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Don Weller with the Stuart McCallum Trio
Organised by Matt and Phreds Jazz Club
Artists include: Stuart McCallum, Don Welller
British modern jazz is overpopulated with unsung heros. For over forty years there has been a group of musicians in this country who, having initially been inspired by American jazz of the 50's and 60's have constantly developed their own way of doing things. The survivors of this generation of British jazz musicians, who have played for over 30 years in the pubs and clubs for what often didn,t amount to a living wage, have stuck with it because creating music is what they live for. Through this struggle they have matured into master musicians that are the equal of those that inspired them.
Don Weller is one of these, along with Stan Tracey, Peter King, Bryan Spring, Evan Parker to name but a few. Don's music career started when he played Mozart's clarinet concerto in the Fairfield Hall, Croydon as a fourteen year old. He went on to take up Tenor Saxophone, with lessons from Kathy Stobart and formed his now almost legendary group "Major Surgery" which ran for 9 years playing his own compositions. He then formed a quartet with drummer Bryan Spring as well as being a regular member of Stan Tracey's Octet. Don has always played, always run his own under worked quartet, always written music of great quality and has always been undervalued. He has however also always been a great inspiration to younger players, who have sometimes gone on to gain the sort of acclaim that Don has missed.
Dons writing career has developed alongside his tenor saxophone playing for over thirty years. It began 36 years ago when at the age of 18 he wrote and arranged a piece for the Croydon Jazz Orchestra. His band "Major Surgery" played exclusively Don Weller compositions for ten years during the nineteen seventies. He has since then composed for all the regular quartets with which he has worked and has built up a large catalogue of works some of which have been recorded by other artists. He has worked on film scores such as "Absoloute Beginners" and "Stormy Monday" in which he was involved both as a player and composer.
While he is now widely accepted as one of Britains' leading saxophone players (Top Tenor award in 1994,1996 & 1998 polls) his writing has never received the sort of recognition that it deserves. His writing which stems from the maturity of his own playing also has that rare ability to be memorable so that even on first hearing it can set people humming all the way home.
In the world of musicians Don is held in very high esteem as the "real thing" as an example of what they all aspire to, a musician with his own distinctive voice, his own way of doing things and a consummate grasp of the musical language. His own musical language has grown, widened and blossomed over years of playing "himself" When asked about the ever changing trends in jazz and the growing number of child prodigy saxophone players there seem to be these days Don says modestly " They do what they do and I do what I do."
