THERE have been many rediscovered tapes of Tubby Hayes’s (1935-1973) live sessions from the 1960s, when the tenor saxophonist was playing at his creative apex. Tubby’s punctilious scholar and biographer and a powerful saxophonist himself, Simon Spillett, considers his double album, No Blues: The Complete Hopbine ’65, to be one of his best and most illuminating.  

The Hopbine, a London pub-jazz club in North Wembley, organised by fellow tenor saxophonist Tommy Whittle, who doubles up with Tubby on two of the album’s tracks, was a familiar and receptive venue where Tubby felt much at ease, and his performance is relaxed, full of discovery, impetus and creative energy, and lucky were the patrons who heard it.