Simon Spillett - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Early life

The youngest of four children Spillett was born and raised in Buckinghamshire. Spillett's father Richard was a semi-professional jazz musician who studied trombone with Eddie Harvey, Ken Wray and Tony Russell and played gigs with saxophonists Tony Coe

Tony Coe

Anthony George Coe is a composer and jazz musician who plays clarinet, bass clarinet, and tenor saxophone.Coe began his performing career playing with Humphrey Lyttelton's band from 1957 to 1962...

, Jimmy Skidmore

Jimmy Skidmore

James Richard 'Jimmy' Skidmore was an English jazz tenor saxophonist born in London and father to tenor and soprano saxophonist Alan Skidmore, perhaps best-known for his work with George Shearing from 1950-1952...

and Lol Coxhill

Lol Coxhill

Lowen Coxhill, generally known as Lol Coxhill is a free improvising saxophonist and raconteur...

. He also led his own big band and worked with pianist John Patrick.(1)

Spillett's love of jazz grew through exposure to his father's record collection and by his teens he was listening to Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

, Dizzy Gillespie

Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...

, Stan Getz

Stan Getz

Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...

, Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins

Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...

, Stan Kenton

Stan Kenton

Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....

, Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

and others.
His musical life began at school,singing in school choirs, whilst at home he learned first cornet, then trombone and valve trombone from his father. By his early teens he was fascinated by West Coast Jazz

West coast jazz

West Coast jazz refers to various styles of jazz music that developed around Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s. West Coast jazz is often seen as a sub-genre of cool jazz, which featured a less frenetic, calmer style than bebop or hard bop. The music tended to be more heavily arranged,...

as typified by the Gerry Mulligan

Gerry Mulligan

Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also...

quartet and was influenced by trombone players such as Bob Brookmeyer

Bob Brookmeyer

Robert Brookmeyer is an American jazz valve trombonist, pianist, arranger, and composer.-Biography:Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Brookmeyer first gained widespread public attention as a member of Gerry Mulligan's quartet from 1954 to 1957. He later worked with Jimmy Giuffre...

, J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding

Kai Winding

Kai Chresten Winding was a popular Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is well known for a successful collaboration with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson.-Biography:...

.(2)

Spillett took up the alto saxophone aged 16, influenced by Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

and Paul Desmond

Paul Desmond

Paul Desmond , born Paul Emil Breitenfeld, was a jazz alto saxophonist and composer born in San Francisco, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for penning that group's greatest hit, "Take Five"...

, and taught himself how to play along with his father's record collection. At this point (1990) he became influenced by the jazz revival and musicians such as Courtney Pine

Courtney Pine

Courtney Pine CBE is an English jazz musician. At school he studied the clarinet, although he is known primarily for his saxophone playing. Pine is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing the flute, clarinet, bass Clarinet and keyboards...

, Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...

and Branford Marsalis

Branford Marsalis

Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.-Biography:Marsalis was born...

. Aged 17, he switched to tenor saxophone and became deeply interested in the work of John Coltrane

John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...

, Stan Getz

Stan Getz

and Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins

. Through his late teens he also became aware of other saxophonists including Tubby Hayes

Tubby Hayes

Edward Brian "Tubby" Hayes was an English jazz multi-instrumentalist, best known for his tenor saxophone playing in groups with fellow sax player Ronnie Scott and with trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest British jazz instrumentalists.- Early life :Hayes was born...

, Joe Henderson

Joe Henderson

Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...

, Johnny Griffin

Johnny Griffin

John Arnold Griffin III was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.- Early life and career :Griffin studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax...

, Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...

and Zoot Sims

Zoot Sims

John Haley "Zoot" Sims was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor and soprano.-Biography:He was born in Inglewood, California, the son of vaudeville performers Kate Haley and John Sims. Growing up in a performing family, Sims learned to play both drums and clarinet at an early age...

. He was, for a time, also interested in the free jazz of Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....

and Eric Dolphy

Eric Dolphy

Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist. On a few occasions he also played the clarinet and baritone saxophone. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the 1960s...

. At this time he also took up piano, clarinet and soprano saxophone.

Musical tuition

Aged eighteen, Spillett began to sit in at local jazz venues, appearing with saxophonists Dick Morrissey

Dick Morrissey

Richard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...

, Art Themen

Art Themen

Arthur Edward George 'Art' Themen is a British jazz saxophonist .Themen was born on 26 November 1939 in Manchester. In 1958 he began his medical studies at the University of Cambridge, going on in 1961 to complete his studies at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, qualifying in 1964...

