Bobby Wellins
Scottish jazz saxophonist whose melancholy sound dominates the classic track Starless and Bible Black
BOBBY WELLINS, who has died aged 80, was one of the finest jazz musicians Britain has ever produced. Because he worked mainly within conventional forms, such as the 32-bar American song and the 12-bar blues, his originality may not have been obvious to the casual listener, but no one could miss the variegated beauty of his tone. The tenor saxophone has rarely sounded so eloquent.
Robert Coull Wellins was born in Glasgow on January 24 1936. His father, a Russian-Jewish emigré, played saxophone and clarinet in the Sammy Miller Showband and his mother, Sally, was the band’s singer. Taught by his father, Wellins was a fully competent saxophonist by his mid-teens.
During his National Service he spent some time studying at the RAF School of Music, Uxbridge. Thereafter, as a professional musician, he passed through a series of dance bands, including that of Vic Lewis, with which he visited the US in 1958.
On the London jazz scene in the early 1960s, Wellins was something of a minority taste. His wily, unpredictable phrasing, and that fibrous, smoky tone with a melancholy edge, sounded odd beside the full-on virtuosity of the current hero, Tubby Hayes.
Among musicians, however, his reputation grew, partly as a result of his playing in late-night jam sessions at unadvertised West End dives such as the Nucleus and Sam Widge’s. He also played in the bands of Tony Crombie and Tony Kinsey, and made a notable contribution to John Dankworth’s 1963 album, What the Dickens!
Wellins found a kindred spirit in Stan Tracey, then working as house pianist at Ronnie Scott’s recently opened club in Soho. Their partnership began in a curious way. Scott’s two passions were playing the tenor saxophone and gambling. Late at night he would often slip away from his own club to try his luck at the tables. On such occasions it was quite usual for Wellins to be sent for to play the final set of the evening in his place. From these casual sessions grew the Stan Tracey Quartet, which, in 1965, recorded Tracey’s Under Milk Wood, a suite of eight pieces inspired by Dylan Thomas’s radio play, subsequently described as the first example of a distinctively British style of modern jazz. It was certainly not derived from any obvious American model, and it met with quite unexpected success.
One piece in particular, the haunting Starless and Bible Black, dominated by the lost and lonely sound of Wellins’s saxophone, became the nearest thing to a hit that British modern jazz ever achieved. The album itself has rarely been out of print in the ensuing half century.
Like many jazz musicians at the time, Wellins fell victim to the easy availability of narcotics in the West End. It began in 1964, at the very moment he was starting to achieve serious notice, but he managed to keep going until 1971.
Then, in his own words, “the downhill slope started”. With the support of his wife, Isobel, he pursued a five-year course of detoxification and rehabilitation until “I was 40 years old and finished with it”.
What amounted to Wellins’s second career began in 1978, the year he returned to full-time playing. He announced his arrival with Jubilation, the first of several albums with the pianist Pete Jacobsen. Others included Dreams Are Free (1979) and Primrose Path (1980), which also featured the American trombonist Jimmy Knepper. Friends remarked that he seemed to be making up for lost time. In 1982 he was reunited with Stan Tracey (who had been through troubles of his own) in recording Spectrum, a celebration of their mutual enthusiasm for the music of Thelonious Monk.
In 1985 Wellins became a member of the extraordinary jazz orchestra assembled by the Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts. With more than 20 musicians (including three drummers), it often teetered on the brink of chaos. Possibly on grounds of seniority, Wellins tended to assume command at such moments, standing in the midst of the melée and frantically waving his arms. It had little effect, but added to the spectacle.
His playing matured prodigiously in later years, reaching one particular peak in 1996, with the albums Don’t Worry ’Bout Me and The Satin Album (instrumental versions of all 12 songs on Billie Holiday’s album Lady in Satin). These, along with Comme d’Habitude (1998), with Stan Tracey, demonstrate his mastery of the classic song form. Among his later recordings, the duet album Smoke and Mirrors (2012), with the pianist Kate Williams, is particularly fine.
One long-delayed triumph occurred shortly before the onset of his final illness. In 1963 he had read John Prebble’s book, Culloden, and been so moved that he sketched out a suite of pieces inspired by it. Ideally it was to be scored for an orchestra, although in those days he had little hope of achieving that.
The following year he recorded a quartet version with Tracey and some years later applied for an Arts Council grant to expand it. This was turned down, but he kept trying, even investigating the possibility of an electronic version.
Eventually, in 2014, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (founded in 1995), together with the composer Florian Ross, prepared, performed and recorded the complete work, with Wellins as soloist. The recording was released the following year, to critical acclaim.
Bobby Wellins is survived by his wife and two daughters. Bobby Wellins, born January 24 1936, died October 27 2016