Jazz Remembered

Ray Foxley

UK pianist "Professor" Ray Foxley was born in Birmingham on the 28th December 1928. He began his musical career at the age of 14, when he took his first straight music lessons. Pianoforte rudiments did not hold any great fascination for him, however, and after about 18 months he abandoned with relief this preliminary excursion into the musical world. It was about 2 years later that, attracted by a boogie record, he went out and bought the sheet music of Cow-Cow Boogie, upon which much time and energy was expended. That was the beginning.

Writing in the 'third person' for the programme notes for a concert 'Jazz At The Birmingham Town Hall' on Saturday, June 14th, 1947, Ray continued: "Fortunately, his musical evolution was speedier than most, and he soon began to dig the righteous stuff. Graduating through the Fats Waller stage, and fortified by a few months' syncopation lessons, (to get that bass) he began to acquire a truer perspective of the real jazz, and an increasing desire to play it. ... His association with various small bands began a long way back, and right from the early days his relentlessly righteous outlook has proved a bone of contention between him and the more commercially-minded of his fellow musicians. But he stuck to his beliefs and almost achieved his ideal band in the Gutbucket Six, a group whose unfortunate disintegration on the brink of success was brought about by the call-up."

"He is an implicit believer in the Morton principles of melody, variety, and originality in order to achieve the best results. And, above all, what counts with him is sincerity. That is why the Armstrong, Oliver, Morton, Bessie, creed is to him the ultimate in jazz, and why he still holds a great admiration for Fats, for those are the musicians to whom true artistry is infinitely more important than technical virtuosity. His band repertoire of 150 or so pieces is composed almost entirely of New Orleans standards, while his solo repertoire consists mainly of Jelly Roll’s blues and stomps, Joplin rags, and a few of his own compositions, the latter showing that Jelly’s maxim of originality has not fallen on stony ground. His greatest achievement to date? When he played Shreveport Stomp in an otherwise strictly classical competition, and missed first place by only one mark."

Here is Ray playing Jelly Roll Morton's Frog-I-More Rag :

Writing about Ray in the Guardian newspaper, CBJ Holme recalled: "His boundaries were wider. His four Ms, he told me, were Jelly Roll Morton, Charles Mingus, Jerry Mulligan and Thelonious Monk. He founded the Gutbucket Six in 1946, playing local concerts while simultaneously running a trio, and appearing with the Gully Low Stompers. Radio dates followed with his Levee Ramblers, who he took to Paris in 1952, to great acclaim."

Here are the Levee Ramblers with Deadman Blues from the BBC Jazz Club:

"He then worked in London with Colyer's Crane River Jazz Band, and the bands of Mick Mulligan, Chris Barber and Mike Daniels, returning to Colyer's Jazzmen, and his skiffle group, (later) in the 1950s."

Here are Ken Colyer's Jazzmen playing Chimes Blues in 1959. The piano is very much in the background until after Mac Duncan's trombone when Ray takes his solo around 5.12 minutes in:

"In 1960, Foxley moved to Bromsgrove, and was to be found gigging extensively in the midlands and the north country into the 1980s with the likes of Ken Ingram, Eddie Matthews's Jump Band, Rod Mason, Henry Gardiner's Southsiders and the Paragon Jazz Band. He was to play again with Colyer in 1986. For the last seven years, he played solo, and was in residency with the One More Time sextet of traditionalists led by trumpeter Max Emmons and clarinettist Tristan York. He was also admired by avant-gardists like sopranoist Lol Coxhill and percussionist Roger Turner."

The One More Time band had a weekly residency in the Brewery Tap pub in Brentford, and it was in London that Ray Foxley died on the 6th July 2002.

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