From jazz warriors to tomorrow’s warriors

“The important thing to know is that it’s a chain. And everybody in that chain is imperative to keeping that freedom of expression called jazz alive” – Courtney Pine

“That’s always been part of the jazz tradition. You always get people on the bandstand and bring them up with you” – Nubya Garcia

I have had a direct connection with the U.K. or more specifically the London jazz scene going back to the late 60’s. I was fortunate to start my jazz odyssey at one of its periodic highpoints via a talented generation of twentysomethings who found in London in the late 60’s a fertile environment to meet, play, compose and perform. Mike Westbrook, Mike Gibbs, John Warren, Ian Carr, John Surman, Mike Osborne, Alan Skidmore, John Stevens, Evan Parker, Stan Sulzman, Norma Winstone & Harry Beckett were all part of that astonishingly creative generation. The surviving members of this stellar cast are still active on the contemporary jazz scene into their 70’s and 80’s.

They formed the next generation of apprentice jazz musicians who while respectful of the mentoring and inheritance they received from older players-Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes, Bobby Wellins, Joe Harriott, John Dankworth, Stan Tracey and Peter King all come to mind- were determined to fashion a variety of fresh approaches to jazz that were specifically rooted in their experience of growing up and working in the U.K.

This generation referenced and venerated the influences of Bird, Duke, Miles, Monk and Trane but no longer felt any lingering sense of inferiority in respect of the American mother ship of jazz. Their compositions, performances and recordings presented modern jazz that was 100% made in the U.K. and stood on their own merits.  Surman drew on English folk influences, many charted a distinctive path into freer jazz forms, Westbrook venerated Ellington but in his own unique voice, Ian Carr’s jazz rock compositions with Nucleus had a distinctive British vibe.

By the early 70’s modern jazz players had to adapt or die facing the tsunami of rock music on both sides of the Atlantic with jazz-rock, session music and free jazz providing the main avenues for maintaining one’s musical identity and credentials. Sustaining a professional life as a modern jazz musician had become very tough.

We had to wait until the mid-80’s for the next major upswing in the fortunes of UK jazz and this derived from a very different set of circumstances. The link to that hugely significant renaissance in home grown jazz came in the shape of the only  Black musician in my list of cutting edge players from the mid to late 1960’s – the great trumpeter Harry Beckett (1935-2010) so frequently present in the many jazz ensembles that I enjoyed seeing from the 1970’s onwards and , in his early 50’s an active mentor and elder statesman to the Jazz Warriors generation of young, predominantly Black London-based jazz musicians.

The Jazz Warriors

It’s a continuum and they’ve built on what we laid. So, they are able to travel and spread the British experience further and wider than we were able to. I just see it as a loop, a continuum. And it should be respected that way as well” – Cleveland Watkiss Jazz Warrior

“It had to start somewhere with a huge, big bang. And that’s what the Jazz Warriors was.  The world hasn’t seen anything like it” – Steve Williamson Jazz Warrior

For much of its history the modern jazz scene in the U.K. was largely made up of white musicians. There were, of course exceptions, the outstanding bassist Coleridge Goode who arrived in London in 1935 and had a 70 year career in jazz, the stellar saxophonist Joe Harriott whose start burnt brightly but much more briefly and the aforementioned Harry Beckett who arrived in London in 1954 at the age of 19.

Bubbling beneath the surface in the 1980’s was a group of predominantly young Black musicians, the children and grandchildren of families with roots in the Caribbean and African diasporas who were finding their own way into jazz, often via gospel, reggae, ska and hi-life music. They encountered a predominantly white jazz scene and sought and found places to rehearse, learn and play their own iterations of jazz. The following quote from trumpeter Claud Deppa puts it succinctly,

“In ’85 I started playing with the Grand Union Orchestra. Courtney Pine gets called in and when we got to Grand Union, he saw all of this and said to me’ Listen, man, the two of us are the only black guys in the band. Why don’t we have a black big band? And that was the beginning of the Jazz Warriors”

