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Denis Rose |
Denis Rose photograph courtesy of henrybebop.co.uk
Gerry Lupton wrote to us in December with regard to the documentary on Ronnie Scott's Club and referred to .... 'the home movies shot by trumpeter Denis Rose of the characters of Soho, that also featured in the Scott documentary where Ronnie is seen gurning and generally acting up. Rose himself would be an interesting subject for an article, as all the nascent British modern jazzers say they used to defer to him, as he had grasped the basics of bebop harmonies, without having visited the States with Geraldo's Navy. I believe he may have had a bit of trouble with the law, having gone AWOL from his National Service, and thereafter kept a very low profile, but I don't know much about him and would be pleased to find out more.'
Listen to Denis playing the Charlie Parker tune Buzzy as part of the Jazz At The Town Hall Ensemble in 1948 [Ronnie Scott (tenor sax), Johnny Dankworth (alto sax), Reg Arnold (trumpet), Denis Rose (piano, trumpet), Jimmy Skidmore (tenor sax), Bernie Fenton (piano), Joe Muddel (bass), Jack Fallon (bass), Carlo Krahmer (drums), Cab Kaye (vocals).]
John Chilton's Who's Who Of British Jazz gives us a good start. Apparently Denis was born in Clerkenwell, London on the 31st May, 1922. Self-taught, he played piano as well as the trumpet and tenor horn and started out playing in pubs and clubs before briefly playing with Happy Blake's Band. He had his own band at the Jamboree and Panama Clubs and then, as Gerry suspected, he deserted from the Royal Army Medical Corps after being called up in 1943.
The following seven years saw Denis move from band to band including those of Johnny Claes, Johnny Brown (at the London Astoria Ballroom), Johnny Swinfen at Hammersmith Palais, Jack Amlot, Tito Burns' Big Band and Sextet, Sidney Gross's Swing Shop Package, Cab Kaye's Ministers Of Swing and Leon Roy's Orchestra. At times he also led his own band in Boston, Lincolnshire and his own sextet in London.
We should be grateful that Denis regularly had a movie camera handy and captured valuable archive film. He was responsible for much of the footage in this documentary about Archer Street in London, a gathering place for musicians picking up work outside the Union's offices.
The documentary The Street.
Denis was also a founder-member of London's Club Eleven from 1948 to 1950. Club Eleven has a significant place in the story of Jazz in the UK. The club was named because it had eleven founders – business manager Harry Morris and ten British bebop musicians. It first opened at 41 Great Windmill Street in Soho in 1948, and had two house bands, one led by Ronnie Scott and the other by Johnny Dankworth. Denis Rose organised many of the activities at the club.
Bebop dancing at Club Eleven, 1949. (Topical Press)
Listen to Denis playing How High The Moon as part of the Jazz At The Town Hall Ensemble in 1948 [Ronnie Scott (tenor sax), Johnny Dankworth (alto sax), Reg Arnold (trumpet), Denis Rose (piano, trumpet), Jimmy Skidmore (tenor sax), Bernie Fenton (piano), Joe Muddel (bass), Jack Fallon (bass), Carlo Krahmer (drums), Cab Kaye (vocals).]
His desertion finally caught up with Denis in April 1950 when he was arrested at Club Eleven and charged. It is amazing that he had been Absent Without Leave for so long, and discovery does not seem to have affected him as he was soon back playing with Sid Millward's Big Band in Glasgow before returning to London to freelance and then play on and off back with Cab Kaye. Ironically, he toured Germany with USO (United Service Organisations) with Bernie Stanton's Band in 1953. Other gigs followed with Norman Burns and Sid Wright before he was mainly playing piano in North London clubs.
In the 1970s Denis accompanied vocalist Maggie Nichols and had a residency at the Maestro Club in London. Maggie Nichols was at one time a dancer at the Moulin Rouge but from her singing gigs with Denis, she moved on to become a significant 'free jazz' vocalist. In this video, she talks about her approach to free improvisation:
There is much more about Denis on the website henrybebop.co.uk where David Taylor gives a very readable and informative account of Denis' story and quotes Johnny Dankworth as saying: ' If it hadn't been for Denis, I'm convinced that the modern movement here would have taken much longer to develop, and that Club Eleven would never have happened...' and Ronnie Scott as saying: 'I learned most of the theory from Denis...Everyone did...'