, Spike Robinson

Spike Robinson

Henry Berthold "Spike" Robinson was a tenor saxophonist. He began playing at age twelve, making recordings with famous jazz and bop musicians on several labels including Discovery, Hep and Concord. However, he sought an engineering degree and followed that profession on a fulltime basis for nearly...

, Duncan Lamont

Duncan Lamont

Duncan William Ferguson Lamont was a British actor. Born in Lisbon, Portugal, but brought up in Scotland, he had a long and successful career in film and television, appearing in a variety of high-profile productions....

and Willie Garnett among others. At the same time he began two and a half years of private saxophone tuition with Vic Ash

Vic Ash

Victor "Vic" Ash , is an English jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Ash began playing professionally in 1951 when, together with Tubby Hayes, he joined the band of Kenny Baker, with whom he played until 1953...

, then a member of the BBC Big Band

BBC Big Band

The BBC Big Band, originally known as the BBC Radio Big Band is a British big band run under the auspices of the BBC. Widely regarded as the UK’s leading and most versatile jazz orchestra, the band broadcasts exclusivley on BBC Radio, particularly on BBC Radio 2's long running series Big Band Special...

. Spillett credits Ash with ironing out several bad musical habits and inspiring him to become a professional musician. Through Ash, he also gained exposure to the work of players such as Harold Land

Harold Land

Harold de Vance Land was an American hard bop and post-bop tenor saxophonist. Land developed his hard bop playing with the Max Roach/Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style. His tone was strong and emotional, yet displayed a certain fragility that made him easy to...

, Hank Mobley

Hank Mobley

Henry Mobley was an American hard bop and soul jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. Mobley was described by Leonard Feather as the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone", a metaphor used to describe his tone that was neither as aggressive as John Coltrane nor as mellow as Stan Getz...

and Al Cohn

Al Cohn

Al Cohn was an American jazz saxophonist and arranger and composer.-Biography:Alvin Gilbert Cohn was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was initially known in the 1940s for playing in Woody Herman's Second Herd as one of the Four Brothers, along with Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, and Serge Chaloff...

, as well as British saxophonists such as Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott was an English jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner.-Life and career:Ronnie Scott was born in Aldgate, east London, into a family of Russian Jewish descent on his father's side, and Portuguese antecedents on his mother's. Scott began playing in small jazz clubs at the age of...

and Tubby Hayes

Tubby Hayes

, the latter two seminal influences.(3)

Career

Spillett began playing gigs aged seventeen and worked his way through a variety of amateur and semi-professional bands ranging from rock, blues and mainstream jazz. By the age of 21 he had abandoned his day job to turn professional, working chiefly in function bands and rehearsal big bands. He also continued to "sit in" with established jazz players including violinist Johnny Van Derrick, saxophonist Stan Sulzmann

Stan Sulzmann

Stanley Ernest Sulzmann is an English jazz saxophonist.Sulzmann began on saxophone at age 13 and played in Bill Ashton's London Youth Jazz Orchestra, later the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music from 1969-1972...

and drummer Bobby Orr

Bobby Orr

Robert Gordon "Bobby" Orr, OC is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Orr played in the National Hockey League for his entire career, the first ten seasons with the Boston Bruins, joining the Chicago Black Hawks for two more. Orr is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest...

.

In 1998 Spillett joined a semi-professional big band The Millennium Jazz Orchestra, appearing on two CDs with the band and at Ronnie Scott's club in Birmingham and the 100 Club

100 Club

The 100 Club is a music venue in London situated at 100 Oxford Street, W1, originally called The Feldman Swing Club.The 100 Club attained legendary status in modern British music, having played host to live music since 24 October 1942....

in London. In 2001 he began composing his own music, inspired by pianist Horace Silver

Horace Silver

Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....

, and formed a two-tenor saxophone group named the Two Tenor Winners, which played his material exclusively, written in the vein of The Jazz Couriers

The Jazz Couriers

The Jazz Couriers were a British jazz quintet formed in April 1957 and which disbanded in August 1959.The quintet's first line-up consisted of Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott on tenor saxophones, with Terry Shannon , Malcolm Cecil and Bill Eyden and made their debut on the opening night at the new...

.

During this period Spillett also played gigs with saxophonists Peter King

Peter King (saxophonist)

Peter John King is an English jazz saxophonist, composer, and clarinettist.- Early life :Peter King was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, on August 11, 1940. He took up the clarinet and saxophone as a teenager, entirely self taught...

and Alan Skidmore

Alan Skidmore

Alan Skidmore is a tenor saxophonist of jazz and blues music, son of the saxophonist Jimmy Skidmore.-As a sideman:...