Courtney Pine and fellow saxophonist Steve Williamson had been hugely impressed by the impact that the young Wynton and Branford Marsalis, their exact contemporaries were having on the jazz scene in the USA and beyond. Pine established Jazz Warriors as “a self-contained ensemble and as a vehicle to increase musical literacy. The band featured many of the most talented musicians of their generation who would go on to become respected elders” Andre Marmot Unapologetic Expression page 177. It very quickly caught the attention both within and far beyond the jazz world. Pine and Williamson both briefly signed to major U.S. record labels. Their debut recordings shifted huge numbers, far more than the norm for modern jazz in the UK.

While the Jazz Warriors lasted a few years and produced only a single album, the legendary Out of Many, One People (with the 52 year old Harry Beckett on trumpet) their impact can still be felt both via the core of outstanding musicians who became Warriors and remain major figures on the jazz scene and their continuing impact and influence on the current generation of young musicians. Here is a brief roll call of musicians who passed through the Jazz Warriors finishing school,

• Courtney Pine, Steve Williamson, Soweto Kinch, Denys Baptiste and Jason Yarde – Saxes
• Byron Wallen, Claude Deppa – Trumpets
• Cleveland Watkiss – Voice
• Orphy Robinson – Vibes
• Dennis Rollins – Trombone
• Julian Joseph – Piano
• Mark Mondesir – Drums
• Michael Mondesir – Electric bass
• Gary Crosby – Bass

For the purposes of this piece, I want to highlight Gary Crosby who went on to co-found with his partner Janine Irons the second part of this Warriors story; Tomorrow’s Warriors.

Tomorrow’s Warriors

“Anything that we are doing now literally comes off the back of what they did; it’s not really possible to compare the two epochs, because one has led to the other” – Shabaka Hutchings-Tomorrow’s Warrior

“Jazz became a word to be proud of. Warriors put that in me. It became a word to be proud to be associated with that wealth of history and knowledge” – Femi Koleoso

“That community spirit is key, and I really hope they carry it on., because we’ve seen the power of it just by how their careers have blossomed” – Janine Irons

Gary Crosby and Janine Irons were very conscious of how quickly the momentum built up by the original Jazz Warriors dissipated. They were determined to create a model that would be more durable, entrepreneurial and community-based and together founded Tomorrow’s Warriors in 1991. In 1997 they set up and co-owned a record company, Dune Records which launched the recording careers of many TW alumni. In 2008 TW spun off the Nu Civilisation Orchestra directed by Peter Edwards which commissions and performs large scale big band projects covering the widest range of the jazz repertoire.  Click here to find my review of a Nu Orchestra performance featuring Nubya Garcia in 2023.

Next month I am going to hear them reprise Charles Mingus’s master work, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.

Thirty four years on and despite numerous challenges Tomorrow’s Warriors remains a powerful force within the London jazz scene. It is largely responsible for producing and nurturing the current crop of young jazz artists who together have made London one of the most exciting  places to experience contemporary jazz anywhere in the world. All of the following outstanding musicians are TW alumni.

• Shirley Teteh
• Nubya Garcia
• Shabaka Hutchings
• Femi Koleoso
• Theon Cross
• Cassie Kinoshie
• Zara McFarlane
• Moses Boyd
• Camilla George
• Ezra Collective who in 2023  became the first jazz band to win the Mercury Prize

And so encouraging to see the number of women musicians who are now coming through the TW process. Things looked very different in the mid-80’s! Or indeed in the late 1960’s when Norma Winston was the only female musician to make my list.

The Playlist

As you would expect my playlist features cuts from many artists associated with both Jazz Warriors and Tomorrow’s Warriors. Listen out for the huge range of influences way beyond core jazz that are reflected in these recordings.

I am greatly indebted to Andre Marmot’s excellent book Unapologetic Expression- The Inside Story of the UK Jazz Explosion. I sourced most of the quotes from this book which I highly recommend.