Simon Spillett Quartet

For ten years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, jazz musician, composer and arranger Tubby Hayes became a household name in Britain. Between 1960 and 1969, Tubby was voted Jazz Musician of the Year in the influential Melody Maker Music Awards no fewer than eight times. He performed with the likes of Quincy Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Henry Mancini to name just a few. He was the first solo UK jazz performer to be invited to play in the United States, where Miles Davis attended Tubby’s first gig in New York.

The first half of the evening will feature a screening of Tubby Hayes – A Man In A Hurry. Narrated by actor and Hayes fan Martin Freeman, the film charts the life and times of Tubby Hayes and features exclusive interviews with many of the musicians that worked with, and were influenced by, him. In the second half the Simon Spillett Quartet will perform a set featuring music composed by and related to Tubby.