BRITISH JAZZ Collectables

Part 1: From trad to freeform, Spencer Leigh celebrates 25 years of historic vinyl

Nowadays most musical genres transcend geographical boundaries and so there is nothing unusual in, say, a soul singer coming from the UK. Before the 60s, it was different, and jazz, blues, rock’n’roll and country and western were regarded as predominantly American music forms, which only Americans could perform with authenticity. There were exceptions, notably the French jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and the Brits Tubby Hayes and George Shearing, but, looking back, it turns out that some British jazz was very good indeed. However, because many British jazz fans believed that only the Americans could play well, they did not always get the audiences they deserved.

This feature looks at British jazz in the 25 years covering 1945 to 1970. We are considering the most commercially successful records from the period, the most influential and the true rarities. With the exception of the trad boom in the early 60s, there were relatively few singles, but on the other hand, this listing of 100 Collectables does include EPs and 10” albums. The practitioners recorded a lot of live albums and because of the spontaneous nature of some forms of jazz, this can often represent their best work. With some artists, two performances of the same song are rarely identical.

By and large, the trad boom meant music that was …

by Spencer Leigh
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