Chris Biscoe: Tony Kinsey was the last representative of a remarkably talented generation of innovators who introduced and consolidated post-war jazz and bebop in the UK.

Way Out West, the group of musicians promoting jazz in west London, was especially fortunate to count two of these figures in its membership. Eddie Harvey, the slightly older of the two, made the transition from the 1940s New Orleans revival into the modern jazz scene. Tony Kinsey sprang, fully formed it seemed, into the modern jazz scene, playing with the Johnny Dankworth Seven when only twenty years old.

Through the 1950s and ‘60s he led many small groups, including the quartet with which Joe Harriott made some his first recordings, and groups with Ronnie Ross, Bill Le Sage and Peter King. One of the photos I have seen at Tony’s house was from his residency at the Flamingo Club, and shows Duke Ellington stars Paul Gonsalves, Jimmy Hamilton and Jimmy Woode sitting in with the quartet. This was also the period in which Tony toured with such jazz legends as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.

Peter King was the soloist with the quartets which Tony presented for Way Out West, followed by Sammy Mayne and a rare contemporary appearance by Tony Coe on alto sax. Tony often featured his own very melodic compositions, which, to my ear, had a surprising English quality. The fact that he was a prolific songwriter, writing his own lyrics, may be the clue to this quality in his writing. At the same time, his compositions, particularly for big band, are very definitely in a modern jazz vein.

Starting in the 1950s, Tony developed his writing for big band, and also created contemporary non-jazz compositions, particularly for string quartet. The big band writing became increasingly important and resulted in several suites, including Anatomy of a Jazz Festival, The Thames Suite, and The Embroidery Suite. I was fortunate to be invited to play baritone sax on the premier of the Embroidery Suite, and on the 2016 live recording. Demonstrating incredible stamina, Tony assembled the band, provided all the music, rehearsed, directed and played in the band during its only rehearsal on the afternoon of the concert, and played flawlessly throughout the two hour concert.

Tony had a stroke during the late 2010s, from which he recovered very well, but he struggled to meet his own exacting standards, and didn’t perform again. He remained as interested in and dedicated to jazz as ever, and continued to write. In 2024, with support from Way Out West, we played a big band concert premiering a new composition, and once again featuring The Embroidery Suite. On a cold January day, Tony sat through the entire rehearsal, occasionally coming over with suggestions, particularly to raise the tempo on a couple of pieces. (Tony loved fast tempos, and had the hands, feet and brain to play with remarkable relaxation at tempos many struggle with). He then attended the concert and sat in the front wearing one of the most elegant suits I’ve ever seen.

RIP Tony Kinsey

Pete Hurt: I first met Tony through Way Out West, and struck up a friendship with him. I occasionally went round to his house where he would talk about his life, and play recordings he’d done with various bands big and small. He told one story about the time he was touring with Billie Holiday at a venue with a particularly dodgy PA system. After a few attempts to sing with the mic cutting out, she stormed off the stage, leaving the backing trio to their own devices. He also showed me a scrapbook he’d put together, documenting the period in the ’50s and ’60s when he was a well-known ‘face’ and would get regular mentions in the press and on the radio.

I managed to play with Tony a few times with various Way Out West groups, but as the years rolled on Tony experienced various medical problems and became increasingly frail. His last big event just over a year ago, with which WOW was involved, was a concert of his big band music in Hampton, not far from where he lived. Tony was insistent that he was going to play drums with the band, but he hadn’t played for some time and was physically not up to it in the end. He came to the rehearsal and made suggestions about our playing. The evening was a fitting tribute to him.

He lived a long and busy life, and was a well-regarded and respected musician and man. He’ll be missed.

Emily Saunders: Tony Kinsey was a phenomenal musician, drummer, composer, and great friend to me. Over the years we had countless conversations, alongside countless garden chats during the pandemic, reminiscing about live music and his musical career performing with golden stars of jazz including Ella Fitgrerald, Sarah Vaughan, Ronnie Scott’s band, along with his friendship with Buddy Rich, and Tony’s love of composing for big bands, as well as TV and film, including the BBC over decades, for example the theme tune for the BBC kids TV programme Willo the Wisp. Throughout our friendship he’d always ask me about my composing and singing work, he loved my stuff which meant the world to me. He was so incredibly supportive. I’ll always be hugely grateful to Tony and will miss him dearly.

Gary Willcox: I first became aware of Tony Kinsey when I was a young boy, living with my family and learning the drums. He lived a mile up the road from us and my Dad’s involvement in music, and the musical life of the area, brought him into contact with Tony.

