SONNY MORRIS REMEMBERED by Mike Pointon, Colin Bowden and John Sirett

Talk given at the Ken Colyer Trust Easter Parade at Sand Bay, 15th April 2001 and published in the Ken Colyer Trust Newsletter Winter 2001

As a follow-up to the talks given by Sonny Morris at our Easter Parades of 1999 and 2000, Mike Pointon presented a tribute to the late Sonny Morris at the 2001 event, with considerable help from Colin Bowden and John Sirett. 'Crazy' Ken Hall recorded their memories of this much-loved jazzman, and Mac Robinson once again produced the transcript.

Peter Hunter: Mike Pointon is now going to take over and give you a little talk and some music on the life and times of that wonderful Jazzman: Sonny Morris who, I'm sure you all know, died not so many weeks ago. So I'll now hand you over to Mike and I hope you'll appreciate everything you're going to hear.

Mike Pointon: Thanks very much. Now when they asked me to give a talk - that was a few weeks ago - my first reaction was, "What shall I talk about?" I haven't been to one of these events before, but I'd always heard how fine they were and what good weekends you had. I'd heard that Sonny had passed away, and then Pam told me that last year he had spoken about his career: virtually the first half, you might say, and there wasn't time to say it all. So I suggested that the best thing to do was to celebrate Sonny's life. I knew Sonny quite well, played with him a few times, but I thought it would be better - and more interesting for you - for me to be asking a few questions of some of the people who knew him best. So the man I'm going to be talking to now - and we are going to link it with pieces of music - is my old friend, Colin Bowden. Here he is... and we're also along the way going to ask John Sirett one or two questions, because of course he worked with Sonny for a long time too.

To set the mood for this: I interviewed Sonny some years ago because I was flattered that he'd asked me to write the sleeve-note for one or his CDs, which happened to be spirituals. Now, if you were here last year you'd know that it was at a great event in 1951 - when the (Crane River) Band was chosen to appear at the Festival Hall - that they made the record, I'm Travellin' , which is probably the greatest testament to the Crane River Jazz Band. You obviously heard that record because Sonny played it last year. Coincidentally the tune was also on the CD I've just mentioned so, when I was talking to Sonny I said, "That sounds very much like a Bunk record I heard from the '40s." Sonny said, "well they sent us a test pressing of a Bunk record one time, but we didn't know the real title, and it's actually I'm Travellin' ". So, I'm now going to play you Bunk with the Yurba Buena Band, in I think '43, with the gospel singer Lottie Peavey, doing When I move to the sky. And I think one of the lines in the lyric is "I'm travellin'". So let's listen to this.

Musical interlude.

MP: So there we are. And that, of course, was one of the great influences on Sonny and Ken and the whole Crane River Jazz Band. Now, when they played their concert at the Festival Hall in 1951 in front of the then Princess Elizabeth, there was a young fellow in the audience, and I think some of the atmosphere rubbed off on him because he was with the reunion of the Crane River Band many years later. Here he is...tell us about that, Colin.

Colin Bowden: Well, I was just sitting there; I'd never heard of the Cranes at all. We were collecting our Bunk Johnson records: Johnny Bastable, Dick Smith, Trefor Williams and myself. So I went to this concert and thought the Band was a knockout - just a wonderful sound, and I hadn't heard anything like it on the British scene. Also, I know for a fact it was one of the bands that made Humph very nervous. When we did the '73 revival concert in Hamburg - it was a British jubilee festival concert; all British bands - Humph and everybody else were at the side watching to see what would happen with the Cranes...and it happened...I'll tell you!

MP: At the Festival Hall in '51 there were lots of different style bands. What made the Cranes so different and outstanding for you, Colin? There was Mike Daniels, I think Humph was there, many of the famous bands of the day.

CB: The biggest ovation was for the Saints Jazz Band, who played a tune called 'I want a girl just like the girl that married dear old dad.' It was basically fast and furious, and that was the A-side of the Parlophone 78 you were discussing, and the ironic thing is that 78 now is famous for its B-side (I'm Travellin'). Well, while the Saints seemed very good, there was this great contrast with the Cranes which was for me just fantastic, just fantastic. Of course the rave notices came for The Saints and all the other bands, and I suppose The Cranes drifted on and drifted off, you know. But they made that great impression.

MP: We've got a track of the Band from that year, made at the Hammersmith Palais, doing Eh la bas! It's full of atmosphere, so let's have a burst of that.

