Robert Mitchell (piano), Jean Toussaint (tenor saxophone), Larry Bartley (double bass), Rod Youngs (drums) and Dave Green (double bass)

The Cockpit, London, 20 November 2024

by John Earls. Photo credit (c) John Earls

Jazz 625 was a BBC television jazz programme which ran for two years between 1964 and 1966.The show was first broadcast on BBC2 on 21 April 1964 (on what turned out to be the channel’s opening night). It is revered because in that period it brought into UK living rooms live performances by American jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Dave Brubeck and Duke Ellington (who appeared in a gala presentation in the first show). It also showcased UK jazz musicians such as Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott and John Dankworth.

In May 2019, Jazz 625 returned to the BBC as a 90-minute live show on BBC Four called Jazz 625 Live: For One Night Only. The house band for that broadcast featured Robert Mitchell (piano), Jean Toussaint (tenor saxophone), Larry Bartley (double bass) and Rod Youngs (drums).

In celebration of Jazz 625’s sixtieth birthday this year, the band were reunited under Robert Mitchell at London’s The Cockpit as part of the London Jazz Festival for a performance also featuring the legendary UK bass player Dave Green. Green is one of only two people still alive who appeared on the show (the other being singer Cleo Laine, one of only eight women to have appeared on the show throughout those two years).

Green opened proceedings with a solo bass piece that highlighted his musicality, understanding, tradition, inventiveness and preparedness to take risks. It was a captivating and spirited performance.

The re-convened For One Night Only band fittingly started their set with a lovely Along Came Betty (written by Benny Golson and most famously recorded by Art Blakey), a tune they performed on the 2019 programme. The programme also saw Thelonious Monk’s Criss Cross, heard here with some excellent solos on sax (Joshua Redman did sax duties for this tune on the broadcast), piano and bass and classy drum intervals from Rod Youngs.

Youngs’ drumming style gives the appearance of him shrugging his shoulders and it was fascinating to watch his smooth brush strokes on the next tune, Ben Webster’s Body and Soul (which featured some soft and expressive piano playing by Mitchell) and some more energetic and hefty drum work on the next tune, an original whose title I didn’t quite catch (Mood Board?).

There then followed a Jean Toussaint-penned tune Calypso (also new?),a nice nod to the influence of oft-neglected Jamaican jazz musician and composer Joe Harriott (the tapes of his Jazz 625 performance were recorded over). It’s a sunny piece on which both saxophone and piano shone. It is also worth noting here Toussaint’s (and indeed Mitchell’s) role in supporting new UK jazz talent. One of the highlights of the For One Night Only programme is seeing Toussaint playing with saxophonist Camilla George (who he taught and mentored) for a performance of Harriott’s Tonal.

Finally, the band were joined by Dave Green for Blue ‘n’ Boogie, a 1944 jazz standard written by Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Paparelli. It’s the first time I’ve seen two double basses play together in a small ensemble and what a treat it was. To say that Green and Larry Bartley engaged in ‘battling basses’ would be to imply too much competition, whereas what was evidently on display was a mutual respect between two fine musicians that span generations. Bartley paid lovely tribute to Green in words and music. Their double bass exchanges were a joy.

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union. He posts on Bluesky and tweets / updates his ‘X’ content at @john_earls

Published post no.2,370 – Friday 22 November 2024