At one time I’d lost direction in my drum studies and had enough of lessons. At my Dad’s request, Tony came over and listened to me play, and gave some generous appraisal and advice.

Later, my Dad promoted a concert by Tony’s Big Band which contained many jazz legends from the ’50s and ’60s: Jimmy Deuchar, Hank Shaw, Pete King.

More recently I was thumbing through the liner notes of a Joe Harriott box set, and noticed Tony was playing drums on many of the tracks, illustrating how prevalent Tony was in what’s often looked back on as a ‘Golden Era’ in UK Jazz.

Tony also mentioned how he’d been to New York in the 1940s and 1950s, on the cruise liners. He went many times, 30 or 40 times, he couldn’t remember exactly. He said on these trips he’d seen Charlie Parker’s band with Miles Davis and Max Roach, and later with Red Rodney and Roy Haynes, several times. These last details caused me to stare into the distance in a misty-eyed fantasy, and I realised what a connection Tony had, and in fact was, to an essential era of jazz music.

Last year, Way Out West put on a concert of Tony’s music, and the skills as a composer and arranger which enabled him to expand his career into film and television were very apparent. 

Tony was the last of his post-war generation – Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes, Joe Harriott, Johnny Dankworth, et al – all now fabled in history.

Kate Williams: It was a privilege to play in a concert in late January 2024 in which an augmented Way Out West performed Tony Kinsey’s Embroidery Suite, and a new piece for big band. Despite illness in his later years, he continued to write and arrange music. Tony played an active part in the afternoon rehearsal that day, and both his astuteness and energy were formidable (for a person of any age, let alone one in their 90s!).

In addition to Tony’s great musicianship, I will always remember his lucidity, dry wit and warmth. He will be greatly missed. RIP Tony Kinsey.

The post Tributes to Tony Kinsey (1927-2025) first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Tony Haynes’s name will always be associated with Grand Union. As the composer, director and driving force behind the music, the presentation and organisation, he touched and often transformed the lives of countless people – musicians, administrators, audiences alike.

There are many facets to Grand Union including small bands, street bands, youth band (GUYO), workshops, and large scale projects integrating groups both amateur and professional into stage shows.

The public face of Grand Union is the Orchestra which performed regularly at the Hackney Empire and other major venues, presenting ambitious and complex meetings between a jazz big band and musicians from many different cultures.

Grand Union’s long term bass player, Andres Lafone: ‘Thank you Tony, thanks to you I played music from Bangladesh, India, China, Romania, Turkey, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Mozambique, Senegal, not to mention music from my own Hispanic world, Brasil, English folk, the list is endless..scintillating charts that induced a cold sweat. What an education! Praise the Grand Union Orchestra’.

The following is from the sleeve notes to Around the World in 80 minutes and gives a fair insight into the methods of Grand Union:

‘But this CD is also a melting pot of melting pots: whether based in London, Lisbon or Melbourne, each of the different combinations of musicians reflects the cosmopolitan nature of the local scene….we make no pretence at purity of style: the ‘authenticity’ of this music lies in the creative personality of the individual musicians’.

Tony formed Redbrass in 1975. Tony had been musical director with various theatre companies, including Nottingham Playhouse, Liverpool Everyman, a founder member of Belt and Braces and had written scores for plays by Adrian Mitchell and John Arden. This was around the time when Mike Westbrook’s Brass Band was developing from street band to concert band and jazz was being integrated into independent theatre. I think Tony’s experience in funded theatre set him on a different path from other jazz musicians of the time. His ambition was to have a regular band which could travel the country playing at all sorts of venues which wouldn’t have been possible for an unfunded band. He set out to have a touring grant and administrative help and succeeded – in a modest way. We had a coach, which was always breaking down. After I woke up on an all-night journey and realised the frost was on the inside of the window I was happy when we reverted to hired Transit vans.

Redbrass got its name from Tony’s Yamaha trombone. It was a ten piece band with two saxes – Pete Hurt and me – and Paul Nieman on trombone. Later on Dick Pearce and Marc Charig played in the band. It also featured three singers, including Josefina Cupido, with contrasting voices and styles of singing, and the music incorporated jazz-rock fusion, jazz ballads and folk influences. For a while Heather Jones, who was Redbrass’s Linda Ronstadt, took on the roles of all three singers.

Tony’s grounding in independently minded, Arts Council-funded theatre was central to the creation of Redbrass He was determined that the songs would have a clear political theme, and that the band would be funded so that it could play outside the jazz circuit and receive wider recognition.