Musical Interlude.

MP: Well there's a touch of the flavour of that period. Why do you think they seemed to have more of an American beat than lots of the British bands?

CB: It was the Bunk thing that did it: the 4/4 sound of that Bunk Johnson rhythm section with Dodds and Slow Drag and Marrero. They weren't on the Dixieland kick, and they weren't playing the 2-beat New Orleans style either. You know, the Watters band were playing 2-beat and, of course, one of Ken's pet hates was the Watters rhythm section. Ken used to call it "tank drumming" if you played an offbeat and a 2-beat bass drum. So I'm sure it was the 4/4 sound that the Cranes were after and, with Ben and Pat, they got it; plus Bill on washboard (or Cyril Louth on that record we just heard).... that rhythm section was playing 4/4.

MP: As we all know, Ken went to New Orleans in '52 - '53. Now I hadn't known until recently that, when Ken got back, and before he did those recordings that became so famous with Chris Barber and Monty, he actually had a reunion with The Cranes on record, and they recorded Creole Song as late as '53. So, we'll have a listen to that now.

Musical interlude.

MP: There's 'Creole Song' from a Cranes reunion in '53, with a nice relaxed beat. Now they could not find a drummer at the time.... Colin was otherwise occupied and he'll tell you about that time in '53.

CB: We were playing in a band called The Eagle Jazz Band with Trefor Williams, Kevin Sheldon, Dick Smith, and Bastable and we were doing our "Bunk bit" and we had no association with Ken or Sonny at all. We used to play the old 44 Gerard Street. It's true The Cranes did have trouble finding a drummer who would play 4/4. They just didn't want the Dixieland beat.

MP: Now Ron Bowden wasn't regular with The Cranes, was he?

CB: I don't know much about Ron's career at that time; you'd have to talk to him; he sort of drifted in and drifted out. But of course we are not related, and it's quite amazing really: both drummers, both playing jazz, same name, both living in the west side of London and not knowing one another at the time.

MP: And of course Ron was in that Band which was formed with Chris and Pat Halcox and others, which Ken then took over.

CB:That's right, so Ron probably came along about that time in '53. I joined Sonny in '54 and that was because at the time Ken had the Band with Barber and Donegan and the others.

MP:That's good because we've just moved on to the right point. According to John Chilton's very useful Who's Who of Jazz: "Colin Albert Edwin Bowden played with Sonny Morris before joining Ken". Let's hear about Sonny's band at that time.

CB: Mick Clift on trombone, Jeff Over on banjo, Ron Ward on bass, Neil Millett on clarinet. It's actually quite interesting: at that time there were two factions in the jazz world. It must have been mid '54, I think, I got two phone calls on the same day: one from Mike Daniels, the other from Sonny, both asking me to join their bands. Now I used to knock around quite a lot with Lonnie Donegan at that time, so I told Donegan about the two phone calls and he said, "Oh, great! What are you going to do?". I said, "I'm gonna join Sonny". Now Donegan had a very good eye for business and Daniels had a very well established band then, and he said, "No, No! You want to join Mike Daniels. You'll do very well and you'll get known on the scene." Well, I just turned round to Lonnie and said, "I want to play Bunk Johnson's music." And I joined Son's Band.

MP: You've got some diaries here from the period, Colin, can you give us a quote or two that might summon up the atmosphere then? Well, while you're looking through those, let's play another record. I was only a schoolboy at that time, but I was interested in jazz, and the first time I heard Sonny - because I wasn't quite old enough to go to the Festival Hall - was on an Esquire 78, which a friend of mine had bought, and which I found out subsequently was part of a series of records that Cy Laurie intended to be a sort of suite of streets in New Orleans. Cy had played mostly twenties music until then, but was doing more New Orleans-style music at that point in 1956. So, here with my old friend, Diz Disley on banjo, and that fine trombone player, Graham Stewart, is Sonny playing with Cy Laurie's Band on Bourbon Street Parade.

Musical Interlude.

MP: So that was the flavour of the Band when Sonny joined Cy in 1956. And he certainly contributed a really good New Orleans lead. Now there's an interesting point here that Colin's mentioned. He and Sonny were around when Ken broke up with Chris and Lonnie and the others. So maybe you can tell us a little about that, Colin?

