune he was always associated with:



Fats was a pioneer of the be bop style and after a touring start to his career where he learned the ropes he settled in NY. His career was short as was his life despite success with many big bands, becoming a life long friend with Mingus and playing with Charlie Parker amongst others. Given poor health, TB, a weight problem and the inevitable drug addiction of that period of time he died in 1950 at the age of 27.

Much longer lived and a flag waver for jazz of all kinds world wide was one of the other founders of be bop Dizzy Gillespie, his puff cheeks and 45 degree trumpet horn became a trade mark that was instantly recognised everywhere plus a personality that meant he was in much demand.

His style was not an easy one to emulate and few did but his influence was enormous both on the trumpet and be bop. Davis, Navarro, Lee Morgan, Clifford Brown right up to the modern day were all influenced by Dizzy who himself took much from Roy Eldridge and then over layered it with his own harmonic complexity. Born in 1917 he went on to have a sixty year playing career, he saw it all and played with all during his life; a true jazz great.

This recording of A Night in Tunisia is as good a showcase of his skills as any available on download sites. The tune, a Gillespie composition, was written by him whilst with the Earl Hines band in ‘42. Around that time he had this to say about the evolution of modern jazz….

Gillespie said of the Hines band, "People talk about the Hines band being 'the incubator of bop' and the leading exponents of that music ended up in the Hines band. But people also have the erroneous impression that the music was new. It was not. The music evolved from what went before. It was the same basic music. The difference was in how you got from here to here to here ... naturally each age has got its own shit".



Miles Davis along with Gillespie could occupy several pages on their own and I may come back to a better tribute to them later if demand requires. Davis epitomises “cool jazz” from his earliest work; that easily recognisable style was instantly recognised whether live or on record over a five decade period. He embarked on several changes of direction during those years including flirting with rock and funk fusion, African rhythms and electronic technology. Much of his later work had a rather dubious connection to jazz and many stalwarts of the genre deserted him, yet his fusion album Bitches Brew was a huge commercial success as was much of his rock tinged music and certainly brought him more universal appeal and income.

You can make your own mind up about those later years, but regardless he remains one of the pillars of be bop and a great innovator as well as a superb trumpeter.

His early years are somewhat fragmented so as this is not a Miles bio I will skip through his early fifties period when he played Europe and France in particular as many black musicians did, being relieved of the racism back home they often stayed, and his association with the actress Juliette Greco whom after he split from her he blamed for his subsequent depression and four years of heroin addiction .

Back in the states ‘56 saw the release of the album “Birth of the Cool” and cool jazz was launched, a style he would successfully be associated with for some years.

At the same time in those early to mid fifties several albums of importance were released on Prestige and later Blue Note that firmly put him in the vanguard of hard bop. Using slower tempos and a less radical approach it was his first step away from cool jazz as well as be bop.

Here is an early Miles playing a masterful version of So What. From the opening chorus it could only be one musician. This was tremendous trumpet playing and what all jazz lovers wanted to hear from Miles.



And this from ‘64 On Green Dolphin Street with John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Cobb on drums and Bill Evans on piano, not a bad line up !



I will return to Miles at a later date.

Clifford Brown “Brownie” was another with a short life in music and on planet Earth: he died in ‘56 at the age of 25 after a car accident yet still left a legacy of four years of recording and a lot of influence to many who followed including Donald Byrd, Booker Little, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard and more lately Arturo Sandoval. His composition Daahoud became a jazz standard.

Daahoud is here performed in ‘54 by “Brownie” and the Max Roach quintet.



Lee Morgan achieved fame through his album “Sidewinder” a sort of cross over album, a theme he toyed with and indulged in for some time but he went back to Art Blakey where he is fondly remembered as one of the stars of the Jazz Messengers at that time. He is another who left this mortal coil far too young at the age of 33, not drugs this time, though he was an addict, he died of his injuries when his long term girlfriend shot him at Slugs Saloon where he was playing and he bled to death as the ambulance could not get there in time owing to adverse weather conditions!

Sidewinder:



Freddie Hubbard is another from that era that found fame and recognition after joining Blakey's Messengers in ‘61 replacing Lee Morgan. He left Blakey in ‘66 and started to form his own groups and developed his own sound, distancing himself from Morgan and Clifford Brown, and he was a sideman on several very important albums during the sixties.

