Simon Spillett

Simon Richard Spillett (born November 4, 1974) is an English jazz tenor saxophonist.

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, Jimmy Skidmore and Lol Coxhill. 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, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Stan Kenton, Frank Sinatra 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 as typified by the Gerry Mulligan quartet and was influenced by trombone players such as Bob Brookmeyer, J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding.(2)

Spillett took up the alto saxophone aged 16, influenced by Charlie Parker and Paul Desmond, 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, Wynton Marsalis and Branford Marsalis. Aged 17, he switched to tenor saxophone and became deeply interested in the work of John Coltrane, Stan Getz and Sonny Rollins. Through his late teens he also became aware of other saxophonists including Tubby Hayes, Joe Henderson, Johnny Griffin, Dexter Gordon and Zoot Sims. He was, for a time, also interested in the free jazz of Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy. 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, Art Themen, Spike Robinson, Duncan Lamont and Willie Garnett among others. At the same time he began two and a half years of private saxophone tuition with Vic Ash, then a member of the BBC Big Band. 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, Hank Mobley and Al Cohn, as well as British saxophonists such as Ronnie Scott and 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 and drummer Bobby Orr.

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

During this period Spillett also played gigs with saxophonists Peter King and Alan Skidmore, trumpeters Janusz Carmello and Steve Waterman, trombonists Campbell Burnap and Don Lusher, guitarist John Etheridge and vocalist Tina May.

In 2004 Spillett played a quartet gig at the 606 Club in London with drummer Steve Brown and shortly afterwards formed his own quartet featuring pianist Mike Gorman, bassist Andrew Cleyndert and drummer Martin Drew, 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 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, Alan Barnes, Danny Moss, Bobby Wellins, Jack Parnell, Gwylim Simcock, Jim Mullen, Clark Tracey and Tony Kinsey. In 2007 he joined the Ronnie Scott's Jazz Orchestra. At this point Spillett was often said to recall the work of Tubby Hayes. His appearances drew heavily on Hayes' repertoire and approach, the effect heightened by endorsment from ex-Hayes players including drummers Allan Ganley, Tony Levin and Spike Wells. Spillett also makes appearances fronting big bands playing the arrangements of 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 on Woodville Records. Mixing standards 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's BBC 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 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 which remain unissued.

Awards and nominations

In 2007 Spillett won the BBC Jazz Award for Rising Star, accepting his award from actor Michael Brandon on BBC Radio 2 and 3 and appearing with the BBC Big Band directed by Guy Barker.

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. 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 File:Tubby Hayes - 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 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, although in interviews he credits John Coltrane as his favourite. He has also named Ronnie Scott, Dick Morrissey, Hank Mobley, Ben Webster, Stan Getz and Alan Skidmore as influences and is known to regard Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz as the three most important tenor saxophonists in jazz.

He names some of his favourite albums as Crescent by John Coltrane, Miles Smiles by Miles Davis, On Impulse by Sonny Rollins, Sweet Rain by Stan Getz, Mexican Green by Tubby Hayes, Inner Urge by Joe Henderson, Down Home by Zoot Sims, The Stylings of Silver by Horace Silver and The Couriers of Jazz by 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, Terry Shannon, Vic Ash and Tubby Hayes.

He has also complied and/or written CD sleeve notes for albums by Sonny Rollins, Gerry Mulligan, Stan Tracey, Ian Hamer, Tubby Hayes, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Artie Shaw, Kenny Wheeler and others for such labels as Cam-Jazz, Tentoten Records, ReSteamed Records, Jasmine, Harkit Records, Art of Life Records and Trunk Records.

In 2006, he co-authored the autobiography of Vic Ash I Blew It My Way and musicians such as Kenny Wheeler and Stan Tracey have commissioned him to write notes for their albums. A noted authority on British jazz from the 1950s to the 1970s, he is currently completing an extensive biography of 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 in 2010.

Notes

1. "The Simon Spillett Story" Jazz Rag issue 96 Spring 2007

2. "The Simon Spillett Story" Jazz Rag issue 96 Spring 2007

3. "Saxophonist Simon Spillett" Jazz Journal International April 2008

4. Jazz Journal International (Vol. 62, no. 3 May 2009

5. Jazz Journal International (Vol. 62, no. 3 May 2009)

6. "Saxophonist Simon Spillett" Jazz Journal International April 2008)

Discography

• Introducing Simon Spillett (Woodville Records 2006)
• Sienna Red (Woodville Records 2007)
• Similar Souls - Danny Moss and Simon Spillett (Avid Records 2007 -unissued)

External links

• Simon Spillett – official website
• Simon Spillett discography at Discogs