KEEPER OF THE FLAME - by Spike Wells (Continued)

One cannot really reach for the usual critical cliché "underrated" in Bobby's case, because I cannot believe that anyone with an ounce of musical wit who listened carefully to him would underrate him. It is rather that, for a variety of reasons, some personal, he has been woefully underexposed and remained in the shadows, retaining a hard core of devotees (most of those I have met are themselves musicians) but not widely known to the jazz public. Bobby made his recording debut 22 years ago and his appearances on record ... since then have been, as Brian Davis comments, pitifully few.

Bobby was born of musical parents in Glasgow in 1936 and he acknowledges a large debt to his father both for developing his ear and for making sure that the technical explanation of what could be heard was not overlooked. A thorough exploration on the piano of the chords of Swanee River (a vehicle which Wellins senior chose as containing most of the fundamental changes) sticks in Bobby's memory. In the fifties, there was the traditional apprenticeship with the dance bands, including an incident-packed trip to the States with Vic Lewis.

One afternoon, emerging into the dazzling sunlight from his New York hotel, Bobby was confronted by an apparition familiar from photographs - silhouetted, languid frame topped by porkpie hat. He plucked up courage to introduce himself and spent the next two hours in the bar, proudly introducing the rest of the band to Pres. Other tenor influences are numerous: Hawk, Ben, Getz, Coltrane, Rollins, Wardell, Dexter, Harold Land and Teddy Edwards - a comprehen-sive list which actually gives little clue to the singularity of Bobby's own mature style.