For this writer, pianist Harry South was always the quiet one with the moustache and goatee beard. Coming onto the British bebop scene, he was a member of the next generation after the Scott/Dankworth-led Club Eleven brigade. He became a member of Tubby Hayes' first bands and the two became firm friends. Hayes is quoted as saying he learned more from South than he did from listening to records. Later each formed two of the most exciting big bands ever heard in this country, generally using the same players, each with its own character, in some ways competitive, but with no bad feelings that I can recall. After the early Hayes gigs, Harry joined up with that other great 1950s tenor, Dick Morrissey and together they went on a year long tour of India in 1962 with eccentric bassist Ashley Kozak and drummer Lennie Breslaw (still active when I saw him a couple of years ago). On his return, South, like all the other modern jazzmen, began to feel resentment about the way rock had taken over, was offered a meant-to-be-one-off BBC Jazz session with a large ensemble playing arrangements of his own quite prolific compositions. Called Jazz at the Paris (named for the BBC studio at the former cinema in Lower Regent Street), the programme was so successful, it began a whole new career for him, leading to concerts and eventually radio and TV work, culminating in having a hit with the theme tune for The Sweeney (not included in this set, compiled by Nick Duckett, with the able assistance of Simon Spillett. Eventually South and his outstanding big band teamed up with Georgie Fame to form an extremely successful partnership for concert dates and recordings one of which, Sound Venture, became a more than sizable seller. On this compilation, the first disc covers the early Hayes band sides, the Harriott tracks with Shake Keane, a couple of early Big Band efforts and two 1959 cuts with Lyttelton. The second disc probably has the cream of the crop of the early 1964 and 1965 Big Band tracks, with the incredible all-star reeds sections, top notch brass and driving rhythm sections with Bill Eyden (such an underrated musician) and Phil Seamen. The Big Band cuts on the third disc, from 1967-70, again with Eyden on drums, are even better, with South's outstanding blues-soaked arrangements of his less highly personal compositions. En masse they tend to sound somewhat samey and lets loose the tenor of Alan Skidmore, the first of the new younger generation that South took under his wing. Sadly, no tracks with Georgie Fame make this an incomplete compilation, but it still shows South as a world-class talent.