His early seventies albums, Red Clay brought him commercial success and acclaim but his later seventies albums were slated for their commercialism. This is a 1970 recording from the album Straight Life, Mr Clean with a stellar line up shown in the credits.



Whatever one does when putting something like this together it is as said before inevitable that many just as worthy are left out, many will be featured in further episodes with groups bands etc so will not be totally forgotten, but the likes of Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, Don Cherry etc etc should be here but space does not permit.

However one or two others I will include to bring the section more up to date. Tom Harrell is one of my personal favourites: born in ‘46 makes him positively adolescent in the general scheme of those on here yet has been around some time, he started playing trumpet at eight and joined Kenton after studying at Stanford University and receiving a degree in music composition. He toured with Kenton that year, ‘69 and joined Woody Herman for the following year and then Horace Silvers quintet from 73 – 77 during which time he made five albums with them. He joined or played with various bands until he joined Phil Woods in ‘83 through to ‘87. He made seven albums with Woods and many others with various groups and a few as leader in his own right but it was after leaving Woods that his own groups came to the fore.

His latter years have shown his skill as an arranger composer more and more and many ventures outside the strictly jazz only world have involved chamber music and ensembles with classical tones, and as an arranger Harrell works in many different genres including classical. Naturally I prefer the earlier jazz work and this more current number, Miles Davis's Milestones in 2011:



Many who know of modern jazz will wonder why I have not finished with Wynton Marsalis or Arturo Sandoval.

The latter is not in my HO truly a jazz trumpeter despite his incredible technique; I have been, and I may be wrong, but I never heard anything I could truly say fits in with my view of what jazz is. Probably my loss but there you go.

As for Marsalis, he is another who has run the full gamut of genres but much of his work does not again fit in with what you could really ascribe to being jazz. He certainly did in his earlier days but very little of that is available on video. However he can’t be really left out as he is one of today's leading lights in music - education, arranging and everything else, so I did find a video that in all honesty is only a bit part for Wynton but gives a wonderful excuse for showing the Jazz Messengers and Art Blakey at Antibes in 1980 with Wynton on trumpet in another reincarnation of the Messengers line up:

Say, Dr . "J" - Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers in Antibes (France) from Wynton Marsalis on Vimeo.

I show a personal bias with Marsalis, a wonderful technician who can play in almost any genre, and does, plus his teaching and arranging skills. He has it all, yet for me rarely holds my interest, why I cannot explain, it is just the way it is. Anyway, not to be hasty and upset his legions I include a final item by him, the piece and personnel are in the credits:

Friday Night Is Music Night: Denez Prigent, by JD

Denez Prigent is a Breton folk singer who gained a much wider audience after appearing at Transmusicales de Rennes in 1992:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rencontres_Trans_Musicales 

"France’s premier seen-them-here-first festival, Transmusical de Rennes sweeps through the genre spectrum from rock, pop and folk to RnB, hip-hop and electronic music, picking up cartloads of gems year after year."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denez_Prigent

http://www.denez.fr/









[The song 'Copsa Mica' refers to a town in Romania which is said to be the most polluted town in Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop%C8%99a_Mic%C4%83]

ART: The use of paint in paintings, by JD

As a follow on from this recent post - http://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/three-art-teachers.html, a few thoughts on paints and painting.

This first painting is a copy of Goya's "El Quitasol" which I did more than thirty years ago. I used Winsor & Newton oil paints and, as you can see, the colours are clear and vibrant. It is about A4 size on canvas-textured paper suitable for oil painting. It has been stuck to the wall with blu-tack for the last twenty years!

This is the original by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, in the Prado Museum in Madrid:

Prado weblink: https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obra-de-arte/el-quitasol/a230a80f-a899-4535-9e90-ad883bd096c5?searchid=dceab6ec-cb0a-414b-dab7-1aa2e5143c1c

Wikipedia's copy: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parasol#/media/File:El_Quitasol_(Goya).jpg

Obviously I am nowhere near as good as Goya but I am pleased with my effort and it is surprising how much you can learn just by copying one of the masters.

As stated previously, real life tends to get in the way and I was drawing and painting intermittently and then, with a bit more spare time, I was able to paint on a regular basis with some expert tutelage to help me along the way.

