Folk, jazz, etc: Moor power to Bobby’s suite sax

ON A Scots Sabbath, back in the 1980s, three men stood pondering the bleak expanse of Drumossie Muir – enshrined in the annals of Scottish history under its better-known name of Culloden. The melancholy burden of the place’s history was seeping into their imaginations – partly, it has to be said, because a good few drams had been consumed the night before. But these men were not mere tourists or ersatz clansmen; two of them were jazz musicians, who had played music inspired by the historic battlefield the previous evening.

It doesn’t take a hyperactive imagination to be stirred by the mute scrubland of Drumossie and these three were no exception. One of them was saxophonist Bobby Wellins, a legendary figure in British jazz, the other two, both of whom have since died, were the English jazz pianist Peter Jacobsen and Inverness journalist and jazz organiser Jim Love.

“Pete Jacobsen was never given to drama or theatre,” recalls Wellins, now 75. “He was a down-to-earth chap, and so talented – he was blind, of course – and we stood there and I said to him, ‘What do you think, Pete?’ And he said, ‘The hairs are standing up on the back of my neck.’”

There may well be more than a few prickly neck hairs later this week when Wellins, still a player of power and eloquence, reprises the Culloden Moor Suite he first composed some 50 years ago in the company of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, with the dead of the battle lamented not by Highland pibroch but by his full-toned tenor sax.

The SNJO, directed by saxophonist Tommy Smith – for whom the older man’s playing was a considerable influence – will also perform Wellins’s more recently composed Caledonian Suite, inspired by James Barke’s novels about the life of Robert Burns.

There are no extant recordings of the Culloden Moor Suite, but not too long after composing it, Wellins, as part of the Stan Tracey Quartet, recorded what is now seen as a milestone in British jazz, Tracey’s suite Under Milk Wood, inspired by Dylan Thomas’s lyrical radio play (the music was re-issued last year on the ReSteamed label). In the suite’s nocturne-like Starless and Bible Black sequence, Wellins’s tenor sax calls hauntingly over the stealthy sonorities of Tracey’s piano. Can we expect a similar keening in his suite lamenting the carnage of Culloden, I ask Wellins.

“I should imagine so,” he replies, matter-of-factly. “The opening theme is quite spooky.”

Wellins was inspired to write the piece after reading John Prebble’s book Culloden, part of his trilogy about the end of the Highland clan system. “I thought it was brilliant. Of course it was never called Culloden, it was Drumossie Muir.”

The SNJO/Wellins tour takes in Aberdeen, (tomorrow night), Edinburgh and Glasgow, before terminating, on Sunday night, at Inverness’s Eden Court Theatre, where Wellins will dedicate the concert to the memories of Jim Love and Lachie Shaw, both moving forces behind the Inverness jazz scene.

It’s Wellins’s first time playing with the SNJO, which features some of the cream of Scotland’s current, vigorous jazz scene. He hasn’t played often in a big band format, he says, speaking from his home in the Sussex seaside town Bognor Regis, which is about as far from Culloden as I can imagine. He composed Culloden Moor at the end of the 1950s – “Yes and I’m still practising,” he laughs.

Smith, who regards Culloden Moor as “a sleeping giant of jazz and chamber music”, has commissioned the arrangement of all of it, and one of the Caledonian movements, from the German pianist and arranger Florian Ross, who has been an inventive guest director of the orchestra in the past.

“What Florian has done with Culloden Moor is fantastic,” says Smith. “Bobby’s original suite was for a quartet, and the essence of it is still there, but the arranger is to be commended for the amount of creativity he’s put in.”

The remaining four movements of the Caledonian Suite have been variously arranged by SNJO trombonist Chris Greive, American pianist Geoffrey Keezer, the California-based French pianist Christian Jacob and Smith himself.

“He was one of the guys I used to listen to and try to imitate, after my Stan Getz period,” the Smith says of Wellins. “His playing was so lyrical and when he played really high it was quite flutey. Getz was slightly harsh, I thought, but Wellins was a bit more subtle on the top of the saxophone.”

Coming into its 16th year, 13 of them under Smith’s musical direction, the SNJO has evolved into a force to be reckoned with. Its world-class standing and adventurous breadth of approach is reflected in its current season, which sees it heading for the London Jazz Festival next month to join Norwegian double bass star Arild Andersen in their established (recorded live and due out next year) celebration of the music of the influential ECM label, as well as performing the Music of the Gods collaboration with the Mugenkyo taiko drummers.

Next February sees the big band celebrating the music of jazz fusion juggernaut Weather Report, while it goes on to commemorate another saxophonist, the late Michael Brecker, in collaboration with his brother, trumpeter Randy Brecker, in May.

“I’m quite excited about it,” says Wellins of his forthcoming collaboration with the orchestra, “but I’ll also have to be on my toes. The writing is quite something; it’s very updated and abstract in places and it sounds absolutely wonderful.

“I’m hoping I’m up to it all,” he adds, somewhat self-effacingly for a British jazz legend. “Mind you I’m not reading anything; I’m just soloing. Tommy says to me, ‘You don’t have to anything. You just stand there and when the time comes, just solo.’”

Playing with younger musicians keeps him fresh, he adds – “and, no, I have no thoughts of retiring. As long as I think I’m not past my sell-by date, I shall carry on.”

• The SNJO with Bobby Wellins play Aberdeen Music Hall tomorrow night, the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh on 28 October, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow on 29 October, and Eden Court, Inverness on 30 October. See www.snjo.co.uk