Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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LEMON, Brian

(b 11 February 1937, Nottingham, England; d 11 October 2014) Piano, arranger. Began with Freddy Randall mid-'50s, soon in great demand in mainstream-to-bop circles, becoming a largely unsung stalwart of the UK scene, a swinging, tasteful player at home in any company. Albums on 77: septet Our Kind Of Music '70 with Tony Coe and Bruce Turner; three tracks on Piano Summit (others by Ralph Sutton, Keith Ingham). Though often seen backing visitors like Harry Edison, Milt Jackson etc, he remained unknown to the public at large; although Britain is full of jazz fans, for some reason jazz as a business stays on the back burner. Lemon achieved wider recognition as part of Charlie Watts's touring and recording quintet playing tributes to Charlie Parker, and also on what some critics have called the best of Scott Hamilton's many recordings (e.g. East Of The Sun '93), also with ten-piece The Great British Jazz Band on Candid '93. Then he found a patron.

The Zephyr label was formed specifically to record Lemon, and he did more recording in two years than in his entire previous career. The Brian Lemon Quartet on But Beautiful included Dave Cliff on guitar, Dave Green on bass and Allan Ganley on drums; Over The Rainbow added Derek Watkins on trumpet (the UK's leading lead trumpeter d 22 March 2013 aged 68); The Nearness Of You added Roy Williams on trombone, the sextet backing vocalist Lee Gibson. Then the Brian Lemon/Roy Williams Quintet (without Watkins) entertained friends Warren Vaché on A Beautiful Friendship and Scott Hamilton on How Long Has This Been Going On?

A special feature of the Zephyr series was the duo format, in which the musicians are fully exposed, relying entirely on the interaction of their wits: A Sleepin' Bee had the superb alto saxist/clarinettist Alan Barnes and Lemon playing Harold Arlen, on An Affair To Remember Vaché's cornet accompanied on the tunes of Harry Warren. Braff Plays Wimbledon -- First Set had the quintet (with Howard Alden on guitar) backing Ruby Braff on cornet and Vaché on flugelhorn; Lemon Looks Back -- Just For Fun had the quintet plus Barnes and Ken Peplowski on reeds (with a seriously delightful two-clarinet chase on 'Farewell Blues'); Vaché and Watkins met with the quartet on Stardust; on Old Hands -- Young Minds Lemon and Barnes co-led an octet with three reeds and the marvellous trumpet and flugelhorn of Gerard Presencer. There were several more, and January '97 saw the recording of an album with a front line of Vaché, Barnes and Tony Coe, and a two-guitar album with Cliff and Alden. With 22 CDs either released or in the can, at last we had some Lemon to listen to; the first batch got rave reviews in Cadence.

(Alan Barnes (b 23 July 1959, Altrincham, Cheshire) cooks on alto, baritone and soprano on Here Comes Trouble '96 on Fret, the backing trio with Steve Hamilton on piano described by one critic as 'mean, swinging blues rhythm'.)