1960s British Baritone Player Glenn Hughes

[rhysonsax]

I was reading an interview with guitarist John McLaughlin where he mentioned baritone saxophonist Glenn Hughes who played in some of the same 1960s British R&B and jazz bands with John. He found some success with Georgie Fame but died very young in 1966.

I couldn't find much information about Glenn but there is an interesting article online here. It says that Glenn "was a tall guy, and he handled that horn like a tenor." So I think he may well be the tall bari player in this video of Georgie Fame:

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View: https://youtu.be/RdrdN1PFa-U?si=m1PzBI_VeK3yrars


The online article mentions a live recording that Glenn Hughes was on with the Don Rendell Sextet in 1963 (which I have just ordered) and there is a photo of him from about 0:20 in this video, with a rapid solo that starts at about 0:40.

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He sounds like a monster player - does anyone know any more about Glenn ?

Rhys

 

[rhysonsax]

I found another online source with a little additional information about Glenn Hughes.

Beginning in mid-December [1963], the Pigalle gig with The Niddy Griddys (a name never referred to again) was a three-week booking extended to three months: “It allowed me to have a five-piece band,” says Brian [Auger]. “And I brought John [McLaughlin] in on that and Glenn Hughes who was a phenomenal baritione sax player. Glenn was the best baritone player I’d ever seen at that point. I had records with Pepper Adams on them, and Serge Chaloff, and I thought Glenn was better than either of those. He handled that horn like a tenor.”​

​

Prior to the Tony Meehan adventure, Glenn had been sporadically active around London’s jazz pubs as both a soloist (with resident rhythm sections) and in co-leader partnerships with Dick Morrissey (tenor sax/ flute), Ian Hamer (trumpet) and Jimmy Skidmore (tenor sax).​

​

“Glenn wasn’t terribly well-known,” says Rick [Laird]. “Ronnie Ross was the main baritone player around London at that time. [But] Glenn was a rising star kinda guy. John [McLaughlin] and I were good friends right away.”​

Following the collapse of the gig, in March ’64 the musicians went their separate ways. John, Glenn and Rick formed a trio, to which John would refer briefly but affectionately in interviews during the following decade. In one such, he refers to Glenn as the leader. Rick recalls it differently: “We had a one-night gig at Ronnie’s. I mean, I didn’t call it my trio [but] I had had gigs at Ronnie’s before. I’d worked with Ronnie Scott and his quartet before Brian Auger, so I knew Ronnie, and sometimes on Monday nights at the old club they used to have odd groups. I think we only played one. It wasn’t like a committed group.”​

​

In fact, there were at least two gigs, both naming Rick as leader: a Ronnie Scott’s date in late May ’64, not listed in the club’s advertising but referred to a week later in the Melody Maker’s Raver column; and an advertised gig at Klooks Kleek a month later, as The Ricky Laird Quartet featuring Glenn Hughes – a bargain three shillings (15p) on the door.​

​

As the anonymous Raver columnist put it in probably the only contemporaneous commentary on the band: “Baritone saxist Glen [sic] Hughes playing great stuff on the Rick Laird Trio’s debut at the Scott Club. This trio is really something different…”​

Glenn Hughes, recalled by fellow musicians as an outstanding musician (“the John McLaughlin of his instrument” being session guitar king Big Jim Sullivan’s estimation), achieved a level of success as a member of Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames during their hit-making heyday of 1965-66. He died in a fire at his Shepherd’s Bush home on Friday, October 28 1966, aged 24, having been forced to quit The Blue Flames shortly before they broke up in September that year because of what was reported as “ill health”. Glenn’s ill health, and the indirect cause of his death, was heroin addiction. He never got to leave a legacy of great recordings. John McLaughlin’s path would be different.​

​

Rhys

 

[MMM]

I was reading an interview with guitarist John McLaughlin where he mentioned baritone saxophonist Glenn Hughes who played in some of the same 1960s British R&B and jazz bands with John. He found some success with Georgie Fame but died very young in 1966.