Over four years Redbrass played 200 gigs, including Millom, where the audience were expecting to hear a brass band, Wall’s End, where the audience of three men and a dog included two journalists who reviewed the performance, and Aberdeen, where Annie (at that time Anne, flute, piano and voice) Lennox’s lovely grandmother came to the gig. In Cumbernauld we played a puzzling performance in a community centre while Jean Muir dresses were modelled to our political jazz rock backing. This turned out to be excellent for record sales, since no one could afford the dresses.

Tony sometimes had a wicked sense of humour. Once he demanded that the brass section prove its grasp of the backing harmonies to Mouth of the Tyne by singing them, while the rest of the band fell about laughing. There is a cassette somewhere……

After Redbrass disbanded in 1979 there was a hiatus in which Tony returned to the theatre, and discovered two multi-instrumentalists, Gerry Hunt and the late Keith Morris, who were central to the development of his music and the new band, Grand Union Orchestra, which became his life’s work. Gerry Hunt, Louise Elliott and Ros Davies have been with Grand Union from the beginning and are the multi-talented constants around whom Tony piloted his curious and enduring musical space craft. Here’s Kevin Robinson’s take on a similar theme: ‘I always harboured the thought that he was the keeper of his own unique universe, glimpses of which we were only privy to on a need to know basis… he always saw the bigger picture… which became obvious only at the end of the always soul enriching performances’

Grand Union’s started from the basis of a jazz big band while giving space to performers from other cultures. At first this was mainly through the addition of South American musicians, particularly Chilean singer, writer and instrumentalist Vladimir Vega, who came to the UK as a political exile. Subsequent bands developed contacts with musicians and musical cultures from Portugal, Turkey, South Asia, China, Australia, Africa and countries within those continents. As Tony began to take bands around the world these links broadened and strengthened.

As well as Louise Elliott on tenor sax and flute, Tony liked to feature particular instruments and soloists in settings which dramatised the themes of the show. He loved pitting two altos against two trumpets. He wrote with particular soloists in mind but, always aware of the precarious nature of the music business and the need for musicians to juggle various commitments, he was unfailingly generous in supporting our need to work elsewhere, and consequently had a roster of soloists to call on, including Claude Deppa, Byron Wallen, Shanti Paul Jayasinha, Kevin Robinson, Tony Kofi, Jason Yarde and me.

Although the band was called on to play in support of many different musical cultures, the improvisation side was always featured. Every member of the band would have their own story to tell. I felt particularly privileged to play improvised duets with Sabahat Akkiraz, Kutub Uddin and Baluji Shivastrav. Tabla virtuoso Yousof Ali Khan has been most important to the development of our work with the Indian classical tradition.

Now…the singers. Redbrass featured three vocal soloists. Tony loved to write for singers. In Grand Union he built ever more complex vocal ensembles with up to six soloists, while giving space to choirs of the most varied abilities. He even had the entire band singing four part harmony. The soloists have space to perform in their native traditions – Lucy Rahman from Bangladesh, Sarah Laryea from Ghana, for instance – but also have to cross over into sometimes unfamiliar ensemble territory. A great test of spirit and nerve. Richard Scott, as well as having a huge range and distinctive voice, acts as musical director for the singers.

Education has always been a strong theme in Grand Union’s work. The contacts with local choirs, schools and instrumental groups led to increasingly ambitious large scale projects, filling entire stages with recorder ensembles, percussion from across the world, singers and instrumentalists.

There have been many tributes from people who promote and present music including Ros Rigby: ‘Grand Union were very much ahead of the game in terms of celebrating diversity in music’…Nod Knowles: ‘A true internationalist, dedicated to the last’…Denise Jones: ‘I was privileged to coordinate ‘Songlines’ – a spectacular collaboration which brought the best of GUO to the S Wales valleys, many decades ago. An incredibly inspirational experience which touched and changed so many lives, especially mine’

Alex Dmoch: ‘First met him when I was 12 and just started playing sax, couldn’t have asked for a better person to nurture and encourage me as a young musician and set me on my path’….Kavuma:

‘He was always so warm and encouraging whenever I was in his presence. And the music was always beautiful, eye opening and inspiring’…Lusius: ‘Very sad news a beacon for new generations a great legacy’.

