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I first met Ronnie Ross through Don Rendell. I was living
in Rochester (Kent, England) in the fifties and had known
Don since the days of the Johnny Dankworth Seven.
Whenever he played in the Medway towns area Don would
come to my house for tea prior to the gig and sometime in
1954 he brought Ronnie along. I was immediately struck
by his charm and sense of humour. He was playing tenor
in those days and I m sure it was Don who later
convinced him he should switch to baritone.
Recorded evidence exists (now on Jasmine JASCD627)
of Ronnie s prowess on baritone a matter of weeks after
switching from tenor. He can be heard on three
performances by the Don Rendell Sextet at a concert held
in London s Royal Festival Hall in October 1954.
Ronnie had served for a time in the Grenadier Guards but
had bought himself out when he came to the conclusion
that a life in the army was not for him. At that first meeting
he told me he had also worked as an architectural assistant
for a time. This interested me because I was, by profession,
an architect. Ronnie told me his architectural days came to
an end after he d been sent to measure up an existing two-
storey building. When he came to draw out the plans from
the site dimensions he d taken he found the upper floor
was apparently considerably larger than the ground (the
two floors were actually the same size). Jazz clearly
benefited from his misreading of the measuring tape.
Earlier that year Don s sextet had been on the same bill
as Billie Holiday, on her first and only visit to the UK, but
I know of no recordings, amateur or otherwise, made
during this tour. In the spring of 1955 Don and Ronnie
joined a small band which had been formed by drummer
Tony Crombie. This was a lean time for British jazz units
and as Ronnie told me later that he wrote forthcoming dates
from Crombie gigs in his diary in pencil. That way he could
rub them out easily because a lot of them did not come off.
In August of 1955 Don Rendell joined the Ted Heath band
and I remember one evening when Don and Ronnie Ross
played at a jazz club somewhere in South East London.
The gig had been fixed by drummer Ronnie Verrell who
was also in the Heath band. Ron Verrell was then my
brother-in-law (I had married his sister in 1951). Prior to
that evening Ron had never worked with Ronnie Ross or
even heard him play. The evening was a complete success
and in the car driving home later that night my brother-in-law
was full of praise for Ronnie s highly individual work.
At the end of 1956 Don Rendell formed another sextet, again
with Ronnie Ross in the front line. Don asked me to think of
a name for the group and I came up with The Jazz Six; hardly
an inspired suggestion but it was accepted and used. I heard
this band play several times and always enjoyed the music.
Ronnie played both alto and baritone, Bert Courtley became
the regular trumpet player (Kenny Wheeler had played with
the sextet at the outset), Phil Seamen added his particular
excitement for a short time and the pianist was Ken Moule.
Ken was usually announced as the band s arranger but as
far as I recall his sole contribution to the book was scoring
Harry Warren s wartime hit ballad I Know Why for the sextet.
By now Ronnie Ross s name was well known in British jazz
circles but he was also being called to play on a variety of
record sessions. I met Don and Ronnie by arrangement one
evening after they had been working that afternoon as
members of a big band backing, I seem to recall, the actress
Diana Dors for an album released as Swinging Dors. Both
were good readers and reliable, two of the most important
attributes for musicians anxious to join the elite studio
musicians set.
In 1958 Ronnie made his first album as leader (this was by
virtually the Don Rendell Sextet minus Rendell). A few
weeks later he flew to the US to appear at the Newport Jazz
Festival with the International Youth Band , an orchestra
comprising principally young European jazz players such
as trumpeter Dusko Gojkovic and trombonist Albert
Mangelsdorf. In 1959 Ronnie and Don were important
members of the excellent sax team which was part of
Woody Herman s Anglo-American Herd formed to tour
Britain.
