This is the story of how jazz came to these shores and is a must for all music buffs, writes Graham Tayar

A History of Jazz in Britain by Jim Godbolt
Northway Books, £16.99

MY awareness of the music in this book by Parliament Hill resident Jim Godbolt overlaps by just one year. I first stumbled across jazz in 1949 while at school. An older student, the late Ray Foxley, gave a recital of Jelly Roll Morton’s style of piano playing. Ray was a major figure – together with his Leevee Ramblers – in the provincial New Orleans jazz revival.
Enchanted by the music, I, a piano-player, started bands in Addis Ababa in the 1960s and north London in the 1970s.
The early days of jazz in this country are beautifully described in this revised edition of Jim Godbolt’s book. Originally published by Quartet in 1984, it makes a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the first 30 years of jazz in Britain, covering both it’s home-grown and international origins.
But Jim makes it quite clear that its roots were impeccably American, and mainly black American. We were for long periods deprived of the best of the genuine product by an unholy combination of a militant Musicians Union and an unhelpful Ministry of Labour, both who stopped the musicians appearing in the UK.
Jim’s earlier books on Jazz – ‘All this and 10 per cent’ and ‘All this and many a dog’ – were anecdotal, his direct experience as a jazz agent, manager, promoter providing the raw material.
But although Godbolt’s world can be recognised here, this history is mainly a product of careful research.
It took a long time for jazz to become respectable enough for the drawing room – as the veteran jazz critic and historian Max Jones once put it: “For much of the time, jazz was underground music.”
It wasn’t until 1950 that Britain as Godbolt writes “stood on the brink of its first real jazz era”. It “became a significant part of the popular music scene”. But all this, although touched on towards the end, is beyond this book’s stated provenance.
Jim is indefatigable in describing the great American musicians who came here before World War II. Sydney Bechet, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong (pictured), Duke Ellington, an almost unnoticed visit by Art Tatum and Dizzy Gillespie (before he helped to invent bebop) hidden away in the Teddy Hill Orchestra.
Then came the Ministry of Labour ban, not lifted until the mid-1950s, by which time many of the greats were dead or retired.
Yet the arrival in this country of an authentic specimen of American jazz was back in 1919 when the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (the first group to record and publish records) played in London.
After their opening – and only – performance at the Hippodrome, comedian George Robey, star of the show, “served an ultimatum… either Robey or the jazz band would have to go”.
Producer Albert de Courvville gave in – “thus the first engagement of the original Dixieland Jazz Band lasted for just one night”. But they stayed for another 15 months doing good business and were well received. King George V approved and is said to have warmly applauded such favourites as Tiger Ray, still today a stalwart of the traditional jazz scene.
Then came a visiting black band (the Original Dixieland Jazz Band were white) among whom was one of the all-time greats Sydney Bechet.
The Swiss conductor and critic Ernest Ansermet was in the audience and wrote: “There is in the orchestra an extraordinary clarinet virtuoso who, it seems, is the first of his race to have composed perfectly formed blues on the clarinet. They are admirable for the richness of their intonation, their force of accent, their daring novelty and unexpected turns. I wish to set down the name of this artist of genius. It is Sydney Bechet. One thinks ‘his own way’ is perhaps the highway the whole world will swing along tomorrow”.
Jim Godbolt’s book is an essential constituent for any enthusiasts collection. He leads us expertly through the history of UK jazz.
He writes about clubs, critics, magazines, especially the Melody Maker and its editor Edgar Jackson, a love-hate figure, not always friendly towards the new music. He traces the stories of influential participants: Cuban Fred Elizalde had a Cambridge University band, Marice Allom, on saxophone, Spike Hughes, bassist and band leader was the only pre-war musician to write about the music. Pianist George Webb had the first British revivalist band, managed by Jim and containing for a time reedman Wally Fawkes (cartoonist Trog) and trumpeter and band leader Humphrey Lyttelton, a pivot of British jazz for half a century or more. Jim covers them all, modern players like Ronnie Scott, trumpeter and music hall star Nat Gonella, historians and critics like Rex Harris, discographer Brian Rust; they’re all in Godbolt.
If you are a jazz buff-or would like to be – you should read his memoirs and buy this one for reference. You will not regret it.
• Graham Tayar is a jazz pianist and runs the Crouch End All-Stars. He is also a former BBC producer