I've just been gazing wistfully at a flyer for Dopey Dick's Jazzhouse in West Hampstead. On three separate Wednesdays in April 1963, the venue presented Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, Sonny Rollins and Ben Webster. It was just 10 bob to catch Lockjaw or Big Ben. Sonny with Stan Tracey would set you back 15 bob (75p!). As with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, there's still a great deal to be learned from master craftsman Ben Webster. Though nicknamed ‘The Brute’ – due to the raspy growl he occasionally resorted to in up-tempo encounters – it was the tenderness he revealed especially when performing ballads or anything by Ellington and Strayhorn. On a good night, there were few who could match his poise, creativity or paint beautiful aural scenes quite as elegantly. The Warm Moods, for which Webster was matched with a string quartet was an obvious marketing ploy, but Johnny Richards arrangements neither added an extra dimension or detracted attention away from the truth that dates with Tatum and Peterson confirmed that all that was ever required was a sympathetic rhythm section. And thought not a traffic-stopping unit, the ‘live’ 1970 Hilversum date documents that pianist Cees Slinger's trio still served the maestro well, notably on ‘Come Sunday’. Having seen Webster perform on a number of occasions, it was quite obvious that he was just as concerned with pleasing himself as he was his audience.