This time I was using watercolour paints and eventually settled on Van Gogh watercolours in tubes because, once again, it gave me the vibrant colours. (W/colour in tubes can also be applied more thickly, which I like to do now and then) Here's a sample. It is 8" x 6" - most watercolour paintings are small scale, I think the largest pads I have are 15" x 11". If you want to know how I did the highlights on these oranges, it was done with a few dabs of gouache which is basically opaque watercolour paint.



Eventually I started to use acrylic paints as well as continuing with the watercolours. Acrylic is like oil paint but with the pigment bound in plastic (polymer) instead of oil. The advantage is that it is quick drying and the brushes can easily be cleaned in water without too much effort. Quick drying is a disadvantage also in that any paint left on the palette dries and, unlike oils, cannot be revived.

But the colours of acrylic paint are very bright and their introduction commercially in the 1950s brought a lot of new colours including iridescent and pearl and interference colours made by adding powdered mica to create unusual shimmering or reflective visual effects. (In earlier times gold leaf would be used in painting religious icons which, in flickering candlelight, would have produced similar effects.)

I have used mainly Liquitex or Winsor & Newton acrylic paints and here is a sample. It is on 8" x 8" canvas and thanks to Cherie for providing the photograph.



Eventually I came back recently to using oil paint once again. But there was something wrong this time. The colours didn't seem to be as bright as they used to be and mixing colour from the tubes they very quickly lost their sheen, becoming 'muddy' and unsatisfactory. Didn't know why until I was told that manufacturers were saving costs by reducing the amount of pigment and replacing it with some sort of filler, usually magnesium silicate. So I looked at other paints on the market and got hold of some Old Holland oils and these proved to be excellent, saturated colours I think is the right description. These little mini masterpieces are all on 2" x 2" canvases using Old Holland paint.



But Old Holland paints are not available locally and I have given up trying to buy things from the internet. It takes far too long to plough through page after page and getting a sore finger going clickety click. In reality, it is much quicker to use a catalogue and fill in the order form and post it off but the world is mesmerised by the novelty of technology and brains are now redundant. I knew that Michael Harding oil paints were available locally because I had seen them in the shop and, from what I have read and heard, they are reputed to be the best oils on the market endorsed by the likes of David Hockney and Howard Hodgkin.

On YouTube I found some demonstrations of the MH oils; this is the colour amethyst.



Very impressive so I have bought a few tubes of MH paints and have been trying them. They are indeed very good and vibrant colours. I will have to get used to their different characteristics but so far I like them and the first result is here which is also an 8" x 8" canvas -



Just a note on the colours: The background was originally indian yellow and the trees were done in pthalo blue. After a couple of days I decided it wasn't quite right, the yellow was too strong so I covered it with cadmium yellow mixed with titanium white and a wee bit of the indian yellow to give it some warmth. Then I muted the blue of the trees by going over it loosely with pthalo blue mixed with unbleached titanium. Much improved.

Not bad for a first attempt and it is currently being framed after which it will soon be hanging somewhere on my crowded walls.

I'm still learning, this is a never ending process. When I am 100, if I get that far, I might eventually know what I am doing!

Now you are probably wondering why I am so keen on bright, vibrant colours. That's easy, they remind me of heaven! That is not as daft as it sounds because throughout history most if not all religious and spiritual traditions make great use of colour in festivals and often in daily life for exactly the same reason, to remind them of heaven.

In Revelations 21 in the Bible, John describes the new Jerusalem* thus: "And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.... And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass."

The whole city is made entirely of precious stones, all glittering in 'the light'.

It is only the puritans of all creeds who want a monochrome world devoid of colour, of decoration, of ornament; all colour and life and joy removed.

*Sackerson notes: also described in the heartbreaking mediaeval poem "Pearl" - see translation here from l. 985 onwards: http://www.billstanton.co.uk/pearl/pearl_new.htm

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Refs:

Winsor & Newton http://www.winsornewton.com/uk/discover/about-us

Van Gogh watercolour paints https://www.royaltalens.com/en-gb/

Liquitex paints http://www.liquitex.com/

Old Holland oil paints http://www.oldholland.com/en/products/classic-oil-colours/

Michael Harding oil paints http://www.michaelharding.co.uk/

"EU-GB" - a writing challenge

Now that Len Deighton's "SS-GB" alternative history thriller has been screened, I'd like to challenge readers to write an outline for a different alternative history.

