"The Little Giant" is a "Properbox" devoted to the early recordings of British saxophonist
Tubby Hayes (1935-1973). Concentrating upon a relatively brief segment of his career (January 1954 through December 1956), this action-packed, four-CD set is a valuable anthology of early modern jazz in the U.K..
Hayes, who quit school at age 15, obtained his first tenor sax in 1946 and named it Shirley. He led a group in 1950 and hooked up with tenor saxophonist
Ronnie Scott, who later stated that at 15,
Hayes already demonstrated "a technique and sound of a man twice his age."
Hayes worked with the
Kenny Baker Sextet and made his first recordings in 1951 as a member of that group. Other ensembles with which he appeared during the early ‘50s were the Terry Brown Sextet, a combo supporting accordionist Tito Burns, and groups under the directorship of veteran bandleaders
Bert Ambrose and
Roy Fox, who only employed
Hayes for a very short while as he quit almost immediately in response to low wages. All of this is the background for what Proper has assembled as
The Little Giant.