BillF

I quite like his album Time Is of the Essence. I only saw him once - very early in his career in 1969 when the Horace Silver Quintet with Michael and Randy Brecker were at Ronnie Scott's.

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I think I'm right in saying Tony Williams arranged UK visits by US musicians in the 1970s. That's how I got to hear Al Haig and Joe Albany in Manchester. With the Spotlite albums at last we could hear the Parker Dials properly. Up till then I'd had to make do with max surface noise on labels like Guilde du Jazz.

Unconventional (Hampton style) piano technique, which is fine, but why didn't they give him a decent piano to play on?

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Probably not his home town, as Ronnie was a Londoner. More likely a sardonic comment on a small town where he'd played. Here are others from him on the same theme: "Last night they nuked Stockton-on-Tees. Did £3.50 worth of damage." "I played a gig in Tamworth once. They have only one set of traffic lights - at the crossroads in the middle of town. They change once a week - at 1 o'clock on Wednesday. Everyone comes out to watch."

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