1959
From the back cover:
"Those eminent American jazz critics, Leonard Feather and Nat Hentoff – both very good friends of mine, by the way – sometimes criticized my band for leaning towards commercialism." Ted Heath paused for a moment, then smiled; he was sitting at a desk in his office high above Albermarle Street, talking about 'Things To Come'. "In their hearts, of course," he went on, "Leonard and Nat both appreciate the problems facing the leader of any big band. He can either play jazz all the time to a small audience, or else slant his music a little more commercially and capture a wider public – and thereby keep his orchestra intact.
"But this LP," Ted continued, "is for Leonard and Nat. We've made it for them and we hope they like it. Not only does the band play the way it wants to, but we've also go together some of the fine jazz men who've worked with us in the past. Unfortunately, when some of them were with the band it wasn't always possible to feature them as much as their talents deserved; even here there isn't enough space to display them as fully as I'd have liked. But at least the record gives a fleeting glimpse of them and of us."
Ronnie Roullier's Fours presents three famous ex-members of the Ted Heath orchestra, each of them now a bandleader in his own right, as Don Rendell, Ronnie Scott and Tommy Whittle join Red Price to make up a section of four tenor saxophones. Don Rendell takes the fist solo, after which comes a four-bar bridge passage, followed by twenty bars from Red Price. Twelve bars by the full band ushers in a set of two-bar exchanges between Ronnie Scott and Tommy Whittle. After Whittle has taken a twelve-bar solo, all the tenor players join in on a set of "fours".
Kenny Baker and Stan Roderick were both members of Ted Heath's original band, staying with it until 1950, while Ronnie Hughes played with Heath from 1950 to 1955 and Joe Hunter has often deputized on occasions when someone in the Heath trumpet section has been sick or absent. Ronni Roulleir's arrangement of Stompin' At The Savoy displays the four visitors playing on their own, the section led by Kenny Baker. In the first chorus the regular Heath trumpet team (using Harmon mutes) alternate with the visitors (using cup mutes); the release is taken by Kenny Baker playing with a plunger mute. Eddie Blair, his trumpet tightly muted, and Joe Hunter, playing open, split the second chorus between them. The theme is then taken up by the full orchestra, with Kenny Baker again playing the release.
Waterloo Bridge, one of the most ambitious works to be written so far by Ken Moule, finds the composer exploiting an eight-piece reed section, for Roy Willox, George Hunter and Ronnie Ross were all added to the regular Heath reed section on this track. Willox and Hunter both worked with the band for a number of years, while Ronnie Ross, until quiet recently a member of Don Rendell's Jazz Seven, was chosen to represent Britain in the international band at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. The reed section actually heard on this track comprises Ronnie Chamberlain and Roy Willox (soprano saxes), Lee Gilbert and George Hunter (alto saxes), Red Price and Henry Mackenzie (tenor saxes) and Ken Kiddier and Ronnie Ross (baritone saxes). The composition begins gently, the higher-pitched reeds replying to Ronnie Ross's baritone solo. some particularly intricate passages for reeds can be found towards the close of the middle section, with soprano and tenor saxes – scored together – answering phrases form the baritones. Two bars from Johnny Hawksworth set the slower tempo of the final section, leading the band back to the original theme.
Ladd Busby, Harry Roche, Jackie Armstrong and Maurice Pratt – all former Heath sidemen – brought the trombone section up to eight strong for Out Of Nowhere. Ronnie Roullier's score not only used all eight trombones in concert but also opposed them in sections. Keith Christie, Ladd Busby and Maurice Pratt, in that order, can be heard playing short solos during the second chorus.
The renaming tracks all present the regular Ted Heath orchestra. Ernesto Lecuona's Taboo, arranged by Johnny Keating, features Eddie Blair's trumpet while Stan Tracey plays piano in his own arrangement of I'll Remember April. Tracey's style differs from that of his predecessor, Frank Horrox; instead or using light, rippling phrases, Tracey is fond of inserting heavy, stabbing chords, rather in the Thelonious Monk manner. Ken Moule's score from Sometimes I'm Happy swings lightly and easily; Bobby Pratt plays the release in the first chorus, and Eddie Blair takes the final sixteen bars of the next chorus.
"I think it gets a different sound, something that hasn't been done before," says Ted Heath of the vibraphone-clarinet-soprano sax scoring heard in Frank Horrox's arrangement of Just You, Just Me. This voicing, incidentally, has now become familiar through the success of Ted Heath's version of Swingin' Shepherd Blues. Stan Tracy (vibes), Henry Mackenzie (clarinet) and Ronnie Chamberlain (soprano sax) from a trio that moves nimbly against the full orchestra, creating a formal relationship rather like that in a concerto grosso.
Ronnie Roullier's musical tribute to "the noblest art", the Ringside Suite, is divided into five sections. Weighin' In, the opening section, happens – fittingly enough – to have been loosely inspired by Dizzy Gillespie's tune, The Champ. Seconds Out has a snatch of trumpet form Eddie Blair, while the slow, sensual theme of Lady Admirer is stated by Ronnie Chamberlain's soprano saxophone and later echoed on Don Lusher's trombone. Les Gilbert can be heard playing an alto saxophone solo in the faster, more extravert Below The Belt, and the suite comes to a brassy, exciting climax with Fighting Finish.
"I hope the record gives some idea of the band as it is at the moment, as well as letting people hear a few of the wonderful musicians who have played with us in the past." Ted Heath pushed the bundle of scores to the side of his desk. "And then there are the arrangers," he added, "They've all been writing for the band during the past couple of years.
"You know," he went on, "we've had remarkably few changes in the band's personnel over the years. With just a few exceptions, you might say that this LP presents nearly everybody. You could almost describe it as a gathering together of old friends.
"And don't forget –" Ted Heath wagged a finger at me as I rose to leave, "Don't forget to say that we hope Leonard and Nat enjoy the record!" – Charles Fox
Four Fours
I'll Remember Paris
Sometimes I'm Happy
Ringside Suite
Weighing In
Seconds Out
Lady Admirer
Below The Belt
Fighting Finish
Stompin' At The Savoy
Waterloo Bridge
Just You, Just Me
Out Of Nowhere
Taboo
