All involved in an engrossing documentary covering the short life (38 years) and fast times (a descent into heroin addiction ending in heart failure) of Edward "Tubby" Hayes agree that Britain's finest jazzer - unwillingly dubbed "The Little Giant" on account of his diminutive stature and majesterial talent - would have been an icon had he only been born in America.
As it was, Hayes came into the world in 1935 by way of Raynes Park - and conquered it by dint of a prodigious talent born of an innate musicality: his first instrument was the tenor sax, chosen on sight outside a music shop when he was six, and received as birthday present when Tubby turned 12. (He turned professional at 15.) Later came the vibes and ultimately the flute - the latter echoing the path taken by one of his jazz idols, John Coltrane.
Hayes' relative youth coupled with his extreme effectiveness as a sideman - and later band leader - would guarantee him a leading role in post-war London jazz scene, a whirligig existence of endless tours, innumerable recording sessions (including The Italian Job soundtrack), two television series for ATV as well as regular opportunities to play alongside his beloved be-bop idols in the United States (Miles Davis made a point of dropping by his debut gig in New York).
All of which should had heralded a long and glorious career. But as Robert Elms points out, Hayes fell foul of jazz's Grim Reaper - in his case a gradually escalating drug habit that ulitmately cost him his life.
By which time Hayes wasn't so much the forgotten man of British jazz as the executor of its last will and testament: rock'n'roll having long since parlayed its ineffable cool into global dominance, leaving Tubby and his cohort to languish in a corner of British music history. A history that Lee Cogswell's heart-felt docu-tribute does a wonderful job of reanimating.
Read more on jazz
- The do's and don'ts of jazz according to Gregory Porter
- Damien Chazelle: 'My next film will have less cymbal throwing'
Tubby Hayes: A Man In A Hurry is out now.