CB: As I said earlier, we used to play at 44 Gerard Street, and I've got a note in the diary, which says 'Called in at Humph's. Saw Sonny. Ken was playing. Tremendous row between Tony (Lonnie Donegan) and Ken. That's the end of the Band'. That was about March, I think. Later on I've got a note that says, 'Went down to the 'White Hart', Southall. Sat in with the Albermarle Jazz Band. Pat was very worried about joining Chris in a fortnight's time'. That was the middle of May, and the actual date Pat joined Chris was June 1st 1954.

Coming back to my joining Sonny. At that time there was a Band playing at 44 Gerard Street called The Phoenix Jazz Band, who were playing the Wooden Joe stuff (they had a trumpet player called Vic Roberts). They and Sonny and I all used to mingle in that Club and, as I said earlier, it was late '54 when I joined Son's Band, and became involved with a man that I've respected greatly. He was what I would call "A Cantankerous Mr. Nice Guy". When he was being critical of something, he'd say, "No, I'm not moaning again, I'm just making an observation." And then it got to someone in the Band saying, "Oh, Sonny's making an observation again!" Let's bring John in on this, 'cos he has a much better memory than I have.

MP: Come and join us, John; we'll have a little symposium here. John was really the moving force behind the Band for a long time and really brought Sonny's career back into play. Now, looking at Sonny's CV, which is quite extensive, he did work with Pat Halcox for a while in the Albermarle Band on second trumpet, he did a stint with Terry Lightfoot, but then formed his own Band, and that I think was the time that I met Sonny. I was depping with Ken at that time on a riverboat shuffle, and he sort of grunted and said, "Hello", and that's the only time I'd really met him in those days.

I was a novice then, but time went by and I was playing at a pub called the Lord Napier in South London with Bill Brunskill. On one occasion Sonny was there with a very good Band with Mac Duncan, and of course they got together over the years and were a musical partnership. I believe it was fairly up-and-down but it was a wonderful front line and I think we'll play a bit of that before we speak with John because that gets us into the early '70s. Willie the Weeper from '72

Musical Interlude

MP: As Colin just pointed out, that's a good example of Sonny playing a very good straight lead - one of his great qualities. In those days, I think it's fair to say he was a rather brash player who seemed to mellow later on. Do you feel that, John?

CB(off-mike): Yeah! He stopped fighting!

John Sirett: Yes, he stopped fighting. He always fought with Colin. No, he certainly did become more mellow, and as Colin said, he could be very cantankerous but, overall, a lovely guy. I always remember we did the Gronau Festival in the early '90s and we were doing an open-air concert in the market. A spring in one of the valves went, which meant Sonny couldn't use the trumpet. So Theo Eiman, who was organising the Festival, said, "Don't worry, I've got a friend down the road and you can borrow his trumpet. Within minutes this guy arrived on a pushbike and presented Sonny with another trumpet. Sonny was delighted and we carried on with the session. At the first interval, he put the trumpet on his seat as he got up for his beer and the trumpet fell to the floor and hit the mouthpiece, so he couldn't get the mouthpiece out, and it was the time when John Clark and Eric Webster were in the Band. So they offered to assist Sonny in removing the mouthpiece. We were standing outside this restaurant, so in they went and disappeared for about 15 minutes. Eric came out and, as you know, he always looks so young and now he didn't look very happy and he slid up to Sonny with this trumpet which seemed to be in two pieces. John Clark sheepishly approached as well. All the valves had come unwelded and Sonny was distraught. The rest of the band just collapsed on the floor. Luckily the guy who'd loaned it was not there at the time. So we got the gaffer tape out (the tape you use for the PA system so people don't trip over the wires) and we wound tape all around this trumpet. You could hardly see the trumpet - totally covered in tape with just three little valves sticking out. But we managed to finish the session. Now, we did a concert in the evening and were on this very high stage. Sonny was there with his whisky and his beer and we were getting ready to start when this trumpet player who'd loaned the instrument arrived. He was deadpan 'cos we'd put him up to it..."Everything all right with the trumpet, Sonny?" says he. Well the Band had to leave the stage, and Sonny was in a mess, but it all worked out in the end. He told the chap the truth and offered to pay for repairs to the trumpet, but the Festival organiser actually paid for it.

MP: You two guys knew him so well over a long period. What would you say were really his main qualities?

JS (off-mike): Holding his drink

CB: I think his greatest quality was his patience as a driver.