By now Ronnie was in internationally known and
respected musician whose outstanding musical qualities
were being recognized by such important figures as Herman
and John Lewis. Crossing the Atlantic had become part of
his professional career and in the spring of 1960, for example,
he was a member of the British band formed by Vic Lewis to
tour the east coast of the USA. Shortly after the tour I bumped
into Ronnie and Don Rendell in Cambridge Circus (the
junction between Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury
Avenue). I asked Ronnie about the US tour and he told me
the story of how the band (which contained Jimmy Deuchar,
Keith Christie, Vic Ash, Terry Shannon and Allan Ganley)
played a date in New York s Birdland. Vic was anxious to
show off his orchestra and invited players such as Gerry
Mulligan and Bob Brookmeyer to come along to hear his
new charts. Ronnie said they were nothing special, in fact
a number of the pieces were little more than head
arrangements although Jimmy Deuchar had contributed a
few worthwhile scores.
I think that was the last time I actually saw Ronnie to speak
to; he spent much time in the sixties and Seventies doing
studio work, playing in a variety of big bands (Maynard
Ferguson, Stan Tracey, Kenny Clark-Francy Boland, John
Dankworth) and working in Germany. When Tubby Hayes
died (June 8 1973) the late Peter Clayton (who never traveled
far without a portable Studer tape recorder) asked Ronnie for
his reaction to the news to include in a Sounds of Jazz
programme. I have seldom heard a more emotional response.
Ronnie and Tubby were very close and had worked together
on many occasions. I confess I was equally distressed when
I heard the news of Ronnie s death (December 12 1991) when
he lost his battle against cancer at the age of 58. Musicians
don t come any more talented or nicer as people than
Ronnie Ross.
A little background on Alun Morgan
Alun Morgan became interested in jazz during
World War II when, as a teenager, he heard the
artistry of such luminaries as Jelly Roll Morton,
Muggsy Spanier and Bunny Berigan. However,
his perception of the music fundamentally
changed when he heard a Charlie Parker recording
in the late nineteen forties. Tunnel vision, he wrote,
has bedevilled jazzappreciation for years as far as
many enthusiasts are concerned.
Writing for jazz periodicals (including Melody
Maker, Jazz Journal,Gramophone and Jazz Monthly)
commenced in the early nineteen fifties and radio
broadcasting on jazz in 1954. At about the same time,
Alun started writing sleeve notes for Vogue Records,
London. Althoughconcurrently working as a
professional architect, this was the beginning of a
long career during which he has written over 2500
notes for vinyl and CD recordings and compiled
many reissue albums, both for numerous labels.
Alun co-authored the seminal work Modern Jazz
with the late RaymondHorricks and this was
published by Victor Gollancz in 1956. He has written
a number of reference books on jazz recordings in
conjunction with others: Jazz on Record (Hutchinson,
1960) with Charles Fox, Peter Gammond and Alexis
Korner; Jazz on Record (Hanover Books, 1968) with
Albert McCarthy, Paul Oliver and Max Harrison; Modern
Jazz,The Essential Records (Aquarius Books, 1975)
with Max Harrison, Ronald Atkins, Michael James and
Jack Cook and The Gramophone JazzGood CD Guide
(Gramophone Publications Ltd., 1995) with Keith
Shadwick, Dave Gelly, Steve Voce, Brian Priestly and
others. His book,Count Basie (Spellmont Ltd.), was
published in 1984 and a major work on Gerry Mulligan
is among his other publications.
For twenty five years from 1969 Alun contributed a
weekly jazz column to a Kent newspaper. He has
lectured on jazz at many locations, including the
prestigious London venues the Guildhall School of
Music and the Royal Academy of Music.
Retirement from the day job in 1991 left Alun free to
devote even more time to freelance jazz writing. He is
currently engaged on a number of projects with the
Los Angeles record producer Dick Bank. A life-long
love of the music of Duke Ellington is still being
expressed by Alun inregular contributions to Blue
Light, the newsletter of the Duke EllingtonSociety of
the United Kingdom (DESUK). Indeed, the one essential
record that Alun would take to his Desert Island would
have to be something by Duke.
September 21 2007
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