Imagine that PM Tony Blair had succeeded in getting the UK to ditch the pound in favour of the Euro; and some years later, the Council of Ministers finally completed its metamorphosis into the Cabinet of a new country called Europe, with a single President as its head, able to issue directives like the US President.

What (plausibly) could you see happening?

You could write it as an extract from a thriller, or as an entry from some future history book or encyclopaedia.

Shall we say, length 400 - 1200 words and a deadline of 29 March 2017 (when Article 50 is set to be triggered)?

Entries submitted as comments to this post, then reposted on 29.03.17 , as a celebration - other than that, copyright remains the writer's. Or put it on your own blog/site and let me know so I can post a link to it.

Like the idea?

Why Inflation Protection Doesn't

New Talkmarkets article here:

http://www.talkmarkets.com/content/commodities/why-inflation-protection-doesnt-gold-hyperinflation-cataclysm?post=127161&uid=4644

Sunday Music: "Rule, Britannia!" by Wiggia

A rummage through the archives for British musicians since the forties in modern jazz produces a mixed bag of results. On the home front the list is fairly well spread since that date and encompasses instrumentalists and vocalists. The difficulty comes when reviewing those who made it on the world stage or at least became recognised in the USA , recognition there being the open sesame to world fame if not riches.

Those that made it across the pond are a relatively small band which is not surprising as breaking into a music scene as a jazz musician in the states is never going to be easy when they have so much home grown talent in what has now become a niche market.

George Shearing, Sir George after being knighted at the age of 87 in 2007, was a Battersea-born Londoner. Born blind to working class parents he was the youngest of nine, and he started to play the piano at the age of three. A pub in Lambeth was his first gig and after a relatively short spell he emigrated to the USA in ‘47. Influenced by Fats Waller and Teddy Wilson, his style was almost immediately successful and he formed his own group with Buddy de Franco and then formed the George Shearing quintet.

Two hugely successful singles of his own compositions, Lullaby of Birdland and September in the Rain guaranteed a career as performer and composer for the decades to come. He also had more than a passing interest in classical music and performed with several orchestras, along with TV appearances and playing with a long list of of musicians including Mel Torme with whom he won two Grammys, and later toured with Torme in the UK, a true international star and a rarity in the jazz world.

Some of his appearances were somewhat formulaic simply because his status would demand it but he was a true jazz musician at heart with a huge appeal.



Tubby Hayes also cracked it in the states, the most accomplished all round musician we have probably produced in modern jazz, a true multi instrumentalist. He was one of those whom you put an instrument in front of and he just played it, from vibes to flute but best remembered as a tenor sax player to most.

I had the pleasure of seeing Tubby live at the old Ronnie Scotts and at the Manor House pub by the tube station of the same name in north London where jazz artists appeared on many Sunday nights.

He started out with Kenny Baker in ‘51 and soon joined various British big bands of the period including Ambrose, Vic Lewis, Roy Fox , Parnell and then formed his own octet in ‘55. In ‘57 to ‘59 he played as joint leader with Ronnie Scott in the Jazz Couriers, a fondly remembered period; an invitation to play at the Half Note club in NY in ‘61 cemented his credentials over there and he played with many across the pond luminaries and returned again to the states in ‘62, ‘64 and ‘65 when he played at Shelly Manne's Mann-Hole in Los Angeles.

Back in the UK he formed his own big band and appeared on TV in his own series and also appeared in several films as well as being a much sought after session musician.

The sixties heralded a music revolution. Jazz suffered as a consequence and Tubby felt the impact along with many others so he toured abroad as London venues had changed their musical tastes. At this time he was in a rather painful story of drugs, difficult and personal relationships (he was married twice) and there are some anecdotes. A partner of his helped him access drugs.  All created a very muddled and confused last few years, his health rapidly declined and he had breathing problems that stopped all playing at one time. He then had a heart operation that was successful but a second in ‘73 wasn’t and he died in Hammersmith hospital at the age of 38.

Looking back it seems scarcely possible that so much had been put into those brief years. Much of his catalogue went missing and items became rare and collectible. I am fortunate to have a couple in my collection.

