Combine the sound of Quincy Jones's and Maynard Ferguson's big bands of the late 1950s and early 1960s and you wind up with Harry South. The British pianist, composer and arranger led monster big bands in the U.K. during these years. The bands he assembled included crack instrumentalists such as Ronnie Scott, Ronnie Ross and Tubby Hayes. South knew he had a hot thing going. In the early '60s, he imagined a world where bands like his were the rage once the Liverpool mop-top thing had yeah-yeah-ed itself out. What South didn't realize back then was that the Fab Four hysteria wasn't a fad but the future. The big band music he treasured may have seemed as if it was halfway to international success but in truth it was halfway to pasture. Nevertheless, at the time, South ran the most explosive British big band since Ted Heath.
Fortunately for us, the U.K.'s R&B Records has released Harry South: Further South, a four-CD boxed set that documents South's live broadcast recordings on the BBC from 1960 to 1967. If you dig the two American bands mentioned above—sophisticated swing with a Count Basie punch and tiger soloists—the South box is a feast. In addition to the Harry South Big Band tracks, which make up the bulk of the set, there also are live recordings by South on piano in the Dick Morrissey Quartet. [Photo above, from left, of Harry South and Georgie Fame]
Culled from South's own tape archive along with previously unissued material, the box includes several surprises. In addition to strong arrangements and originals such as The Goblin, Pancho and the Sound of Seventeen, there also are 10 tracks by vocalist Georgie Fame in 1965, including three Basie tunes—Down for the Count, Li'l Darlin' and Little Pony. The box's sound overall is good enough (it's live, after all), and the set includes a 28-page booklet with detailed notes. [Photo of Harry South above at the top]
Once rock and soul's invasion of the music landscape was complete in the late 1960s, South traded in his dream of a modern big-band Shangri-La for a more practical career: He composed, arranged and conducted the themes to some of British TV's most popular dramas. But to South's credit, during the years he imagined that jazz orchestras would conquer the word, he led a hair-raising example of what that kingdom might have sounded like.
Harry South died in 1990.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Harry South: Further South (R&B Records) here.
JazzWax clips: Here's South's The Goblin in 1960...
Here's Save Your Love for Me in 1965...
Here's Georgie Fame singing Little Pony with the Harry South Big Band in 1965...
And here's You Know I Care in 1967, with a spectacular tenor saxophone solo by Tubby Hayes...