With regard to Denis' desertion, David Taylor writes: 'This was an unhappy time and he deserted and spent several years on the run from the Military Police hiding out at a friend's house during the day.' Later, in 1961, David quotes Vic Schonfield in Jazz Journal ... 'In 1951, with the closing of Club Eleven, Rose severed his connections with the active jazz world, leaving behind him a Thelonius Monk-like reputation compounded of an erratic personality and technique, and influential and far-sighted musicianship. Since then he has worked as a commercial pianist, and although many well known names have played with him he has not appeared before a jazz audience during the past decade ....... On piano, which is now his main instrument, he alternates between swinging and inventive playing in the idiom of Al Haig and Bud Powell, and a uniquely angular linear style of harmonic exploration, but despite the admiration of his colleagues, he will only extend himself musically if he feels inclined. Both technically and physically he is in far better shape than during his years of prominence, and it has been his reluctance to face the stress and uncertainty of the jazz world that have kept him obstinately away from the public eye.....'
In his later years, Denis was quite happy to play in a trio or solo in London pubs and clubs and he died in London in November 1984.
I have been unable to discover what happened when Denis was finally arrested and charged with desertion - presumably he was not imprisoned - does anyone know? Also, in the two tracks played in this article does anyone have any details about which solos were played by Denis as the personnel on the recordings shows two trumpet players and pianists?
Denis Rose photograph courtesy of henrybebop.co.uk
Peter Maguire writes: 'I was a member of the resident band that played every weekend at the legendary 'Nucleus Coffee Bar' Monmouth Street. It was there I got to know Denis Rose - so far as anyone got to know Denis Rose. A taciturn individual who rarely smiled he was something of a legend around the scene, multi-track recording before anyone knew what multi-track was, playing multi-instruments on all of the charts he had arranged. Then there was 'Denis Rose's Circus'. Collecting a bunch of assorted musos together they collectively embarked upon a very extended perambulation around the various London jazz venues, playing a few numbers and then moving on to the next one. Such expeditions could take several days both day and night.'
'The habitués of the 'Nucleus Coffee Bar' were a diverse bunch. Hippies. Tourists. Musicians. A small but select gathering of the local criminal fraternity. On one particular night Denis was on piano. For some inexplicable reason 'I'd Like To Get You On A Slow Boat To China' was high up in the hit parade. Denis looked at me and then at the audience. "Just watch the reaction of this load of c***s" - immediately playing the opening bars of 'Slow Boat To China'. Collectively the audience picked up a vibe and many of them stood up and started to dance. Within two choruses Denis moved into a master class of extended chords and advanced scales. The dancers became bewildered and started to sit down again. Denis gave me a grim but satisfied glance. C***s!
I met him for the last time more than ten years on. An East End pub where he was playing the piano. Personality-wise not an iota of change since his days around the Soho scene. A man blest with very significant musical sensibilities. but unsung and unknown except to a small number of individuals.'
Gerry Lupton writes: Many thanks for the piece on Denis Rose - now I know a lot more about him...and the added bonus of 'The Street' was an extra pleasure; can it really be 35 years since it was shown on the BBC? I loved it.
I recently came across a mention of Denis in an unlikely source : Willie Donaldson's book of Rogues, Villains & Eccentrics.
Writing of the notorious gangster, Jack 'Spot' Comer ...
'He always dressed impeccably in beautifully cut suits and people would come up and ask for advice, which he would give out in the manner of Don Corleone in The Godfather.
Sometimes his followers were in need of more physical instruction "I used to knock them out in the lavatory. That was my surgery. I used to go down to the toilet and Bomp! Leave them in the piss".
One of his many offices was The Modernaires Club in Old Compton Street, Soho, which he shared with musicians rehearsing what he called their 'heeby jeeby' music. When the telephone rang, he silenced them with a wave of his hand.
He liked reliability. When trumpeter Denis Rose arrived two hours late, he was taken into the 'surgery' and Bomp! - he was in the piss...'
Jack 'Spot' Comer
Perhaps an interesting insight into the life of a working musician in Soho in the 1950's, and could explain his 'erratic personality'.
Incidentally, Jack Spot is mentioned in 'The Street' by Ronnie and Benny Green, commenting on the legendary knife-fight in Frith Street with fellow villain Albert Dimes in 1955. One of the Scott Club apocryphal stories is that Dimes gave Ronnie a bottle of Champagne when he opened the club, that could be uncorked when they made a profit...and it's still behind the bar!
2021.2
© Sandy Brown Jazz 2021
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