Don Weller- Bobby Wellins Quintet,

Don Weller (tenor sax), Bobby Wellins (tenor sax), Andy Cleyndert on double bass, Dave Newton piano and Spike Wells on drums

Tenor madness! Two living legends of the tenor sax centred on swinging, exuberant, straight ahead  jazz, the two tenors driven by a first class (and some) rhythm section. In a world where clones of great playing saxophone players seemingly grow on trees, here are two of the most original, creative and instantly recognisable jazz voices on the scene today, and for the past forty and more years.  Bobby Wellins and Don Weller first formed a quintet in the '80's, instantly finding an affinity with one another, and complementing each other's different approaches perfectly. 

Don Weller began playing clarinet in Dixieland bands and later changed to tenor saxophone. In the 1970s his group 'Major Surgery' exclusively played his own compositions. This was followed by a quartet with drummer Bryan Spring. At the same time he worked regularly with pianist Stan Tracey. Renowned for his versatility, he has played with artists such as Alan Price, Tina May and Charlie Hearnshaw.

In the 1980s, together with his friend and fellow tenor sax Dick Morrissey, Weller was a regular member of Rocket 88, the boogie-woogie fun band set up by Ian "Stu" Stewart and Bob Hall, appearing on the band's only album. He also played with the Gil Evans Orchestra, famously standing in for Michael Brecker at the Bracknell Jazz Festival.

He has been involved with the films Absolute Beginners and Stormy Monday both as performer and composer. He won the 'Top Tenor' award in 1994, 1996 and 1998. He formed his big band to perform his 'Pennine Suite' at the 1996 Appleby Jazz Festival, and since then the band has regularly appeared at other jazz festivals. A recent project is his 'Electric Jazz Octet'.

Bobby Wellins was born in Scotland in 1936 and grew up in the Gorbals. His mother and father were both in the variety side of show business, and his father played a big part in his early musical education. He heard a lot of jazz in the family home including Jimmy Lunceford, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, but when his father brought home a record by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie he was bitten with the bebop bug. were musical and he played piano, alto sax and clarinet before joining the RAF as a musician playing tenor sax. After leaving the RAF and playing in a few Scottish palais bands he made the inevitable move to London for an apprenticeship with the big touring bands including a trip to the USA with Vic Lewis in 1955. He played with Buddy Featherstonhaugh in 1956/7 and other name bands in the late 1950s including Eric Winstone, Johnny Dankworth and Vic Lewis.

He joined Tony Crombie's renowned, but short lived, Jazz Inc in 1959, and met Stan Tracey with whom he was soon to form a musical bond that has existed for nearly fifty years. He is perhaps still best known for his collaboration with Stan Tracey on the seminal 1965 British jazz album Under Milk Wood, arguably the first truly independent British jazz album. Bobby Wellins is what the discouraged beboppers in the wilderness would have called "a keeper of the flame". Described as "probably the most original and creative jazz musician to appear outside America since the war"

An all-star band... not to be missed.... expect fireworks! See a short clip from the gig here

The Don Weller-Bobby Wellins Quintet appear at Seven on Thursdy 10th December at 8pm.

Tickets are £15/12 concessions, and are available in advance from Jumbo Records 5/6 St John's Centre Leeds LS2 8LQ tel 0113 245 5570 or website www.jumborecords.co.uk