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We recently heard the sad news of the death of Ron Atkins. He was a good friend over many years, and one of the best writers on jazz we’ve known. John Fordham’s obituary in UK Jazz News gives an excellent account of Atkins’ remarkable life and work.

Ron Atkins

Ron was one of a small number of modernist jazz writers who emerged in the 1950s. Dedicated to the music, as Fordham observes, ‘they disliked PR-hyped, personality-centred writing, preferring a more precise, objective method, dealing simply with what had been played, and why those sounds worked artistically, or did not.’

They took jazz seriously as an art form. By the 1960s change was in the air. Inspired by American jazz, musicians in Britain and Europe were finding their own voice and drawing on other cultural references. Ron and his fellows were around at the right time to capture the mood. Most importantly they were prepared to report faithfully what they heard.

And they were willing to track down the new music wherever it could be found. At John Stevens’ Little Theatre Club, perched high above St Martins Lane, music began at midnight. Often the musicians on the tiny stage outnumbered the audience. But if there were only three listeners that night, two of them would be Ron Atkins and Charles Fox. They didn’t want to miss out on the kind of after-hours creativity that was changing jazz as more and more musicians converged on the London scene.

At the time few people realised what was going on. But gradually word got around. By the time The Old Place opened in Gerrard Street, groups of like-minded musicians had formed out of the general free-for-all, and British Jazz had arrived.

Ron took over from Charles Fox as Guardian jazz critic, and for the next thirty years he chronicled the triumphs and the follies of the jazz scene with intelligence and humour.

A wise critic can be not only a spokesperson for new developments in the arts, but also a contributor. Over the years Kate and I and our fellow musicians have enjoyed the ongoing dialogue with Ron and appreciated his interest and constructive commentary. As with Charles Fox before him, one would search his column in vain for a useful press quote. He didn’t see reviewing as a platform for his likes and dislikes, or as a way to curry favour or advance his career as a writer. When he ventured an opinion as to whether the music worked or not, he would explain why.

In 1992, in what now seems a bygone age, the Associazione Catania Jazz did me the honour of a three-day festival of our music. They invited the European jazz press, all expenses paid, for what Dave Gelly called “ a hacks’ beano”. Needless to say they all came, including Ron Atkins. One of the more memorable of the countless musical celebrations we shared with this great jazz writer and valued friend.

Mike Westbrook

15 June 2025

BLUE NOTES FOR MOHOLO

No. 94

Louis Moholo - 1940 - 2025

But it was the late John Jack manager of the Old Place whose generous nature, open ears and understanding of musicians, who set the scene for performers. He changed the course of jazz in Britain. After the public had gone home, John would re-open the club for musicians only. There were many musical encounters and impromptu sessions often involving American jazzmen who happened to be in town.

As individual composers, each doing his own thing, Chris McGregor and I never actually played together. However there were parallels between our work at that time. Both of us worked with a regular sextet. Each of us found, in the pool of musicians circulating at the Old Place, the opportunity to compose for larger forces. In afterhours rehearsals one night I’d be rehearsing Marching Song with the Concert Band, while on another night Chris would be getting together what was to become the Brotherhood of Breath, which included some of the same musicians. Around that time there seemed to be a marked change in his music. Artists like Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler were rejecting modern jazz forms and finding in blues and folk music a basis for freer improvisation. Chris evidently dug deep into his roots in the rich musical culture of South Africa:- bold, singable tunes, simple arrangements a dancing rhythm and a joyful collective sound. It soon became one of the most successful bands in Europe.

This change may well have come from a deep longing among the exiled musicians for their native land, and the desire, with the Brotherhood, to create the sense of community that they found lacking in England. Away from the comradeship of the jazz scene the typical English reserve, the divisions, the lack of emotional display could seem cold and indifferent. This was brought home years later when it was revealed at a memorial service to his memory that Mongezi Feza had died alone and uncared for, something that would never have been allowed to happen in the close-knit community back home. For Kate and me a special memory of Mongesi is of running into him and John Jack at St Martins in the Fields and of the four of us being barred from entry to the Duke Ellington Memorial service. We repaired to a cafe and talked about Duke.

How much the South Africans loved their country was evident. I remember a rare conversation on a car journey when Louis talked about life in his homeland, its customs, and the beauties of the country.

I hardly knew Louis personally at all. Musically I was well aware of his commanding presence from the word go. We were in different camps, so played together infrequently. When, after the Old Place closed John Jack opened The Crucible in a basement Chinese restaurant just off Cambridge Circus, Louis was with us on drums. This was the time of the Apollo 11 moon landings. I wrote Earthrise for a huge band with two drummers, Laurie Allen and Louis Moholo, an exciting combination. Louis rehearsed with us but sadly didn’t make the gig.

After a while the original Blue Notes went their separate ways, among the most admired and loved musicians on the European scene. Louis became a bright star of the avant garde, while tirelessly campaigning against apartheid.

Chris and Dudu Pukwana both died in 1990. Mongesi had died in 1975, Johnny Dyani in 1986. All died before their time and in exile. Ronnie Beer had long ceased to be a regular member. Of the Blue Notes Louis alone lived to see the end of apartheid. In 2005 he was at last able to return home, In 1992 Louis, Hazel Miller and friends formed the Dedication Orchestra with an all star band to celebrate the music of the Brotherhood. I had the pleasure, and the challenge of arranging Chris’s composition Manje (Now) for their album Spirits Rejoice.

Louis Moholo carried on the fight for artistic and political change with defiant energy. He toured, recorded and formed bands inspiring a whole new generation of musicians. The spirit of his music will live as long as there are people who find freedom in picking up a horn, or sitting at a drum kit. Louis died peacefully at the home he had longed for in the years of exile. May he rest in peace.

Once in the middle of a quartet gig with Mike Osborne, Harry Miller and a dep drummer I was suddenly aware of a great surge of energy behind my back. In an instant the playing switched to a higher, more intense level. The reason? Louis Moholo Moholo had taken over on the drums.

Mike Westbrook

With the passing of Louis Moholo Moholo we have lost the one remaining member of Chris McGregor’s Blue Notes, the sextet that quit apartheid South Africa in the mid 60s. They wound up in London where they soon became part of the vibrant, ‘alternative’ British jazz community. I remember them first as a tight, impeccably suited band playing very much in the hard bop style. They soon took up residency on Friday nights at the Old Place. My band played Saturdays. There was a general mood of liberation, of exploration. Musicians circulated freely between different groupings. The music of the Blue Notes was freed up, partly I think in response to the creative and social freedom of the scene. Much of the credit for this must go to Ronnie Scott. Ronnie kept the Gerrard Street club open for the new bands, following the move of the main club to Frith Street.

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