Claire Hirst: ‘Ah Tony, he really helped me and many other musicians out in the early days’…Ros Davies: ‘I wouldn’t be the person I am without Tony. I learnt to be a musician’…Gerry Hunt: ‘So sad to see a great person and friend go. Truly the end of an era. We need more good forces of nature like him in this world’…Shanti Paul Jayasinha: ‘I credit Tony for opening my ears to so much music’.

Tony Kofi: ‘He allowed me to express myself the only way I knew and helped me to develop it from there through his beautiful compositions’…Davina Wright: ‘You have indelibly touched the hearts of all those who knew you’…Yousof Ali Khan: ‘I cherish the 35 years of friendship we shared’ Steve Fox – ‘The cleverest man I ever knew’…RIP Tony

Jane Deppa:’ The Grand Union ‘family’ looks forward to keeping Tony’s creative flame burning as we go into the future with him watching from the wings’. Members of Grand Union call it the family. It’s a very extended family, with folk who stay home and mind the business, others in far corners of the world, some who come home occasionally and are always welcomed with open arms. As Tony Kofi says ‘Tony always gave the best hugs’

And Brian Abrahams: “We have all lost a dear friend , an incredible musician and composer/ arranger of music on a higher level. No one could ever produce such visionary  spectacular musical journeys as our Tony Haynes. What an honour to have had the privilege to work under his orchestral leadership for many years”

I’d like to finish with words from Ash, one of the newest recruits to Grand Union:

‘I am only a very young trumpet player who was given the opportunity to play with the Grand Union Youth Orchestra, where I performed timidly my first solo impro. Through Tony’s encouragement I pursued my interest in music and was acquainted with a diversity of world music styles. But what impressed me most about Tony was his persistent insistence on inclusivity and diversity, his love of humanity and his sense of justice and fairness expressed through his music. Making music something that serves a social purpose and value. A great example to be followed. He will be missed’.

LINK: RIP Tony Haynes

The post Tony Haynes: A Tribute first appeared on UK Jazz News.

My choice of 10 tracks will seem narrow to any Mingus student, collector, expert, discographer or biographer. It isn’t a survey of the life’s work of one of the most important bass-players, composers, arrangers, and experts in the putting together and pulling apart of music in jazz history. Great as he was in each of these, the sum of the parts is even greater. 

Charles Mingus is recognised as composer and soloist but I feel the recordings from 1960 (Mingus Presents Mingus and Mingus at Antibes) demonstrate rhythmic ideas from Mingus and Danny Richmond which influenced improvised music but are mostly unfulfilled in his jazz legacy.

Charles Mingus was born on 22 April 1922, so today is the centenary of his birth. He grew up with church music, first heard Duke Ellington when eight years old and played trombone before settling on double bass. He started to participate in classical music workshops in 1943 and later in jazz workshops with Teddy Charles, Teo Macero and others. From there on he created his own jazz workshops which led to the great recordings of the late 1950s.

Charles Mingus played and recorded with the Red Norvo Trio and worked briefly with Duke Ellington. From 1952 to 1957 along with his wife Celia and Max Roach he ran Debut Records, one of the first musician run labels. The most famous recordings on the label are The Quintet of the Year at Massey Hall and Bud Powell at Massey Hall, on both of which Mingus played bass.

Mingus career as band leader and composer took off around 1957 and from then to the mid 1960s he produced a sequence of classic albums. Around 1973 he became ill with ALS and eventually was unable to play, but continued working on various projects, the last of which was Mingus, with Joni Mitchell. He died in 1979.  I can recommend ‘Mingus, A Critical Biography’, by Brian Priestley. Other biographies are available (but I haven’t read them).

Mingus Ah Um was the first LP by Charles Mingus I bought and I start with the first three tracks, my thrilling introduction to his music. The CD re-issue differs from the LP. Material edited out for LP release has been re-instated on several tracks, including on two of my choices.

1. Better Git It In Your Soul – Mingus Ah Um

This has a fast 6/8, gospel. The intro is just great. 12 bars: bass solo, add piano, then trombone, drums with the trombone link to the theme. Everything sounds improvised.

The theme isn’t a blues, but sounds like one. Shafi Hadi doesn’t solo on this track, but his strange, other-worldly high register is the commentary throughout, with Mingus’ voice amplifying the written horn lines.

What follows is nineteen 12 bar choruses. This could be repetitive, but is astonishing. It’s mostly based on shuffling and re-combining riffs.