(Uproar from the floor)

CB: I have never ever met such a patient driver in all my life. No, he was a knockout. I have tried a couple of times to write down some things about him, but it all looks so trite when you try to put these things down. When I say he was a Cantankerous Mr. Nice Guy, the Nice Guy is in very big letters, I'll tell you! He was straight down the middle, and in the music business people like him are few and far between. He had very fixed ideas about his music, and he didn't suffer fools gladly. No doubt about it: Mr. Nice Guy...and a wonderful driver...!

MP: As you said that, Colin, I was just thinking of a record that I treasured at the time - because not many people were playing that kind of music over here - tell us a little bit about the Omega Brass Band session that you did. I don't have a track here, but that was another example of Sonny's work, alongside Ken in a brass band.

CB: Both the photo session and the recording session were pandemonium. Bastable didn't turn up, nobody knew where he was, so Neil Millett had to play bass drum. It was so fraught. Ken was in a foul mood. If you look very carefully at the photograph on the front of the LP: Ken's playing trumpet, Ian Wheeler's playing clarinet, and Sonny is playing trombone because Duncan failed to turn up for the photo session. So the photograph was a disaster, then when we actually got to the recording session, Bastable didn't turn up for that either! But it was a wonderful Band.... my God! The three trumpets were behind me: Sonny and Ken and Bob Wallis, and Son always played, just like that record, right down the middle. Ken and Son used to swap the lead a lot, but it wasn't a competition at all. As Sonny said, it was no good getting another trumpet player up when Ken had gone because he just couldn't get the same rapport. They would swap the lead in the middle of choruses - just the way they sensed the melody line between them; almost as though just one person is playing. Quite amazing.

And for those Aldermaston parades: we used to start at 10 o'clock in the morning at Turnham Green and Chiswick and Parade all the way 'round Marble Arch and on to Trafalgar Square, then go and play at the 51 in the evening. Wonderful days!

MP: I just want to touch again on the way the Cranes were re-formed, because you were invited to come into that. We're going to play a track from a CD that's been issued only recently, from a German session; it's called A Storming Session, which it certainly is. Colin, maybe you could set this up for us: how it was joining the Band and what your feeling was being a part of that.

CB: Ken summed it up, actually. We started with a trial session down at the Grey Horse, in Kingston, but the first actual job was in Nottingham. Ken introduced the Band and, when he got to me, he said, "...And we should've found him earlier!" In other words, I should have been in the first formation. Oh, yes, when I joined the Band and we did those sessions in '73, I was over the moon about it. And, you know, when you leave Ken you shut the door! People were afraid of us meeting and so-forth. Monty got us together again at some point.... I just breezed in and said, "Hello, Ken".... and he said "Oh, Hello man". But that Crane River session in Hamburg was something else. The first tune we played...there was a stunned silence at the end of it; I never ever experienced it before...really only a fraction of a second and then a wall of sound. In all my years on stage I have never been involved with such fantastic applause.

Musical interlude.

MP: There are so many other things to say about Sonny and his accomplishments. He worked in Len Baldwin's Dauphin Street Six at one time. So not only did Len help bring back Ken's career, he helped revive Sonny's career at that particular time. Now, when John was involved in getting the Delta Band together, they made several impressive albums and I had the privilege to review one (as mentioned earlier) and do a sleeve note; it was one of spirituals done at Lulworth Cove. I was thinking - to add a bit of unity to our talk - we should end today with a track that they recorded from this spirituals album, namely 'I'm Travellin'. We'll play-out this celebration with that track, but let's have another word from Colin and John before we sign off.

JS: This particular CD was done at a festival Edward Black organised at Lulworth Cove. Dear old Edward...whatever he touched was a disaster, really. We enjoyed the "festival" but there was no one there! We played a session in a church to about 6 people. But we went back a few months later and recorded this CD. Sonny had always wanted to do a CD of hymns and spirituals, which he loved so much. This was what came out and we were very pleased with it. Hope you enjoy it.

CB: What can I say about that spirituals album?...Brushes! I played brushes all the way through that session. So quiet and polite! One of the tunes we did was a trio with Terry Giles playing the clarinet, and the acoustics of that church were incredible. The clarinet really did sound wonderful, but the whole thing was a very gentle gig. It's a good record, and a good memory of Son. But, then, everything is a good memory of Son, really. There are just so many things and so many wonderful memories...

Musical finale

PH: To Mike Pointon, to Colin Bowden, to John Sirett for their reminiscences, and to a fabulous Jazzman, Sonny Morris, our grateful thanks today.

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