, trumpeters Janusz Carmello and Steve Waterman

Steve Waterman (musician)

Steve Waterman is a British jazz trumpeter, composer and educator.Waterman was born in Lincolnshire and educated at Trinity College. He leads a quintet and 18-piece jazz orchestra, holds several teaching posts...

, trombonists Campbell Burnap

Campbell Burnap

Campbell Crichton Mackinnon Burnap was a British jazz trombonist, vocalist and broadcaster....

and Don Lusher

Don Lusher

Don Lusher OBE was a jazz and big band trombonist best known for his association with the Ted Heath Big Band...

, guitarist John Etheridge

John Etheridge

John Michael Glyn Etheridge is a British jazz/fusion guitarist associated with the Canterbury Scene....

and vocalist Tina May

Tina May

Tina May is an English female jazz vocalist who has recorded several albums on the 33 Records label, born in Gloucester, U.K.. She lived in Frampton-on-Severn when she was young, and attended Stroud High School. Her ex-husband, Clark Tracey, appears on most of her albums for the label. May has...

.

In 2004 Spillett played a quartet gig at the 606 Club

606 Club

The 606 Club is a jazz club in Chelsea, London, owned and run by musician Steve Rubie since 1976. The club was originally at 606 King's Road, but moved to 90 Lots Road in 1987. It is currently licensed for 165 people. One, or sometimes two, jazz events are held every day, making it one of the...

in London with drummer Steve Brown and shortly afterwards formed his own quartet featuring pianist Mike Gorman

Mike Gorman

Michael "Mike" Gorman is a television play-by-play commentator for the Boston Celtics basketball team, currently broadcasting on the Comcast Sportsnet New England or the New England Sports Network cable channel...

, bassist Andrew Cleyndert and drummer Martin Drew

Martin Drew

Martin Drew was an English jazz drummer, who played with Ronnie Scott and Oscar Peterson .-Career:...

, from the Oscar Peterson trio.

This group rapidly attracted attention on the UK jazz circuit and within eighteen months Spillett had risen to prominence as one of the most promising young English jazz players. The quartet, with John Critchinson

John Critchinson

John William Frank Critchinson, "Critch", is an English jazz pianist. He was born in east London, 24 December 1934.In the early 50s he worked, as a part-time musician, with Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes, Jimmy Deuchar, among others. In 1979, at the recommendation of his mentor, Bill Le Sage, he joined...

replacing Gorman, was soon a popular attraction at UK jazz venues and festivals including Brecon, Swanage, Birmingham, Wigan, Southport and Wavendon and Spillett also worked with English jazz players including Sir John Dankworth

John Dankworth

Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE , known in his early career as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist...

, Alan Barnes

Alan Barnes (musician)

Alan Barnes is an English Jazz musician.- Career :Alan Barnes attended Leeds College of Music between 1977–80 where he studied saxophone, woodwinds and arranging before moving to London. In 1980 he played with the Midnight Follies Orchestra and the following year was with the Pasadena Roof...

, Danny Moss

Danny Moss

Dennis "Danny" Moss MBE was a British jazz tenor saxophonist. He was known for playing with most of the high profile figures of British jazz, including Vic Lewis, Ted Heath, Johnny Dankworth, Alex Welsh, and Humphrey Lyttelton....

, Bobby Wellins

Bobby Wellins

Robert Coull "Bobby" Wellins is a Scottish tenor saxophonist best known for his collaboration with Stan Tracey on the seminal 1965 British jazz album Under Milk Wood....

, Jack Parnell

Jack Parnell

John Russell Parnell was an English bandleader and musician.-Biography:Parnell was born into a theatrical family in London....

, Gwylim Simcock, 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:...

, Clark Tracey

Clark Tracey

Clark Tracey is an English jazz drummer. He is the son of Stan Tracey.Tracey played piano and vibraphone before switching to drums at age 13, studying under Bryan Spring. Tracey played in several ensembles with his father, including in a quartet called Fathers and Sons with John and Alec Dankworth...

and Tony Kinsey

Tony Kinsey

Cyril Anthony 'Tony' Kinsey is an English jazz drummer and composer.Kinsey held jobs on trans-Atlantic ships while young, studying while at port with Bill West in New York City and with local musician Tommy Webster in Birmingham. He had a close association with Ronnie Ball early in his life; the...