1. John Handy plus lumpy 6/8

2. horn backing

3. solo over swing

4. piano riff

5. trombone backing

6. add saxes

7. new piano riff, add Shafi Hadi

8. add tbn riff

9. new piano figure   

10 and 11. clapping + Booker Ervin preaching, great drum break into 

12 and 13.   Booker swinging   

14. drum solo

15. variation on chorus 5

16. add Shafi Hadi and voice

17.drums 

18.trombone, saxes answering 

19. drums, then they take it home.

2. Goodbye Porkpie Hat – Mingus Ah Um

“Goodbye Porkpie Hat” is one of the best loved jazz ballads and is a great example of Charles Mingus talent for capturing the essence of a fellow musician, Lester Young, while writing music melodically and harmonically far from that person’s home turf. It’s a haunting melody over a deceptively complex chord sequence, with a contrasting minor blues solo sequence, magical moment mid-way through John Handy’s tenor solo where his signature flutter-tongue is backed by Mingus stroking the bass strings – gorgeous.

3. Boogie Stop Shuffle – Mingus Ah Um

I prefer the heavily edited LP version to the restored CD version. Listen to both if possible. This is 25 choruses of a minor blues and, again, Mingus varies the approaches brilliantly, playing fast shuffle and jazz time, piano riffs and band riffs, against each other. On the CD Booker Ervin plays 4 choruses, followed by 4 of John Handy. The LP cuts straight to Booker’s third chorus and omits the alto solo.

4. All The Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmund Freud’s Wife Was Your Mother – Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus

Mingus and Danny Richmond are incredible on this, totally and overwhelmingly interacting with the soloists. On the first chorus of Ted Curzon’s and Eric Dolphy’s solo they use similar rhythmic breaks, then slice and dice the choruses at will. The whole band plays with enormous drive, somehow landing on the first note of the closing theme as one.

5. Passions of a Woman Loved – Tonight at Noon

This record is partly from 1957, part 1961. The 1957 tracks (‘Passions’ and ‘Tonight’) are extraordinarily weird even now and have a lot of collective semi improvisation over written passages. Passions of a Woman is like a scrapbook of Mingus musical ideas including re-workings of original tunes in different rhythms and constant shifts from rubato to 3 to 6 in a bar finally settling into swinging 4/4 for the solos.

6. Septemberly – Mingus at the Bohemia

This goes back to my very first Mingus listening. I haven’t heard it for more than 50 years but it’s one of several re-workings of standards that have stayed with me. It’s a version of Tenderly played agonisingly slowly over a shimmering pedal, with September in the Rain appearing when it goes into medium tempo. You can also hear one of my favourite forgotten tenor saxists, George Barrow, and trombonist Eddy Bert who played with everybody. Willie Jones plays drums.

7. Dizzy Moods – Tijuana Moods

This is another example of Mingus setting something with fairly conventional structure and solos in a context which makes it utterly memorable. Dizzy Moods is based on Dizzy Gillespie’s, with a six beat rhythm in the bridge to add spice. What sets it apart is the  unaccompanied horn, bass, drum and piano segments which introduce it and re-introduce the theme after the solos.

8. What Is This Thing Called Love – Charles Mingus

The theme statement also incorporates bits of Hot House and Woody’n You. I find it irresistible for the bizarre drumming (tambourine, hi-hat and suitcase???), many third stream devices and strange changes of instrumentation. At one point Mingus plays piano and the cellist plays the bass line. Thad Jones is brilliant though (deliberately?) wayward and legendary record producer Teo Macero plays interesting tenor.

9. Folk Forms – Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus

This is mostly based on a medium tempo blues, but it’s in a constant state of flux, with non-tempo dialogues between any 2, 3 or 4 musicians (Mingus, Danny Richmond, Ted Curson, Eric Dolphy) abruptly breaking into intense swing.

10. Fables of Faubus – Live in Paris 1964

This isn’t my favourite version of this great composition, but is vital as an example of the developments Charles Mingus brought to small band playing in the mid 1960s. Each solo is one chorus, with an extended period of meditation, interaction, moving in and out of tempo before bringing returning to the last section of the solo sequence. Danny Richmond often abandons jazz drumming drumming in favour of dramatic interventions. A tour de force.

Mingus Profiles Sextet with Chris Biscoe, Henry Lowther, Pete Hurt, Kate Williams, Larry Bartley and Gary Willcox are celebrating the centenary of the birth of Charles Mingus at Riverhouse Barn, Walton on Thames, on 24 April.

Further concerts so far scheduled are in Leeds on 19 May and Sheffield on 20 May.

The post 10 Tracks I Can’t Do Without: Charles Mingus (and Dannie Richmond) first appeared on UK Jazz News.