Here he is with Jimmy Deuchar on trumpet and introduced by Humph in ‘65:



"Humph": Humphrey Lyttleton was a self taught trumpeter and almost everything else throughout his long career as musician, composer, arranger, band leader, TV show host, radio ditto and raconteur extraordinaire and columnist plus; he even designed his own house in Hertfordshire. His privileged background reads like a chapter from Tom Brown's Schooldays and is worth a trip to Wiki for that alone.

He started out in music with a trumpet influenced by Louis Armstrong and his early years were in the blues tradition of traditional jazz, but he moved to mainstream in the sixties and by the end of his playing career could be said to have moved into a gentle form of modern jazz )my interpretation !) so he merits being here.

Above all Humph had style, be it with words or music, and is missed in all the professions he touched.

His personnel changed much over the years and he toured to sell out crowds everywhere. He also introduced Canadian singer Stacey Kent to the UK, Elkie Brooks sang with the band on several occasions and he even toured with Helen Shapiro in the nineties.

A small aside was that he hated telephones, a trait he shared with my late father who would disconnect the wires if he thought anyone was going to call him.

Here he is with Elkie:



Vic Feldman certainly cracked the American jazz scene, this was seen as important at the time as all American jazz artists had an inherently superior status attached to them.

Feldman was a musical prodigy, a young talent who became a world known pianist and percussionist and whose vibe playing became a trade mark despite the fact most people thought he was a better pianist.

Feldman came from a musical family and he played in a trio that had his brothers as the other partners for awhile. He went to work in the USA in ‘55 and on return while at his club Ronnie Scott suggested he emigrate to the USA; he did in ‘57.

He worked with Woody Herman at first and then Buddy de Franco, and then formed his own group on the West Coast that included the talented bassist Scott la Faro who was tragically killed in an auto accident aged 25. He played with various bands and groups including Miles Davis who asked him to join his group full time but Feldman said no, preferring the occupational safety of studio work as opposed to touring.

Settling in LA he specialised in film TV and session work and worked outside the jazz environment with the likes of Frank Zappa and Steely Dan.

Here with Scott la Faro and playing both piano and vibes.



During and after the forties big bands still held sway at the top of the music scene here and in the states, we had several big bands during this period but one stood out head and shoulders above the rest: Ted Heath. A tenor saxophonist himself at an early age he switched to trombone.

He actually started his musical career with his brother and three other musicians busking outside London Bridge station and on local streets. Heath was spotted and asked to join Jack Hylton's band; his lack of experience meant the gig was short lived.

He then played with various bands and rejoined Hylton in the late twenties and then a residence at the Kit Kat club followed, where he was influenced by touring American bands like Dorsey.

In ‘28 he joined Ambrose where he learnt to be a bandleader and his trombone playing developed the style he became famous for. Geraldo's orchestra followed during the war years and during this time a Heath composition “That Lovely Weekend “ was produced and the royalties he received from its success allowed to him to form his own band. It followed the American line-up style and was influenced by Glenn Miller; success followed touring with Lena Horne and backing Ella Fitzgerald. He became a huge hit and had long runs at the London Palladium.

1956 saw Heath make the trip to the states for a tour that was not only a sensation but cemented his standing in the jazz pantheon of great bands.

The 50s were the peak of his fame with a huge recording output and European tours. He carried on through the sixties and was still having chart successes in the states. In ‘64 he collapsed on stage in Cardiff with a cerebral thrombosis and though he recovered it was to all intents the end of his career. He died in ‘69 aged 67.

Here they are playing their version of Lionel Hampton's signature tune “Flying Home”:



John Dankworth did the reverse, playing at an early stage in his career in the States, playing the Newport jazz festival in ‘59, the band performed at the Birdland club in NYC and he shared the stage with Duke Ellington with whom he had a life long association. At this time Cleo Laine became the band's singer and he married her in ‘58. His biography is long and deserves a separate read so a link is the best way to access his history and the legacy he left:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dankworth

He was also a composer wrote many theme tunes for TV and films including the “Avengers”. This is a video at the end of his career and sadly his life, back playing in the States with Cleo:



There are/were many others who had an influence on the British jazz scene but few who made an international career or impression. There is a flaw in my selection: Humph was never an international success, though he did record in the states with Sydney Bechet in ‘49, but his all round presence in playing, talking about and presenting jazz was a huge part of the music's promotion and for that alone he deserves his place.