. In 2007 he joined the Ronnie Scott's Jazz Orchestra. At this point Spillett was often said to recall the work of Tubby Hayes

Tubby Hayes

. His appearances drew heavily on Hayes' repertoire and approach, the effect heightened by endorsment from ex-Hayes players including drummers Allan Ganley

Allan Ganley

Allan Ganley was a respected English jazz drummer and arranger, who played with many famous names....

, Tony Levin

Tony Levin

Tony Levin is an American progressive rock musician, specializing in bass guitar, Chapman stick and upright bass ....

and Spike Wells

Spike Wells

Michael 'Spike' Wells is an English jazz drummer and priest.He was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral Choir School, then became interested in jazz after coming across a recording by Dizzy Gillespie, which he found 'very exciting'.He took up drums in his early teens: 'I suppose the thing that...

. Spillett also makes appearances fronting big bands playing the arrangements of Tubby Hayes

Tubby Hayes

.

Spillett's current quartet (2011) features John Critchinson, Alec Dankworth and Clark Tracey.

Recordings

In 2006, Spillett recorded his first album with his quartet, produced by Alan Barnes

Alan Barnes (musician)

on Woodville Records. Mixing standards

Jazz standard

Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...

and original compositions, Introducing Simon Spillett became a best-seller for the label and received widespread coverage in the jazz media, including airplay on Humphrey Lyttelton

Humphrey Lyttelton

Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton , also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...

's BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

radio show The Best of Jazz and on the re-launched Jazz FM.

In 2007, a follow-up album, Sienna Red, was recorded by the same quartet with Spike Wells

Spike Wells

replacing Drew, this time drawing exclusively on the compositions of Tubby Hayes and including themes Hayes himself had never recorded commercially.
This album, too, was a best seller and attracted similar critical reaction to Spillett's first release.

In 2007, Spillett also recorded two albums' worth of material with saxophonist Danny Moss

Danny Moss

which remain unissued.

Awards and nominations

In 2007 Spillett won the BBC Jazz Award for Rising Star, accepting his award from actor Michael Brandon

Michael Brandon

Michael Brandon is an American actor who resides in the United Kingdom and United States.-Life and career:Brandon was born Michael Feldman in Brooklyn, New York to Miriam and Sol Feldman...

on BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

and 3 and appearing with the BBC Big Band

BBC Big Band

directed by Guy Barker

Guy Barker

Guy Barker is an English jazz trumpeter and composer. Barker was born in Chiswick, London, the son of an actress and a stuntman. He started playing the trumpet at the age of twelve, and within a year had joined the National Youth Jazz Orchestra...

.

The same year Spillett was also nominated in the Rising Star category of the British Jazz Awards. In 2008, Sienna Red was nominated as the best album in the BBC Jazz Awards

BBC Jazz Awards

The BBC Jazz Awards were set up in 2001 and had the status of one of the premier jazz awards in the UK. There were awards for Best Musician, Best Vocalist, Rising Star, Best Album, Jazz Innovation, Radio 2 Jazz Artist, Services to Jazz, Best of Jazz amongst others....

. Spillett was also nominated in the tenor saxophone category of the British Jazz Awards.

In 2009, Sienna Red won the critics' poll for Best Jazz Album of 2008/9 in Jazz Journal International.(5)

Spillett's work within the jazz record industry has also earned awards: in 2008 - The Little Giant (Properbox), which Spillett compiled and wrote a forty-page booklet for, was named reissue of the year in the British Jazz Awards. In 2011, Tubby's New Groove by Tubby Hayes, which Spillett helped to discover and wrote extensive annotation for, was voted reissue of the year in Jazzwise magazine.

In 2011 Spillett won the tenor saxophone category of the British Jazz Awards.

Media coverage

Spillett has broadcast on BBC Radio 3's

BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...

Jazz Line-Up with his quartet and has featured in several magazine interviews including in Jazz Rag (issues 96 and 97) and Jazz Journal (April 2008).

Influences

Spillett's primary influence on the tenor saxophone is often cited as Tubby Hayes

Tubby Hayes

, although in interviews he credits John Coltrane

John Coltrane

as his favourite. He has also named Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott

, Dick Morrissey

Dick Morrissey

Richard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...

, Hank Mobley

Hank Mobley

, Ben Webster

Ben Webster

Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...

, Stan Getz

Stan Getz

and Alan Skidmore

Alan Skidmore

Alan Skidmore is a tenor saxophonist of jazz and blues music, son of the saxophonist Jimmy Skidmore.-As a sideman:...

as influences and is known to regard Coltrane, Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins

and Stan Getz

Stan Getz

as the three most important tenor saxophonists in jazz.

