Jazz breaking news: Bassist Jeff Clyne dies

Born in London on 29 January 1937, Jeff was renowned for his excellent sound and execution on the double bass and was first choice for many jazz artists, British and American.

In 1958 he joined the Jazz Couriers, led by Tubby Hayes and played on the classic 1965 Stan Tracey album Under Milk Wood. Very much at the sharp end of the 1960s jazz scene, he was interested in the free jazz movement and played with Spontaneous Music Ensemble and Amalgam alongside John Stevens and Trevor Watts and was the bassist on Gordon Beck’s album Experiments with Pops, which also featured John McLaughlin.

After taking up the electric bass he joined Ian Carr’s newly-formed Nucleus in 1969, appearing on its three first albums Elastic Rock, We'll Talk About It Later and Solar Plexus, and later played with Keith Tippett’s sextet, with Gary Bole’s Isotope before forming Turning Point with vocalist Pepi Lemer and keyboardist Brian Miller. Jeff accompanied many singers including Blossom Dearie, Marion Montgomery, Annie Ross and Norma Winstone, and worked with many visiting US musicians, including Lucky Thompson, Zoot Sims, Phil Woods, Jim Hall, Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Tal Farlow.

From the late-1960s, Jeff was active in education teaching at the Barry Jazz Summer School, at the Wavendon courses and at the Marion Montgomery-Laurie Holloway courses. He was on the faculty of the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music. He worked regularly with drummer Tomkins, both on the bandstand and in the classroom and was often to be heard with pianist John Horler and guitarist Phil Lee. A lifelong Arsenal fan, he had a wide circle of friends and musicians and took a keen interest in all the new players on the scene.

– Charles Alexander