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Music ‘A life in jazz is a never ending journey, you never stop learning’

Chris Searle speaks with veteran British bassist DAVE GREEN

DAVE GREEN is the grandfather of British jazz. He represents a whole generation of jazz musical excellence.
 
Green is the only survivor of 1960’s British musicians who played with the great black pioneers of the music — Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Roland Kirk, Sonny Rollins — and at 81 he’s still playing with all the energy and fire of a teenager.
 
“I was a very lucky young guy, who happened to be in the right place at the right time,” says Green.

His father, Cyril, was a motor mechanic, and as a former Royal Engineer a D-Day veteran, and his mother Evelyn was a housewife and local authority home help. A working-class boy, he grew up in a prefab in Wembley Park with future Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts as his next door neighbour.
 
“We grew up together and went to the same schools,” says Green. “'We loved Little Richard, Fats Domino and Bill Haley’s Comets. I liked early Elvis, especially Heartbreak Hotel, because of the double bass in it. And we had a wonderful music teacher called Mr Perkins who encouraged my early leanings towards jazz. The first record I ever bought was Barrelhouse, a Parlophone 78, by the Jess Stacy Trio. Charlie's first was Walkin’ Shoes by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet.”
 
His first introduction to bass was a tea chest bass in a local skiffle group, The Zodiacs, and by 1958 he and Charlie had joined their first band, The Joe Jones Seven, gigging on a Thursday night at the Mason Arms pub in Edgware.
 
“I had a day job as a cashier’s assistant,” says Green, but “I resolved to turn pro and the first chance that came along was a gig in the south of France.”
 
On his return he was suddenly in demand at The Establishment club and Ronnie Scott’s, joining Don Rendell’s Quintet before joining the Lyttelton band in 1965 where he stayed for 18 years.
 
“In 1966 a wonderful period began for me. I played at Ronnie’s and toured with some of the greatest American jazz musicians on their visits to Britain.”
 
Green singles out Roland Kirk, and his three simultaneous horns: “He was a powerhouse: his energy was incredible with Johnny Birch on piano and the great Phil Seamen on drums. Wonderful, never to be forgotten times.”
 
But the highlight was to play “Body and Soul” with the veteran tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins who, says Green, “was wonderful to work with but not in the best of health. He drank virtually a bottle of Remy Martin every night with just a few spoonfuls of soup. But he played great!”
 
Among British jazz musicians, he picks out Bruce Turner, who contributed a regular jazz column to the Daily Worker, as “one of the most inspirational musicians I ever worked with.”
 
He joined Turner’s Jump band in 1964, and 15 years later invited Turner, along with fellow saxophonist Lol Coxhill, pianist Michael Garrick and drummer Alan Jackson to play in Fingers, Green’s own band.
 
“It was a joy to hear Bruce and Lol, two of Jazz’s great eccentrics, playing together.”
 
And like Turner, the thread of working-class solidarity runs through his career and it was with Fingers that he made a free concert in 1979 at The Garage, near Sloane Square, for “Jazz Against Racism and Fascism.”
 
If there is a musical philosophy to be drawn from his long career it is his desire to transgress categories and barriers in music. A great believer in freedom of movement in music, he defines a life in jazz as “never ending” where “you never stop learning.”
 
“It’s a wonderful feeling to play without preconceived limitations, so the music grows organically in the moment.”
 
A powerful proof of these words is an album just released of the Dave Green Trio with saxophonist Iain Dixon and drummer Gene Calderazzo, plus guest Evan Parker playing tenor and soprano saxophones.
 
Recorded at a Jazz on 3 broadcast in 2004, it is a compelling manifestation of Green’s message that the best of music is indivisible, breaking free of categories. Mainstream, Post-bop, avant-garde and other pigeon-holes are washed away in the brilliance of the sounds as the foursome play unique versions of Monk and Billy Strayhorn with an intense love, musicianship and unity. These are true troubadours of freedom.

To catch Green himself playing live look out for Still Waters, the Henry Lowther band, whose album can’t believe, won’t believe came out to extraordinary reviews in 2018, and who still tour.

Dave Green Trio and Evan Parker: Raise Four is released on Trio Records.

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