United Kingdom’s Transatlantic Flight of Jazz Fantasy

The British are coming, and they are swinging.

British jazz musicians are making their presence felt on the U.S. jazz horizon to a degree never before observed. They are black and white, English and Scottish and West Indian, they lead small groups and big bands. They are young and creative and they are reaching listeners in this country on records (particularly on Antilles and EditionsEG labels) and, more and more, in person.

Last evening’s concert at the Houston International Music Festival gives some idea of the increased stature of jazz from the United Kingdom. On the bill for an unprecedented all-British jazz program were Courtney Pine, the articulate and brilliant saxophonist who was recently heard at Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood; saxophonist Andy Sheppard, whose “Introductions in the Dark” (Antilles) was named 1989’s album of the year in a readers’ poll in the British jazz magazine, “Wire”; the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, with jazz-rock-fusion; and Loose Tubes, a quirky U.K. big band that records for EditionsEG and stretches from serious avant garde to screaming satire.

Pine is easily the most visible of the U.K. artists. In the weeks prior to the Houston concert, the 26-year-old saxophonist had been traveling the U.S. with a quartet consisting of three American sidemen, bringing his heated improvisations to audiences in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and other cities. Pine feels that playing in the U.S. is a key factor to this new-found awareness of British jazz musicians.

“We’re just babies, you know. We’re generations behind the whole American scene. By the time I finish this tour, I’ll be a different player,” said the man who has been on the cover of several jazz magazines and received a great deal of press during his U.S. tour.

Just a few years back, he was all but an outsider.

“Not so long ago, I had to stand in the back of Ronnie Scott’s club in London listening to Art Blakey,” he said. “Since then I’ve not only played with Art Blakey, but my own band can fill a hall in England with 2,000 people.”

Pine would be the first to admit that luck has helped his career. During an American tour in 1988, pianist Ellis Marsalis sat in with Pine at Blues Alley in Washington, and soon after that Marsalis’ son, Delfeayo, produced “The Vision’s Tale” (Antilles), which features Ellis Marsalis, Jeff (Tain) Watts, drums and Delbert Felix, bass.

The availability of jazz studies programs in the U.S. has helped British musicians move forward as much as the dearth of such programs in Britain has held them back, on both the acceptance and performance levels. “We only have a couple of real (jazz) courses,” which have been in existence only a few years, Pine said.

Benn Clatworthy, a British saxman who has been living in Los Angeles for nine years, agrees with Pine about the problems of jazz education in Britain. “Over there, nobody really knows what they were doing,” he said. “Here, I studied with a fine teacher, learned about chords and everything.”

Many U.K. jazzmen serious about studying jazz have gone to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, the U.S.’s best known jazz institution. These include composer Michael Gibbs, who was at Berklee in the ‘60s, and Scottish saxophonist Tommy Smith, who completed his studies there last year.

Obviously, getting a record released domestically is one of the best ways for musicians from Great Britain to become better known here. Besides Pine and Sheppard, such artists as Smith, drummer Bill Bruford, Loose Tubes and saxophonists Iain Bellamy and Steve Williamson have albums either out or ready for release.

“I took two weeks off,” said Williamson in a call from London, “to make an album in Brooklyn for Verve/Polygram. American saxophonist Steve Coleman produced it, and I had Abbey Lincoln singing on one number. We had four days to rehearse, four days to record and four days to mix. It was a fantastic experience for me.”

Back in the days when transatlantic flights were non-existent, the only British artists who recorded here were those who came by ship and stayed. Pianists Marian McPartland and George Shearing were the entire jazz colony in the 1940s.

Later came another pianist, Victor Feldman, who emigrated in 1955. Guitarist John McLaughlin and bassist Dave Holland moved over in the late ‘60s and both wound up playing on the seminal Miles Davis album, “Bitches’ Brew.”

Coming to America, even staying here, is no automatic guarantee of success. Clatworthy is an example. A talented saxophonist and flutist, he has been highly praised by critics here but finds it hard to climb above the level of casual jobs--as he puts it, “small clubs and dives and weddings.”

Things are starting to move a bit, though, Clatworthy said. “I worked with Lionel Hampton at Disneyland last year, I’ve rehearsed with Horace Silver, I hung out and played with Cedar Walton. I’ve also been leading my quartet at Jax (in Glendale) and Dodsworth’s (in Pasadena) and Albert Marx is going to release an album of mine on Discovery. Still, it’s not easy making a name for yourself.”

Many British musicians see the scene as less than rosy, on either side of the Atlantic ocean.

“I’ve been across the Atlantic a couple of times,” said Django Bates, the pianist with Loose Tubes, “but we wound up playing mostly in Canada. This concert in Houston with Loose Tubes--it seems an awful long way to go for just one gig.”

Iain Ballamy, another Loose Tube, calling from London, added: “We really need help -- something to stir up the interest here as well as over there. The main reason jazz started getting a bit of play in England was that deejays in London discos began to feature jazz records, and young people realized they could dance to it. A few fellows like Courtney Pine and Steve Williamson and Andy Sheppard are getting a real promotional shove, but there are other guys, more original I think, who can’t get the exposure at home or abroad.”

Pine, who has no intention of making the transatlantic move permanently, is one British jazzman who is pleased with the current scene. He is now well enough known both in Great Britain and America to be assured of a stunning future. He believes firmly that working on home ground, he can incorporate elements of reggae, calypso and ska into jazz and produce what he feels can become a black British style.

The recent launching in Britain of an all-jazz radio station will be significant in helping Pine achieve his goals. “It’s really kind of strange and wonderful,” he said of the station. “I’ve talked to people in London and they say ‘This is what we want to hear.’ ”