Robert Coull "Bobby" Wellins (born on 24 January 1936) is a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 tenor saxophonist

Tenor saxophone

The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...

 best known for his collaboration with Stan Tracey

Stan Tracey

Stanley William Tracey CBE is a British jazz pianist and composer, most influenced by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk.-Early career:...

 on the seminal 1965 British jazz album Under Milk Wood.

Born in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Wellins studied alto saxophone and harmony

Harmony

In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...

 with his father before moving to London in the mid-1950s. He was a member of Buddy Featherstonhaugh

Buddy Featherstonhaugh

Rupert Edward Lee "Buddy" Featherstonhaugh was an English jazz saxophonist.Featherstonhaugh studied in Sussex, and had his first professional gig with Pat O'Malley in 1927. He was with Spike Hughes from 1930 to 1932, and toured England in Billy Mason's band behind Louis Armstrong that same year...

's quintet in the late 1950s, together with Kenny Wheeler

Kenny Wheeler

Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....

 and around that time also joined drummer Tony Crombie

Tony Crombie

Anthony John "Tony" Crombie was an English jazz drummer, pianist, bandleader and composer. He was regarded as one of the finest jazz drummers and bandleaders, and occasional but very capable pianist and vibraphonist, to emerge in Britain, and as an energising influence on the British jazz scene...

's Jazz Inc., where he first met up with pianist Tracey, and going on to join Tracey's quartet in the early 1960s.

In the mid-seventies he led his own quartet with the great pianist Pete Jacobsen

Pete Jacobsen

Pete Jacobsen, born Peter Paul George Jacobsen, May 16, 1950 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, died April 29, 2002 in London, England was an English jazz pianist....

, bassist Adrian Kendon (replaced later by Ken Baldock, and then Andrew Cleyndert in the eighties) and drummer Spike Wells. In the 1980s he formed a quintet with fellow sax player Don Weller

Don Weller (musician)

Don Weller , is a British jazz musician, tenor saxophonist and composer.-Career:...

 and then with guitarist Jim Mullen

Jim Mullen

Jim Mullen is a Glasgow-born jazz guitarist with a distinctive style, like Wes Montgomery before him, picking with the thumb rather than a plectrum.-Biography:...

, the former including Errol Clarke on piano and Andrew Cleyndert and Spike Wells on bass and drums respectively, the latter with Pete Jacobsen on piano. Since then he has led various quartets, most notably with Liam Noble on piano, Simon Thorpe on bass and Dave Wickens on drums. Latterly he has renewed his association with drummer Spike Wells with a quartet featuring Mark Edwards on piano and Andrew Cleyndert on bass.