I couldn't find much information about Glenn but there is an interesting article online here. It says that Glenn "was a tall guy, and he handled that horn like a tenor." So I think he may well be the tall bari player in this video of Georgie Fame:

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

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View: https://youtu.be/RdrdN1PFa-U?si=m1PzBI_VeK3yrars


The online article mentions a live recording that Glenn Hughes was on with the Don Rendell Sextet in 1963 (which I have just ordered) and there is a photo of him from about 0:20 in this video, with a rapid solo that starts at about 0:40.

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

View: https://youtu.be/ocZh5rUsuFg


He sounds like a monster player - does anyone know any more about Glenn ?

Rhys

What a cracking solo! What a shame he didn't do more recordings and stayed alive longer!

 

[rhysonsax]

What a cracking solo! What a shame he didn't do more recordings and stayed alive longer!

To die at 24 years old is a tragedy - he obviously had plenty of ability and the potential to go much further. Here's another fine solo from the same live album recorded live when Glenn was around 21 !

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Judging from the photograph and the video footage with Georgie Fame, I would say he possibly played a Conn 12M and had different setups for different styles.

• for pop / R&B: metal Berg Larsen with a strange ligature - possibly Wagner ?
• for Jazz: ebonite Berg Larsen with a strange ligature that I don't recognise

Conn 12M + Berg Larsen ebonite is what my hero Ronnie Ross played and I guess there are similarities in their sounds.

Rhys

 

[rhysonsax]

The CD of Don Rendell and his Sextet Live at Klooks Kleek that I ordered, finally arrived yesterday. It had been delivered in error to a vacant house near us.

The recording quality is OK but the music is very good, with three fine horn players:

• Don Rendell on tenor and soprano sax
• The great Kenny Baker on trumpet and flugel
• Glenn Hughes on baritone sax

There are good liner notes written by Ian Shirley who set up and runs OM Swagger, the label responsible for the LP and CD release.

The notes are supplemented by an Appreciation of Glenn Hughes written by Geoff Williams who was Dick Jordan's partner in the Klooks Kleek club.

Glenn first crossed Dick Jordan's path in 1959 when, just out of his teens, he popped into an earlier incarnation of Klooks, at the Railway Hotel. Like the minstrels of old, at that time he carried his instrument with him when he was out and about, found a club, begged a blow and usually blew the minds of the crowd ! He became an integral part of the John West Group that was the first resident backing band at Klloks and was soon a Klooks favourite; sometimes needing to take care that he did not overshadow the featured soloist appearing with the band. Being young, tall and good-looking did Glenn no harm either. He became a "name" in his own right, soloing in clubs and well known to other musicians. In modern parlance his natural style would be described as fast and furious, in contrast to the cool style of Britain's best-known baritone player, Ronnie Ross - famous for that solo on Lou Reed's hit "Walk On the Wild side" - and also a regular performer at Klooks. So, why not have the two of them on stage together ? Dick persuaded Ronnie that it would be popular with the members. In actuality 'popular' was an inadequate prediction, the crowd could not get enough of the two of them on top form, and Ronnie remarked to Dick how accomplished Glenn was, a rare compliment to someone of his age as jazz players were normally being expected to serve their time in studios or touring orchestras before appearing solo (honourable exception for Tubby Hayes!). As noted in Dick Weindling and Marianne Colloms' book, Decca Studios and Klooks Kleek, Glenn told me at the end of the session "I got the old bugger waggling his arse in the last number".​

​

Glenn loved belting out a tune but he could play in any mode. He started by doing Jimmy Giuffre-style cool with guitarist John McLaughlin, and he loved to do 'six guns blazing'. When jazz gave way to R&B in public appreciation he became a valued member of the Blue Flames backing Georgie Fame along with Peeter Coe, Speedy Acquaye and others. It amused him that he could make a month's money by playing the same two notes about twenty times on Georgie's pop hit 'Get Away', but he was very happy playing the band's jazz-tinged standard repertoire. While his professional life was progressing nicely, his personal life crumbled under the influence of Class A stimulants and Glenn died in a house fire before his 30th birthday. We will never know whether he might have become a giant of the genre.​

And there is a fine photo of Glenn accompanying that Appreciation which shows that his baritone had the wrong bell brace to be a Conn 12M. I need to do some more research to find out what it was.

The photo is also completely different to the one used on the Discogs webpage for Glenn - I think Discogs have used a picture of a different saxophonist (tenor player) who also played with Jet Harris.

Rhys