John Surman -

John Surman (born Aug. 30, 1944) is an English saxophonist, clarinetist, and keyboardist from Tavistock, Devon, who apprenticed with bandleaders Mike Westbrook, Peter Lemer, and Ronnie Scot during the late 1960s. In 1969, Surman released an eponymous post-bop album on Deram. During the ensuing two-year period, he played on albums by John McLaughlin, Rolf Kühn, Michael Gibbs, and Harry Beckett. Surman averaged two albums per year during the ’70s in solo and collaborative form, culminating with the 1979 release Cloud Line Blue that partnered him with Norwegian jazz vocalist Karin Krog.

Background

John Douglas Surman was born Aug. 30, 1944, in Tavistock, Devon, and grew up in Plymouth. Surman heard classical music at home through his father, an amateur pianist who played Beethoven and also favored Fats Waller. At age ten, Surman sang as a boy soprano in a Plymouth church chorus and took solo parts in Christmas and Easter oratorios. After his voice changed, he bought a second-hand clarinet and taught himself through radio broadcasts, records, and Friday-night sessions at a local jazz club.

Plymouth record dealer Peter Russell introduced Surman to records by Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke. At sixteen, Surman bought a baritone saxophone with paper-round earnings and a loan from his father; Russell directed him toward Duke Ellington baritonist Harry Carney. In 1962, Surman joined pianist Mike Westbrook in a Plymouth Arts Centre jazz group while still at school.

Surman entered the London College of Music in 1962 after clarinet lessons with a Royal Marine bandsman and studied for three years with former BBC Orchestra principal clarinetist Wilfred Kealey. For a fourth year, he attended the University of London Institute of Education for a teaching diploma and continued private study with Kealey on bass clarinet. Outside college, Surman pursued saxophone work at London jam sessions, including the Peanuts Club in Bishopsgate and Ronnie Scott’s Old Place in Gerrard Street. He continued with Westbrook in ensembles that also drew alto saxophonist Mike Osborne, bassist Harry Miller, and drummer Alan Jackson.

Pianist Peter Lemer recruited Surman in 1966 for a quintet with tenor saxophonist George Khan and the subsequent Colosseum rhythm section: bassist Tony Reeves and drummer Jon Hiseman. The quintet recorded Local Colour in London that spring, Surman’s first appearance on an issued album. Westbrook retained him for the Concert Band albums Celebration and Release, while Ronnie Scott enlisted him in the short-lived octet captured on Live at Ronnie Scott’s. Surman also played blues dates with Alexis Korner and worked London club sets with Trinidadian pianist Russell Henderson on calypso material.

Producer Peter Eden heard Surman’s calypso work in London clubs and offered him a Decca/Deram recording deal. Surman accepted a three-album contract and entered the studio with Eden for the session that became his self-titled Deram debut.

Discography:

John Surman (1969)
Alors!!! (1970 • Michel Portal, John Surman, Barre Phillips, Stu Martin & Jean-Pierre Drouet)
How Many Clouds Can You See? (1970)
Open Space: The Down Beat Poll Winners in Europe (1970 • Karin Krog, John Surman, Albert Mangelsdorff, Francy Boland, Niels H.O. Pedersen & Daniel Humair)
Our Kind of Sabi (1970 • Eddy Louiss – John Surman – Daniel Humair)
Tales of the Algonquin (1971 • John Surman & John Warren)
Where Fortune Smiles (1971 • John McLaughlin, John Surman, Karl Berger, Stu Martin & Dave Holland)
Jazz in Britain ’68 – ’69 (1972 • John Surman, Alan Skidmore & Tony Oxley)
Westering Home (1972)
Sonatinas (1978 • John Surman & Stan Tracey)
Cloud Line Blue (1979 • Karin Krog & John Surman)
Upon Reflection (1979)
The Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon (1981 • John Surman & Jack DeJohnette)
Such Winters of Memory (1983)
Withholding Pattern (1985)
Private City (1988)
Road to Saint Ives (1990)