He names some of his favourite albums as Crescent
Crescent
In art and symbolism, a crescent is generally the shape produced when a circular disk has a segment of another circle removed from its edge, so that what remains is a shape enclosed by two circular arcs of different diameters which intersect at two points .In astronomy, a crescent...

by John Coltrane

John Coltrane

, Miles Smiles
Miles Smiles
Miles Smiles received general acclaim from jazz critics upon its release, receiving praise for its original compositions, the quintet's chemistry and playing, and Davis's phrasing. CODA editor John Norris praised the quintet's "mastery of sensitive interaction" and wrote that they "must be one of...

by Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

, On Impulse
Sonny Rollins on Impulse!
Sonny Rollins on Impulse! is an album by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, his first to be released on the Impulse! label, featuring performances by Rollins with Ray Bryant, Walter Booker and Mickey Roker.-Reception:...

by Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins

, Sweet Rain
Sweet Rain
Sweet Rain is a jazz album by Stan Getz, released on the Verve record label in 1967.-Track listing:#"Litha" - 8:30#"O Grande Amor" - 4:44#"Sweet Rain" - 7:12#"Con Alma" - 8:06...

by Stan Getz

Stan Getz

, Mexican Green by Tubby Hayes

Tubby Hayes

, Inner Urge
Inner Urge
Inner Urge is an album by jazz saxophonist Joe Henderson released in 1965, the fourth recorded as a leader for Blue Note Records. It was recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on November 30, 1964...

by Joe Henderson

Joe Henderson

, Down Home by Zoot Sims

Zoot Sims

, The Stylings of Silver
The Stylings of Silver
The Stylings of Silver is an album by jazz pianist Horace Silver released on the Blue Note label in 1957 featuring performances by Silver with Art Farmer, Hank Mobley, Teddy Kotick, and Louis Hayes...

by Horace Silver

Horace Silver

Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....

and The Couriers of Jazz by The Jazz Couriers

The Jazz Couriers

.(6)

Jazz writing

A keen jazz historian, Spillett has contributed articles to magazines including Jazz Rag and Jazz Journal on subjects such as Hank Mobley

Hank Mobley

, Terry Shannon

Terry Shannon

Terry Craig Shannon was an information technology consultant, journalist and author. For over 30 years, he was involved in implementing PDP, VAX, and Alpha computers with their respective operating systems RSX, VAX/VMS; and OpenVMS & Windows NT...

, Vic Ash

Vic Ash

and Tubby Hayes

Tubby Hayes

.

He has also complied and/or written CD sleeve notes for albums by Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins

, Gerry Mulligan

Gerry Mulligan

, 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:...

, Ian Hamer, Tubby Hayes

Tubby Hayes

, Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...

, Lester Young

Lester Young

Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....

, Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

, Artie Shaw

Artie Shaw

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....

, 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 others for such labels as Cam-Jazz, Tentoten Records, ReSteamed Records, Jasmine

Jasmine Records

- History :The label was founded in 1982 as part of Hasmick Promotions. The label began by issuing LPs and cassettes of jazz and popular vocalists, but diversified to country and western in 1985. In 1990, the label released their first compact disc....

, Harkit Records, Art of Life Records and Trunk Records

Trunk Records

Trunk Records is a British independent record label, which specialises mainly in lost film scores, unreleased TV music, library music, sexploitation and kitsch releases...

.

In 2006, he co-authored the autobiography of Vic Ash

Vic Ash

I Blew It My Way and musicians such as 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 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:...

have commissioned him to write notes for their albums. A noted authority on British jazz

British jazz

British jazz is a form of music derived from American jazz. It reached Britain through recordings and performers who visited the country while it was a relatively new genre, soon after the end of World War I. Jazz began to be played by British musicians from the 1930s and on a widespread basis in...

from the 1950s to the 1970s, he is currently completing an extensive biography of Tubby Hayes

Tubby Hayes

.

In 2009 Spillett was still working with his quartet across the UK club and festival circuit, making guest appearances with various bands. He also co-led a quintet with Vic Ash

Vic Ash

in 2010.

Discography

Introducing Simon Spillett (Woodville Records 2006)
Sienna Red (Woodville Records 2007)
Similar Souls - Danny Moss
Danny Moss
Dennis "Danny" Moss MBE was a British jazz tenor saxophonist. He was known for playing with most of the high profile figures of British jazz, including Vic Lewis, Ted Heath, Johnny Dankworth, Alex Welsh, and Humphrey Lyttelton....

and Simon Spillett (Avid Records 2007 -unissued)

External links

Simon Spillett – official website

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