Not three miles hike from the family home was a certain hostelry in Milngavie (pronounced mul-guy. I don’t know either. Some Gaelic thing perhaps) and that was where I would trek to every second Sunday evening to be part of the Black Bull Jazz Club.

This humble little organisation on the outer suburbs of Glasgow attracted the who’s who of the UK and US jazz scene of the late 70s and I was there to witness (some of) it.

Acts that stood out were guitarist Martin Taylor only a couple of years my senior. What ! You don’t know who Martin Taylor MBE is ? He’s played with everyone from Count Basie to Stephane Grappelli to Prefab Sprout !

An audience member asked if he could play Billy Joel’s ‘Just The Way You Are’.

‘How does it go ?’

To which the audience broke out into a collective hum of varying accuracy. He turned his back for no less than 20 seconds then produced a note perfect jazz rendition of the hit with it’s own bass and chords accompaniment. Pure genius. He was only twenty then.

Another favourite was baritone saxophone player Ronnie Ross. He was probably better known for his solo on the fade out of  ‘Walk On The Wild Side‘ by Lou Reed and for being a young David Bowie’s sax teacher. Great player. Beautiful sound.

Another UK titan of the time was tenor saxophonist Bobby Wellins who produced a powerful performance.

The day after his Black Bull gig I was at my workplace McCormack’s Music. Instrument repairman Bobby Thomson (a legendary tenor sax player himself) phoned my department to ask me to come up to his workshop. And there was Mr Wellins in person. Wow ! We talked all things saxophone (and some things spiritual as he seemed to be part of some weird cult. Just keep smiling John and hope he gets back on to the saxophone stuff !) He gave me some intricate saxophone exercises in odd time signatures that he had written which I have to this day. Somewhere !

Let’s not forget the resident band. A local trio of the late Sandy Taylor on piano, drummer Ken Mathieson and bass player ……………. ? Damn it ! I forgot.

These guys were probably handed out charts minutes before going on to play, heads down, see you at the end of the number. Or on the stage ‘Around Midnight in B flat………..2………..3……….4 !’ Flying by the seat of your pants stuff. These guys were consummate professionals.

The gigs were never packed to the rafters. No sign of the horns hand gestures. No crowd surfing or pogo-ing. No hootin’ and a hollerin’, just an appreciative convivial audience gently applauding each solo.

Jazz may not be your thing but if, like me, you are proud of your west of Scotland connections then you have got to give kudos to Glasgow and it’s surrounds for championing this style of music in the 1970s.

My education was the Frank Pantrini Quintet at The Curlers, Bobby Deans Big Band at The Amphora, Jimmy Feighan, George McGowan and Carol Kidd at Shadows. The list goes on.

I believe The Black Bull Hotel is nothing but a facade for Marks and Spencers. I hope Scottish jazz has not suffered a similar fate.

(Post by John Allan from Bridgetown, Western Australia – April 2024)